School stuffs (sorry, probably boring post for anyone but me)

School has started again and with that my social work internship.  I started on Tuesday and had a pretty overwhelming first day.  I think the best word to describe me there is sheepish.  It's gotten better every day though and I'm learning a lot and fast.

So some of the cool stuff about my job:

• definitely the beautiful drive to get there- green rolling hills + mist and pine trees+ sunrise = so pretty!
• I pass a big ol' llama farm on the way- probably 100 llamas or more
• I also drive past a great blue heron refuge and usually see one or two
• the hospital campus has about a million deer on it and they're all used to people so they just hang out all over which is cool
• oh and the new car, that really adds to the driving experience

 but as for my actual job...

• today a very nice, cute Asian woman followed me around for a long time and agreed with everything I said, citing my notes, nodding her head, and summarizing what other patients were saying.  A lot of stuff like that happens that just makes me laugh
• learning about personality disorders has been so interesting!  (Did you know the current thinking is that personality disorders are almost completely caused by environment?)
• learning about medical ethics and ethics review boards
• learning how to take clinical notes and how to describe mood and affect, etc. has been really fun too (labile means someone who's mood switches very fast, for example they can go from laughing to crying within seconds)
• seeing how social work fits into the bigger picture of treatment- we work with doctors, psychiatrists, nurses, physical and speech and occupational therapists... it's fun.

Some not so good stuff about my job:

• The keys! I have to unlock and then lock almost every door I go through and I have had the hardest time figuring out which way to turn the keys and which key is for which door and then the doors are really heavy and you have to push them shut... anyway... sheepish, but I'm learning :)
• I get free lunch at the hospital, but I still have no idea where my tray goes afterward...
• The pretty obvious bad stuff- angry patients, no idea how to approach patients to talk to them, learning by trial and error who I should not get too close to, stuff like that.

So after the first day I was really nervous because I will be at this place for the rest of this quarter and then all of next year and I thought maybe I had picked the wrong place.  But it's already so much better and today was really fun, so I think it will be good and I'll definitely learn a ton that I can use anywhere.  Woo go social work!

Here is a very old picture of the hospital: