For the most part the duties at the Kitchen have been pretty steady this month. Nothing major has changed since I began this semester. I roomed patients and filled out paper work for various perscriptions and that has been the just of my day every time I go in.

My best experiences so far with the Kitchen have been the encounters with the all the people from many different walks of life. I've enjoyed working with these people and hopefully being a positive influence on them. It gives you a sense of purpose you know. The toughest experience I've had so far has been scheduling a regular time to get in to the clinic to help. I've had a lot of homework, projects and test this month since its the end of the semester, and a track meet to top it off with lots of practice so its been hard working around those things to make it in steady this month. 

I feel like our project with the Kitchen will for the most part stay the same next semester. The only things that should change is us fixing the problems of last semester. We'll have better communication between each other and the Kitchen hopefully. We will also hopefully be doing a lot of good with out alloted funds next semester. Otherwise though I think we'll continue to do what were doing, going in and providing them with as much help as we can outside of our busy schedules. Us being there to help goes a long ways with a small stressed out staff.

I've gained better people skills from this experience so far with our project, being that I must work directly with people every time I go in. That will go a long ways for me too, because I plan to become a physical therapist so I'll need to be good with people. I've used it to learn how to interact with people so that they feel comfortable. I also gained some experience living with the three other people in my group. Its helped me to learn how to work around conflict with others outside of just my family. Although my brother is one of those people I still have two others that I've never been with so its been good to develop experience living and working with others. That will help me in the future.

I really enjoyed the experience and introductions to the various stress relieving type strategies. Some were strange to me and I probably won't get involved in them in the future but aside from that still fun and I went in with an open mind and took from it what I could. I think most would agree that the message was their favorite out of all of the experiences. As far as the program on the computer goes, well I'll be honest, I didn't have much time to commit to those exercises. I tried a few times but it was very hit and miss. It more stressed me out than doing what it's supposed to do, just because it just added on to the already mountain of things I had to do every day. In the future I would probably suggest not including that or at least just making it optional so there is still that important exposure that the program was going for. Overall though the whole experience was fun and interesting and I would likely do it again. 

Over break I'm looking forward to just relaxing and enjoying time with family and friends. If you mean after break, then I'm looking forward to starting out a strong semester both academically and in the volunteer field. I hope that as a group we can start out strong having fixed our previous issues. I'm also looking forward to a very exciting season in Track. 

Paul

December update

            This past month there havent been any special events at the clinic besides normal operation. I have gotten to spend more time doing pharmacy tech work and I really like it. It's tedious but needs to be done and I am getting good at it.
             With the semester ending is a week, I can look back and say that the best experience from the clinic is being able to observe how the clinic operates as a whole between the nurses, doctors,and the front office. The most trying experience was getting ready to work at the clinic (lets face it, no one likes HIPPA)
              In the spring we will be able to hit the ground running and start back staffing at the clinic as soon as possible. We all have our classes scheduled already and that is in order.
              As a result of being in Summit, I feel that I am becoming a better communicator. With all the presentations we do, I have started to become more comfortable with it.
             Stress Free Now was a pain in the butt all semester. It was a good program, but I just don't have the time to devote to it so I get the full effect. I do however, like the tai-chi and yoga classes.
             The thing I am looking forward to winter break most for is getting to sleep. I normally am up till 3AM and I have a class at 8AM so its been tough.
Ben

An interesting day at the Clinic

Today started out just like any other day of volunteering at the clinic. I did a few charts, escorted several patients, and did my fair share of playing games on my iPod in between. Then of course I escorted a patient who, shortly after I had left the room to allow the Doctor to go in, began showing signs of a heart attack. So, what was a regular day turned into sirens, stretchers, and oxygen tanks.

Other than that instance though, everything has gone smoothly at the Kitchen Clinic. We really haven't had any official events, only busy days of escorting patients and taking the load off the staff. Even without any events or parties at the Clinic to attend, I've had a good time, the staff is friendly, the job is simple, and I think our group as a whole has been a lot of help. Being in Architecture has definitely made it a bit harder, namely because of the late nights, (or should I say mornings?) and having to get up early for volunteering in the morning (9 am is early :-P). Over all, this semester has gone very well at the clinic, with only one "scary" moment today with the heart attack.

