Saturday, October 22, 2011

things learned in 18 hours of orientation...

Orientation is complete! Three days, lots of powerpoint presentations, handouts, and videos...

Some things I learned:

  1. I will be working in an Accredited Oncology Program
  2. A video about empowering patients had the quote, "Nothing about me without me." Seems an important concept to keep in mind about healthcare but also life in general. Sounds similar to grab life by the horns but presents it in a responsible, thoughtful, nicer way
  3. Some people who do presentations say the word "chasm" like "ky-as-m" (3 syllables)
  4. Concepts that improve the assembly line production of Toyota cars influence health care...
    • Lean Concepts
      • improve productivity
      • eliminate waste
      • improve quality
  5. Parkridge Medical Center seems like it will be a fun place to work... Check out this video (don't watch more than 30 seconds unless you are really bored and you have already read the comics)
  6. The PMC main campus has intelligent water sprinklers. They sense heat and only the sprinklers close to the fire turn on... I thought all of those things were all or nothing.
  7. A kitchen cutting board contains 50x more bacteria than an average cutting board... gross... what can you do about that? cut boards on blocks of frozen bleach? there doesn't seem like a good solution for that
One other thing I learned know is that I am missing these guys today...

First night shift is this coming Tuesday! Start your prayer engines! 



Monday, October 17, 2011

a picture= a thousand words, right?

so if one picture is equal to 1000 words, this could be a long post... but feel free to skim through as fast as your pointer finger can move...

Since I have moved to Chattanooga I have...

Turned 23 and celebrated in style with Monkey Town doughnut company

Celebrated with the otters at the TN Aquarium

and the largest catfish ever...

Birthday dinner at Tony's with AC, the fam, and Becca!!  

Freaked out over my new cuisinart 

 Continued celebrating with a surprise visit from Kara!

who helped me put together my grill I got for my birthday! 

which we used 0.085 seconds after we put it together 

to make amazing burgers! 

Rafted on the Ocoee with AC, Jim Shulman, a work friend of Jim's, and an elderly couple enjoying their retirement freedom by RV-ing it around the country and rafting as many rivers as possible...
 

Nearly drowned...

And struggled to remain in the raft while my companions laughed at me...

Attended the 3 Sisters Bluegrass Festival, thought these were so cute 

was entertained by the dancing antics of this couple who was later seen skipping arm in arm to the port-o-potties... true love right there!

Witnessed traditional Aztec dancing and incense spreading at the Chattanooga Market Culture-Fest 

Helped AC dig up dirt with a spoon to help out our mum Stuart who was looking a little droopy
(I am pleased to tell you Stuart made almost a full recovery) 

Made pesto in my new cuisinart using basil from Herbie our herb pot

and put that pesto on grilled cheeses with farmer's market tomatoes...  

Went to Colquitt, GA where it is cotton ginning season- this is a module of cotton being let out of a module truck (pronounced modg-u-truk, one word)

Watched bale number 772,531 come into existence... may turn into my t-shirt one day...

Got a picture with the roommate in front of a cotton bale made by a new John Deere machine

Saw a local production of Swamp Gravy (a musical, not a food) and gawked at the uniforms nurses wore in the Vietnam war era... so thankful for scrubs! 

found one of Samford's mailbox plates in a museum in Colquitt 

Volunteered at a skeet shoot at Quail Country Plantation, learned how to "throw" the clay pigeons, and learned I would be doing it by myself... I just acted like I knew what I was doing...

Shot a gun for the first time, and I even hit a clay pigeon thing!

Got a precious visit from the McGinnis family on their fall break. We took a ride on the Southern Belle since the captain delayed the boat a few minutes for the McGinnis's to arrive


Made a trip to Nashville during which I: had dinner with Nancy, attended Body Flow at the YMCA with mom (Tai Chi, Pilates, and Yoga... throw mom and me, who aren't too flexible, into the mix in our nike shorts and we don't exactly mesh with the yoga outfit meditators), errands with Lori, getting the night shift low-down from Erin Rodgers, watching dad remove chicken from the grill with his bike helmet and light on...
dinner with Aunty and Elsa, scrub shopping at Costco (who knew),  errands and good conversation with mom, and helping set up the 59" TV that now resides in our living room... All in all an amazing success!

This weekend I... 
Got to hold baby Betsy!

Helped celebrate Jam and Carl's birthdays at an awesome party!

Guarded the Greenlife parking lot at 5 am preventing the people who have trained for months to run the first ever 7 Bridges Marathon from parking in a convenient parking lot...

Got to see the sunrise

Passed out medals to the finishers (nbd I gave the first marathon finisher his medal...)

Wondered why this woman, who didn't run, had THREE danishes when they were running out of food for the people who did run...

Gave Carl his medal as he finished his FULL MARATHON in UNDER FOUR HOURS...


Not bad for 35,000+ words worth of information!

Headed to the Mayfield Dairy today for a tour and corn maze!! Pictures to follow!