First day of orientation

Wednesday:
At 7:15 this morning I left my house and drove with the commuter traffic to downtown Richmond. I found my way to the auditorium where medical & pharmacy residents and us 6 psych interns were to be seated for the entire morning. I heard more about infectious disease, fire safety, and health benefits than was probably necessary, but it was fun to be back in a hospital environment. I met my cohort members...we found each other during the first break:

Beth, married, from UVA, on the Community Track. This means that she works on the Day Treatment program in VTCC, and out in Chesterfield County at an outpatient clinic. She's originally from Virginia.

Shawn, married guy from UVA, on the Hospital Track with me. He reminds me so much of one of my grad school classmates Aaron. It's really spooky. Shawn grew up in Richmond.

Sarah, recently married 2 weeks ago from Bowling Green, on the Community Track. She used to live in Richmond during her Master's degree 7 years ago.

Jon, married guy from UGA, on the Public Track. This means he works part of the year on the Acute unit, and part of the year in Petersburg, VA under a grant. He has immersed himself in the Richmond community and knows oodles about the neighborhoods, the politics, and the geography.

Patrice, single, from Regent University in Virginia Beach, on the Public Track as well.

Thursday:
Now that I've actually been to 2 days of VTCC orientation, I have keys, an email address, an fancy card swipe key for special exterior doors, and an office! It faces the pool, but this is no real bonus...the building is ancient and...spartan. I'm taking more office decor things in this next week. And a rug has to be purchased to cover up the really dirty carpet. I just learned that I can do therapy in my office and so it simply cannot remain looking like it does now.

Will arrived last night!!! I picked him up at the RIC airport and it was like being reunited with family. We went to Chipotle and stayed up way longer than I should have chat chat chatting. Thursday was a bit brutal because the orientation was really boring and I almost fell asleep in a conference room amidst 10 people after lunch. I did acquire a pager, a full tour of the street vendors that set up on corners around the hospital complex (Indian, Jamaican, South American, Thai, Tex-Mex, pasta salads, subs, hot dogs), and some online training I have to do for HR. The afternoon's orientation was about forms that are used in VTCC to document child activities. Most were bureaucratic and unnecessary in a practical sense, except that they enabled Medicaid to pay for services. I finally stopped asking questions when it became clear to me that the amount of paperwork involved in this setting is paralyzing...and you could not pay me to be a charge nurse. They are the ones who have to do the bulk of it, luckily for me. I had a brief and fleeting thought of "Whoa, maybe I'm not in the right setting for me." But that passed, and the thoughts converted into appreciation for the grass roots clinical settings like Talitha Koum and the Baylor Psychology Clinic that I've worked in, because basically paperwork emerges only when its remembered by Helen, for example. I suppose another reason for the immense paperwork is due to JCAHO regulations, because VTCC is an inpatient unit and JCAHO applies. If this were an outpatient clinic only things would be different.

So I have a 3 day weekend to look forward to, with one week of internship completed! Next week we have more orientation, and then the third week I actually start doing clinical work. Happy 4th!