Willamette Valley Medical Center

So for the past few weeks I have struggled to find the right times to be at WVMC that were productive interning hours. I changed around my schedule a bit, and have finally found a good combination. For the rest of the semester, I am at WVMC for a few hours early Thursday afternoon and a few hours later Sunday night. I like to stay useful, and my previous longer shifts had more standing around than actual work. Now, instead of finishing my tasks and standing around the last hour, I am busy through out the entire shift and I am much happier. On Thursdays I am typically doing more "task" type jobs, whereas Sunday nights are busy and there is more medical related experiences for me to potentially observe. Come Jan. term, I will be working many more hours so I am hoping to find more tasks to stay busy. In the ER, I am cleaning out rooms, restocking rooms and medical carts, and talking with patients to see if they have any needs. My favorite tasks have certainly been chatting with patients and hospital employees. That is where I have been getting the most interesting and useful experience that pertains directly to my desires of being a nurse practitioner. I hope to soon be trained to also intern on the medical/surgical floor so that I can switch back and forth if I'm lacking tasks.

To answer these questions..a little late. :)

• What role do costumes or trick-or-treating play in a business?: I was really interested in asking the nurses how Halloween night was in the emergency room. Surprisingly, they said it wasn't too busy. I would have loved to be volunteering that night. While it is sounds awful that I would want the ER to be busy, that is when I can have the greatest chance of seeing the fast-pace ER environment.
• How did the organization where you are interning deal with Halloween? The nurses and ER doctors probably braced themselves. I would imagine any holiday creates an increase in ER visits. Some seem to thrive on the rush with every ambulance arrival but I am sure, ultimately, no one wishes the ER to be busy.

Only 4 more days until break!!