Food Service/Admin: Two weeks left

The last few weeks of this rotation have kept me really busy and it definitely seems like time has been going faster.

Let’s see, in the last post about the rotation, I mentioned my rotation partner and I had completed our theme meal.  In the time since then, we completed our report on our theme meal and that report was HUGE.  The admin assistant for our program laughed at it and called it a doozy and our director’s eyes kind of widened and bugged out a little.  I think our report was so large only because we also included all of our raw data, in case anyone else wants to look at it.  Without the raw data and our media (pictures, fliers, etc), menus, and recipes, our report was much more manageable- about 50 pages.

Okay, 50 pages of a report put together in two weeks while completing other requirements for our rotation?  Yeah, I’m really glad we work in pairs for this rotation.

In the last three weeks, my rotation partner and I have also both completed our “Supervisor Relief” which is where you get to BE a supervisor for a week.  She took day, I took night.  For the most part, it wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be, but I was so very glad to have my preceptor’s number in case of emergencies.  It was pretty much just a safety net, since the staff was great, knows what to do, and didn’t really require much “supervision” from me.  So if you end up having to do something like this, don’t worry, it’s not that scary.  Trust in your staff – they’ll have been doing their jobs a lot longer than you have and will be able to make sure everything goes smoothly.

Most of what I had to do was just make sure meals were being delivered and patients were happy (or as happy as they could be in a hospital).  There were a few complaints from patients, but I would usually speak with them and figure out what needed to happen to fix the problem.  Most of the time, they just wanted to tell someone what was wrong.  Walking around the wards gave me time to get to know some of the nurses, and they were all very awesome and helpful.  That’s another piece of advice to give and it applies to all rotations – be nice to the nurses.  They are your eyes and ears when it comes to the patients.

We’ve also had to  work on trayline.  I’m going to link to Danielle’s entry over at From Arkansassy with Love for this because she does a good job of writing up what working on trayline at a VA is like.  My experience was pretty much the same in regards to the whole “I Love Lucy” feel.  The trayline areas are a little cramped and it’s kind of fun to watch the staff (when you’re not trying to “help”) because they have a rythym and manage to get everything done quickly.

We also had to work in the canteen which is the cafeteria where a lot of staff eat and observe the retail side of things.  Plus, we’ve had to do a lot of inspections and had to shadow a lot of people to learn their jobs and responsibilities.

We’ve also have been working on two reports that we complete together and then we both have a paper and two projects that we have to complete individually before we leave this rotation in two weeks and an independent project that we have to turn in a couple months after our rotation ends.  Lots and lots of projects!  Plus, we’ve now started our group research projects with the other interns (2 groups of 3), had training to do, had more health requirements to meet (seriously, those are never ending!), had a paper to write, and we have an upcoming book report and newsletters to write.  Yeah, we’re keeping busy!  (But not so busy that we’re not having fun outside the internship – we’ve been doing lots of stuff on weekends!  That’ll be an upcoming post!)

So… two more weeks to go.  The really scary part of the rotation is now done with (or at least the part I was most nervous about) so now I’ll primarily be working on the reports and projects mentioned above.

Related articles

• Week 9: Community Nutrition Rotations Begin! (desertintern.wordpress.com)
• Food Service/Admin: 4 weeks down (didispatch.wordpress.com)