Tuesday signified the start of our first day at our internships. For my internship this summer, I am working at under the Marion Regional Healthcare System at the Mullins Nursing Center and the Help Hands free health clinic. My supervisor for the summer, Ms. Tonya Martin, picked me up at our house around 10:30 a.m. today. Usually Alice would be giving me a ride to work everyday, but Tonya had a senior staff meeting from 8-10 today that her boss assure us as being to boring for me to attend. Since I am working in Mullins, Tonya and I had about a 15 minute drive to work from our house in Marion. Tonya is really nice and very friendly and we immediately got along well together.
Tonya drove us into the back entrance of the nursing center and we made our way to the front from inside. I met some of the staff who work there. They all seemed really nice and friendly which is definitely a good thing since I will be spending 9 weeks there. The first thing we did was take a tour of the facilities. There wasn't much on the first floor. Most, if not all, of the administrator's offices are on the first floor with of course the main desk. There's also a smoking room for patients who still smoke. According to Tonya they had to implement a policy about smoking in the nursing center in order to contain the smoking. If the residents were previous smokers they could smoke; however, if they had not smoked previously they would not be allowed to start the practice. Only one person in the building is allowed to have a lighter as well. There is also a nice outdoor courtyard on the ground floor. Across the courtyard there is the employee cafeteria which apparently has pretty good food. I'll have to be the judge of that and try it sometime though. I also saw a rehabilitation room that looked like a lot of the equipment they used needed some rehabilitation themselves. Also in that room was an alcove for employee fitness that had some funky treadmills from the 70's. Tonya also decided to set up my office in that area of the hospital as well. It is a little gloomy with no windows or anything, but there's a nice desk and a computer. Hopefully I can spruce it up a little bit over the 9 weeks! Oh, and also across from the administrative offices they had the beauty parlor where the residents got their hair cut, and the activities room. In the activities room today, they had the bingo store. When they play bingo they win fake money and during the bingo store they can buy items with that money. Some of the women's strategies were to buy only things they absolutely needed like extra tissues and soap, while others opted to spend the money for gifts for their friends and family. One woman was pleased with the handcloths she bought for her daughter.
We rode up to the second floor with some of the bingo shoppers and there I got to meet a lot of the other patients and nurses. The nurses seemed almost a little intimidated of me when I was introduced as the "Duke Intern." There was a little eating area for those that could not make it downstairs themselves for food. We saw a room that was really well-kept and decorated by the patient's family. We also saw a woman's room who did beautiful paintings in her prime. Now that the she has aged, the only way to calmer down when she gets into a fit is to give her some crayons and paper. The third floor was pretty similar to the second. I saw some of the machines they used to lift the residents into their beds. I also met a woman who was convinced that my name was Kevin. I insisted that it was John and started to walk when she said, "Boy, come over here!" Of course I obeyed and spent another minuted convincing her my name was John.
Back on the first floor (did I mention that the elevators are really slow?), Tonya asked one of the male residents if the he was feeling okay because he looked a little down. His response was just "I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine." He obviously wasn't, but that is all he cared to share with us. Since I am also working with the Helping Hands free health clinic, Tonya gave me a tour of that as well. Even though it is in the same building, the entrance is in a roundabout way so we decided to take a shortcut through the bowels of the building. Through some double doors on the first floor of the nursing center we entered what used to be the old hospital that closed sometime around 1997. It was actually a pretty dismal sight. Everything was in disarray. It looked like a creepy/scary hospital from a horror movie. Ceiling tiles were falling down, lights were burnt out or flickering, old hospital beds were shoved up against the sides of the walls, walls were partially torn down, the floor has black stains on it . . . I think you get the picture. We followed the maze around and found the entrance to the free clinic's office. There were two nice ladies in there. One of them, whose name was also Tonya (last name McKenzie), would be my supervisor for when I worked in there. Tonya Martin described Tonya McKenzie has being an amzing woman whom she admired for her dedication to her patients since she even took money out of her own pocket to pay for their visits when they couldn't pay themselves. However, she has a lot of skepticism for the health system itself and focuses too much in its faults sometimes. I feel like that may be a lot of people's opinions around here.
We spent some time going over the various paperwork I needed to fill out then decided to take a lunch break. Tonya took me out to a local Bed n' Breakfast called Webster Manor. They serve a southern style country home cooked meal that is an all you can eat buffet. It was quaint and very cute. The food was delicious. This is apparently one of THE places to eat in Mullins. After lunch, we took a tour around the city of Mullins and saw some of the more prominent neighborhoods. I saw the Pecan Point neighborhood and the "Horseshoe" street. A lot of important people live on the Horseshoe like surgeons and judges. Both my supervisor and her twin sister also live on the Horseshoe too.
We didn't really have a whole lot to do after the lunch, just more paperwork. The only snag in our plan was that I had to have a 2-step TB test before I could work in the clinic so I would be a little bit behind. I got the test today, but I have to wait a week for results to come in. While I was waiting in there, Tonya was notified that one of the patients had passed away that morning. It made me wonder what happens behind the scenes in that sort of situation.
Since Alice was going to be a little late today, Tonya just decided to give me a ride back home. She had to go by the hospital anyway which is pretty close to Marion. On the way home, and throughout the day, Tonya and I talked about a lot of things--especially about the problems that face the area. Tonya talked about her decision to put her kids in a private school over the public school, the limits of Medicaid, the economy's effect on the lack of growth in the town, and a lot more. I look forward to hearing more about all of her thoughts.
Overall, I am really excited after my first day of the internship. So far, it has exceeded my expectations and I am looking forward to tomorrow and the next 9 weeks.
Back at home we all exchanged stories of our first days. Everyone seems to have really enjoyed it and is happy, albeit exhausted. I took another nap! John Deans came out with Mr. DeMarco's grill so him and David Womble served up some huge burgers and hot dogs for dinner. We spent so much time talking after dinner that we didn't even realize that it had become 9:00 p.m. already! The day flew by. Everyone took it pretty easy tonight. I think we are all excited for tomorrow to start!
No comments:
Post a Comment