I've decided to volunteer what little free time I have to Shands, the major hospital here in Gainesville. I am going to be working in two areas - pediatrics and palliative care. I've always wanted to work in pediatrics somehow, and for the past several years I've been trying to find a way to get into the PR department of a pediatric hospital, but there aren't any openings in this already limited field. So I figured I'd volunteer my time and at least get to experience it without it being a "job." I'll start on the pediatric unit but I hope to move into being a pediatric cuddler. Cuddlers give parents a break by holding, rocking, reading to and playing with newborns and infants in the NICU. I love babies, but don't want my own any time soon, and babysitting opportunities are few and far between with my schedule, so this seems perfect for me.
Shands has a new program called "No One Dies Alone." A few others hospitals around the country have it, and it's basically what the company I already work for, Haven Hospice, does, but on a volunteer basis. Patients who are end-stage and receiving palliative care within the hospital, but don't have any family or friends with them, are eligible for the program. A volunteer basically sits with them and does anything from talking or reading to them, holding their hand, or writing any of their final thoughts. These patients are typically DNR. I'm not religious, and the program doesn't require me to be. In fact, it is preferred that volunteers check their own beliefs and opinions at the door and allow the patient to initiate any religious behavior. I figured since I already intern for hospice and want a job with them, this would be a great way to expose myself to our clientele's needs without it becoming a conflict of interest.
I start next Tuesday from 8-11am on the pediatric floor. A few weeks later is the orientation for No One Dies Alone, but it's from 9am-3pm on a Friday, so I don't know if my schedule will allow me to attend, but it's definitely something I'm trying to fit in. Either way, I can't wait to start next week!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Mile-High City
I almost forgot that I've been meaning to post about our trip to Denver. We went for four and a half days, over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. We went for an underwater hockey but Andrew and I stayed longer than everyone else so we could enjoy the rest of Colorado. Here's what went down:
Friday
5am - wake up
6am - get on the road to Jacksonville, with Kelly already heavily caffeinated
10am - leaveJacksonville, which is 32 degrees when we take off. Luckily, the planes and runways don't need to be de-iced
11am - layover in Atlanta, Moe's for lunch
2pm (Colorado time) - arrive in Denver where it's 60 degrees and there isn't a cloud in the sky
4pm - get to our hotel and have a light dinner
5pm - practice at University of Colorado at Boulder
9pm - back to the hotel, bigger dinner plus drinks
Saturday
7am - wakeup call and breakfast
8am - tournament play starts at the Carmody Pool in Lakewood
4pm - tournament play finally ends for the day, with two losses, four wins, and a LOT of chlorine and high-carb snacks in my system
6pm - dinner at Old Chicago, which is next door to our hotel. "It's a-niiiiiice!" -inappropriate Borat quote
8pm - back to the hotel where Kelly and Andrew try to sleep, but Raf, Mark and Justin are not interested and our visitor and teammate, Weston, also has no interest in sleeping but in drinking by himself while telling stories of surfing, over and over again. All in good fun, though :)
Sunday
7am - wakeup call and breakfast
8am - tournament play continues, with two wins but a loss in the championship game. Yay for second place!
3pm - back to the hotel for showers/naps
6pm - banquet in the hotel
9pm - Kelly, Andrew and Raf attempt to get a heavily intoxicated Mark and Justin to the car so they can drop them off at the airport and make it to the hostel reservation on time. No such luck...
12am - arrive at Boulder International Hostel, which apparently also happens to be on Sorority Row = hearing drunk people in the streets all night
Monday
7am - wake up and take icky showers in the community bathrooms, Kelly also loses body wash behind shower stall and decides it's not worth reaching back there
8am - breakfast at the Original Pancake House in adorable downtown Boulder
9am - Kelly attempts to sign up for first-timer ski lessons at Eldora Mountain, but is 15 minutes too late
9:45am - fully geared, Kelly makes first attempt at skiing without killing herself of any of the 230,843 infants also learning to ski
12pm - break for lunch, both of us are exhausted but loving it
1pm - Kelly and Andrew brave the bigger hills, Kelly continues to fall multiple times but laughs through every second of it. Andrew also laughs at her.
3pm - exhausted from a full day of skiing, drive down the mountain and sweat in long underwear because it is still 60 degrees in Colorado! In January!
