Today was basically a food service day for me. I think the idea was to show me what foods I'll be writing orders for later. The best thing that I learned, though, was how to navigate the hospital. I was delivering trays on my own by about a half an hour into lunch, and I had to figure out pretty quickly not only what the CIC was, but where it was. (If you're wondering, the CIC at Rex is the cardiac intensive care, also known as the CCU, or cardiac care unit.) I really enjoyed interacting with the patients - getting food and chatting for a minute really brightens their day. The only awkward moment came when a man wanted me to move his clear jug of urine from his tray table so that I could set his food down. Fortunately the nurse came in first before I had to do anything - I wasn't even sure I was allowed to do anything.
I also spent a few hours on the tray line, and I had a ticket come by for a suicidal patient (it literally said "suicide" in the comments section of the ticket), which meant only paper and plastic products could go on the tray. I've never even thought about something like that.
Oh, the A/C broke in the kitchen. Thank goodness it was cooler today.
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Thank you for mentioning suicidal patients. When I was managing the kitchen at Rush...I learned early that these patients are a huge risk and that nutrition is often blamed for patient injury. I had one patient who slit his wrists with the steel flip top lid from an Ensure can (that we of course sent him b/c he requested it as a "write-in" on his menu).
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