First Day at NHRMC

My first day at New Hanover was very relaxed. I am not allowed on the floors until I complete the hospital orientation, which I can't do till next Monday. So until Tuesday the 19th, I think things will be pretty slow for me. This works out pretty well, though, since the module worksheet they have given me for my first rotation (Neuro/Rehab) is 8 pages. I am glad to have the time to work on it.
I spent a lot of time touring the hospital today. The hospital is huge (including a Rehab center, a cancer center, and a women/children's hospital). However, although the hospital touts itself as having 600 beds, I was told that generally there are only 350-400 patients at any time (having 600 patients would involve people sleeping in the hallways).
I also spent some time in the kitchen. The kitchen would make Mr. Mojica weep. It was supposed to be renovated years ago, but the plans were put on hold because of budget reasons. So the ovens are not hooded for ventilation, there's no grill, and there's only one (ONE!) burner-- it's a little portable thing that on which they somehow manage to turn out a good number of products. Consequently, the patient ratings for the food service are pretty poor. I think they were in the 23rd percentile this weekend. They're really trying to improve things but it's hard when the equipment is in need of serious upgrades.
I spent a couple hours in the diet office today shadowing one of the workers as she entered meal orders into C-BOARD and dealt with other issues. I also got to meet a lot of the diet office workers.
I also ate lunch with the dietitians and the one other intern, whose last day is Friday. It was a pleasant drama-free lunch. No tears or yelling. I had some macaroni and cheese, which I thought was tastier than the UNC mac and cheese. The broccolli was terrible, though. So we'll call it a draw. As a dietetic staff member, I get free fountain drinks. So yay!