First Week is Over

First week went well. It was physically & emotionally exhausting though. So much information in not so many hours. There is so many things we have to learn about how the hospital operates, how to chart our patient visits, how to answer pager calls, how to do on-calls, how to respond if you get more than one pager call at a time, etc., etc. The two hospitals are so large that we're all still trying to figure out our way around. We've done tours of both hospitals, but it will take some time to get it all down. The most difficult for me has been the NICU. It has been a blessing to be able to take time to decompress & debrief when we face those difficulties. There are 5 other residents besides me, 3 men, 2 women. It seems like it will be a good group. We're all getting along well & enjoying getting to know each other as well as the other chaplains & staff in the office. I'm off work until Tuesday (we get 6 holidays a year as well as about 3 weeks of vacation time & about a week of sick time; we can't start using that time off though until after 90 days). I'll have my first official 24 hour on call by myself a week from tomorrow. There is a sleep room with a shower that we can utilize during our on calls. Some days we'll have time to use it & some days we won't. The bus ride isn't bad. It takes me about 10 minutes to walk to & from the transit center to the hospital. The bus ride is about 45 to 50 minutes. I take my ipod on which I've downloaded various audiobooks I download from the library for free to listen too during the ride. Sometimes the bus is not so crowded & I can do some knitting. The hospital let us know this week that they will pay for my bus fare for the entire year which is a blessing. Russ is still looking for a job. He hasn't had much success so far. Please keep praying about this.