4:30pm - arrive in downtown Denver and have dinner and drinks at Vine Street Pub, a hippie-ish urban little place with delicious food
6pm - arrive at Hostel of the Rockies, which has some "interesting" guests that seem to be long-term
9pm - Kelly takes a sleeping pill and is fast asleep, leaving Andrew to deal with our newly arrived dorm-mate who insists on turning on every light in the room and then proceeds to sit on his bed and stare at us sleeping
Tuesday
8am - wake up and have breakfast at Pete's Kitchen, which has won all kinds of national awards
9am - walk around downtown Denver after learning that our anticipated tour of the Denver Mint has been canceled. Instead we visit
Friday
5am - wake up
6am - get on the road to Jacksonville, with Kelly already heavily caffeinated
10am - leaveJacksonville, which is 32 degrees when we take off. Luckily, the planes and runways don't need to be de-iced
11am - layover in Atlanta, Moe's for lunch
2pm (Colorado time) - arrive in Denver where it's 60 degrees and there isn't a cloud in the sky
4pm - get to our hotel and have a light dinner
5pm - practice at University of Colorado at Boulder
9pm - back to the hotel, bigger dinner plus drinks
Saturday
7am - wakeup call and breakfast
8am - tournament play starts at the Carmody Pool in Lakewood
4pm - tournament play finally ends for the day, with two losses, four wins, and a LOT of chlorine and high-carb snacks in my system
6pm - dinner at Old Chicago, which is next door to our hotel. "It's a-niiiiiice!" -inappropriate Borat quote
8pm - back to the hotel where Kelly and Andrew try to sleep, but Raf, Mark and Justin are not interested and our visitor and teammate, Weston, also has no interest in sleeping but in drinking by himself while telling stories of surfing, over and over again. All in good fun, though :)
Sunday
7am - wakeup call and breakfast
8am - tournament play continues, with two wins but a loss in the championship game. Yay for second place!
3pm - back to the hotel for showers/naps
6pm - banquet in the hotel
9pm - Kelly, Andrew and Raf attempt to get a heavily intoxicated Mark and Justin to the car so they can drop them off at the airport and make it to the hostel reservation on time. No such luck...
12am - arrive at Boulder International Hostel, which apparently also happens to be on Sorority Row = hearing drunk people in the streets all night
Monday
7am - wake up and take icky showers in the community bathrooms, Kelly also loses body wash behind shower stall and decides it's not worth reaching back there
8am - breakfast at the Original Pancake House in adorable downtown Boulder
9am - Kelly attempts to sign up for first-timer ski lessons at Eldora Mountain, but is 15 minutes too late
9:45am - fully geared, Kelly makes first attempt at skiing without killing herself of any of the 230,843 infants also learning to ski
12pm - break for lunch, both of us are exhausted but loving it
1pm - Kelly and Andrew brave the bigger hills, Kelly continues to fall multiple times but laughs through every second of it. Andrew also laughs at her.
3pm - exhausted from a full day of skiing, drive down the mountain and sweat in long underwear because it is still 60 degrees in Colorado! In January!
4:30pm - arrive in downtown Denver and have dinner and drinks at Vine Street Pub, a hippie-ish urban little place with delicious food
6pm - arrive at Hostel of the Rockies, which has some "interesting" guests that seem to be long-term
9pm - Kelly takes a sleeping pill and is fast asleep, leaving Andrew to deal with our newly arrived dorm-mate who insists on turning on every light in the room and then proceeds to sit on his bed and stare at us sleeping
Tuesday
8am - wake up and have breakfast at Pete's Kitchen, which has won all kinds of national awards
9am - walk around downtown Denver after learning that our anticipated tour of the Denver Mint has been canceled. Instead we visit
On The Market
Like most college seniors and final semester graduate students, I'm on the job hunt. I would like to consider myself pretty marketable - I've had three health care PR/marketing internships (hospice, hospital and university infirmary), one in patent licensing PR/marketing and one in sports media relations. I also worked full-time for a year after college, always worked during college, and have been really involved on campus during grad school, mostly in a (go figure) public relations capacity. And I've got really good grades.
However, the job market is scary right now. A close relative just found out they would be laid off next month after a decade with the company. This petrifies me to no end. If 50-somethings who are excellent at their job and low-cost to keep on the payroll are being laid off, what are my chances at getting a job that is going to make me happy and pay enough to help me start cutting down on my $50,000+ in school loans.
I'm not sure how my "picky-ness" ranks in comparison to others in my shoes. I'm pretty sure that health care, specifically hospital (and even more specifically, pediatric hospital) communications, aka PR. So right now I'm only applying to health care organizations that have openings in my field, but I am pretty much applying to anywhere in the southern two-thirds of the country. I'll stop being picky about geographic location if nothing comes up in say, two months. After that, I'll have to settle for a different industry of PR - maybe non-profit, government or the arts. But I really don't want to work in an agency or corporate setting, but I will if that's what it comes down to...
Hire me!
However, the job market is scary right now. A close relative just found out they would be laid off next month after a decade with the company. This petrifies me to no end. If 50-somethings who are excellent at their job and low-cost to keep on the payroll are being laid off, what are my chances at getting a job that is going to make me happy and pay enough to help me start cutting down on my $50,000+ in school loans.
I'm not sure how my "picky-ness" ranks in comparison to others in my shoes. I'm pretty sure that health care, specifically hospital (and even more specifically, pediatric hospital) communications, aka PR. So right now I'm only applying to health care organizations that have openings in my field, but I am pretty much applying to anywhere in the southern two-thirds of the country. I'll stop being picky about geographic location if nothing comes up in say, two months. After that, I'll have to settle for a different industry of PR - maybe non-profit, government or the arts. But I really don't want to work in an agency or corporate setting, but I will if that's what it comes down to...
Hire me!
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