Yes, our weekend included both of the above.
I made it through my first week of work. Mostly by cutting stars out of yellow paper and blowing up balloons. There's a bit of fun going on with the Olympics where each department was assigned a country to back and that included adorning your area with culturally-related items. Our area has a dragon, some bamboo, a panda bear... oh yeah and over 30 medals! There is a prize for best decorations as well as most medals. We are contenders for both due to my manager's competitive nature. Err, well the medal count might not be directly related to that but over 100 yellow and red balloons can't be ignored.
However, this week and for the next month, I will be on assignment in another department working with elderly folks who need assessments for rest home admission or home help. So today was another learning day and hopefully I get the hang of it. The training I did last week was in the area that assigns all of the staff for nurses, healthcare assistants and clerical staff to cover vacation and sick leave. I will be the sick leave cover for that crew once I finish training next month. It's a great group of people so I look forward to it.
The job offer also included being a casual Hospital Aide as well. This position is meant to be there for patients who need constant supervision so you don't need medical training as you alert the nurse if anything is going haywire. They were desperate for cover on Friday afternoon so I stuck around for a few hours of overtime as a hospital aide. The only trouble was that I don't have a proper uniform for that yet and the duty manager just stuck me in a nurse's scrub top. Not a good idea since it took a good hour to let people now that I had no clue what I was doing because they are used to unfamiliar faces coming in from other wards to help even a nurse covering an aide's shift. I don't think it really computed for most of them when I tried to explain I was mainly a clerical worker. So interesting to say the least. Sure am glad I have a good block of hours set up now because I didn't want to have to rely on aiding shifts to supplement my paycheques (which was the reason they offered the position in addition to the casual clerical one.)
We thought we were through the haze of winter cold and flu blues over the weekend. Dustin worked a half day and then we walked dogs and played with puppies up at the SPCA. (There are 4 puppies up there now! I had missed them the week before when I was home sick.) Then we had a night of Cranium and super rugby at a friend's house. Plus they made me martinis using grapefruits fresh off of their grapefruit tree! That's certainly one thing I look forward to if we plan to stick around here longer: we are definitely getting a place with fruit trees in the yard. Or at least making friends with neighbours that have some. I walk by lots of yards with mandarin oranges or lemons all through the trees! Or all on the ground in a sad, sad occurrence. I guess it becomes a lot to use but I'd just put up a sign or something saying come and share in the bounty!
Today though, around lunch, poor Dustin started feeling crummy again. Third time since late June I guess. So he's drinking apple cider vinegar and is already in bed (it's just after 8:30pm right now). Hopefully that sorts it quickly. But everyone you speak to is either getting over a cold or someone in their household is battling one. I think it must have to do with the damp houses or something. I mean, cold and flu season hasn't hit us this hard ever I reckon. Although the hand, foot and mouth is slightly in a different category.
So send healing thoughts to him. On with the week and getting past winter!
I made it through my first week of work. Mostly by cutting stars out of yellow paper and blowing up balloons. There's a bit of fun going on with the Olympics where each department was assigned a country to back and that included adorning your area with culturally-related items. Our area has a dragon, some bamboo, a panda bear... oh yeah and over 30 medals! There is a prize for best decorations as well as most medals. We are contenders for both due to my manager's competitive nature. Err, well the medal count might not be directly related to that but over 100 yellow and red balloons can't be ignored.
However, this week and for the next month, I will be on assignment in another department working with elderly folks who need assessments for rest home admission or home help. So today was another learning day and hopefully I get the hang of it. The training I did last week was in the area that assigns all of the staff for nurses, healthcare assistants and clerical staff to cover vacation and sick leave. I will be the sick leave cover for that crew once I finish training next month. It's a great group of people so I look forward to it.
The job offer also included being a casual Hospital Aide as well. This position is meant to be there for patients who need constant supervision so you don't need medical training as you alert the nurse if anything is going haywire. They were desperate for cover on Friday afternoon so I stuck around for a few hours of overtime as a hospital aide. The only trouble was that I don't have a proper uniform for that yet and the duty manager just stuck me in a nurse's scrub top. Not a good idea since it took a good hour to let people now that I had no clue what I was doing because they are used to unfamiliar faces coming in from other wards to help even a nurse covering an aide's shift. I don't think it really computed for most of them when I tried to explain I was mainly a clerical worker. So interesting to say the least. Sure am glad I have a good block of hours set up now because I didn't want to have to rely on aiding shifts to supplement my paycheques (which was the reason they offered the position in addition to the casual clerical one.)
We thought we were through the haze of winter cold and flu blues over the weekend. Dustin worked a half day and then we walked dogs and played with puppies up at the SPCA. (There are 4 puppies up there now! I had missed them the week before when I was home sick.) Then we had a night of Cranium and super rugby at a friend's house. Plus they made me martinis using grapefruits fresh off of their grapefruit tree! That's certainly one thing I look forward to if we plan to stick around here longer: we are definitely getting a place with fruit trees in the yard. Or at least making friends with neighbours that have some. I walk by lots of yards with mandarin oranges or lemons all through the trees! Or all on the ground in a sad, sad occurrence. I guess it becomes a lot to use but I'd just put up a sign or something saying come and share in the bounty!
Today though, around lunch, poor Dustin started feeling crummy again. Third time since late June I guess. So he's drinking apple cider vinegar and is already in bed (it's just after 8:30pm right now). Hopefully that sorts it quickly. But everyone you speak to is either getting over a cold or someone in their household is battling one. I think it must have to do with the damp houses or something. I mean, cold and flu season hasn't hit us this hard ever I reckon. Although the hand, foot and mouth is slightly in a different category.
So send healing thoughts to him. On with the week and getting past winter!
Holy moly - healing thoughts is right! Is he all mended up?
ReplyDeleteAlso, how is it going at the job? That must have been crazy that first shift. Myself, I would have been sweating bullets.
However, nothing fresh grapefruits off the tree (!!!) couldn't fix!
xx
V.