In the coming semester, I think we'll be able to beat our record this semester of 72 hours of service, if only because we'll be starting sooner. I learned a lot this semester about the medical field, far more than I would have had I not volunteered at the kitchen, including not using a red pen on patient charts. I could also say that I've grown more accustomed to working with a wide variety of people through my volunteering experiences.

As far as our Summit Park classes go, I've enjoyed the various "stress free" activities we've been able to take part in, namely the massages (tough homework to be sure :-P). The only activity I haven't especially enjoyed are the recordings we've had to listen to daily; which I've typically downloaded as podcasts. I have found Dr. Morledge's tips and writings interesting, however, as well as useful for making decisions related to health. As far as suggesting improvements, I think the online activities could use some improvement to make them more useful to the users - maybe something other than recordings. Overall I have enjoyed the pilot Stress Free Now program.

Now that nearly all but two of my Finals are out of the way, I'm looking forward to a long winter break. Being a bit of a "homebody" I don't see myself doing anything too exciting, just enjoying the time off - and maybe watching the snow fall outside.

Moving on Up...

I have had quite an interesting time working as a volunteer at the Clinic, especially this last week. The computers were down both the days I volunteered. This inconvenience really revealed how much we rely on computers. A doctor was unable to show due to an injury, which sometimes happens. Instead of contacting the patients to tell them that there appointment was rescheduled, the nurses were unable to get the phone numbers or know which patients were scheduled. So patients came in, only to realize that their appointment was rescheduled. They were not the only ones facing trouble with the clinic. At first, I felt that I was not very important, just only listening to voicemails left by patients. To change this, I started looking for work as opposed to asking for work. This was when I started moving up and feeling like I was having a greater impact at the Clinic.

Jon's thoughts

Today was my third official day in the clinic. My job was to escort patients into the various patient rooms in the clinic wing. In total I escorted around 10 people. It's always interesting to meet different people in the clinic - most of which are going through a rough patch, or are just plain sick. Oddly, it seems as if I escort more people than anyone else in our group, as Friday is the most popular day to go to schedule an appointment!

The Clinic relies heavily on our Summit Group, and others to make it through the week. In order for them to continue to provide healthcare for free, or at a very reduced cost, they need all the volunteers they can get. So, if one of us isn't able to come, it definitely gives the rest of the staff a busier workday. I'm sure that having younger (or at least different) faces as escorts can be somewhat nice for patients as well.

So far, this year has gone very well. My group gets along very well with each other making living arrangements easy, and thanks to my mom's famous cookie recipe (we learned to cook), we're eating all of our essential food groups (sugar, brown sugar, butter, and chocolate). Many of us have classes with other Summit Park members, helping us to be a closer community - and of course the socials help too.

The health and wellness program has been an interesting experience for me. I've never been a yoga going tai chi loving person, so to try something new has been a change. I'm not a particularly stressed out person, so StressFree now has been more of an extra boost to my week. It's been interesting learning the various relaxation techniques in the online "sound tracks".

Overall, it's been a successful month for Summit and Kitchen for our group. Being towards the end of the semester, it's definitely busier, but not in a bad way. As an Architecture student, its the very last projects that are the most exciting, so the extra work is worth it.

Busy positive November

Well I've finally got some hours under my belt at the Kitchen Clinic. For the most part everything is the same everyday for me. I go in and ask what needs to be done and I'm either entering medications into the system as received by the Clinic or I'm seeing patients. I usually see between four and ten patients in the two hour period that I'm there. Its been very interesting meeting so many different people from so many different lifestyles. Its really been a reality check for me. When you think you have it hard, theres always someone else out there that has it that much harder. I enjoy getting to hear all their stories weather positive of negative, that they bring to me while I'm seeing them. Some of them will talk your ear off and others just want to get down to business but either way its always an interesting experience. I feel like doing this gives me a chance to impact the lives of these people on a personal level. Many if not most sadly tell me negative/sad things going on in their lives and I try to do my best to encourage them to hang in there. I want to be as positive as I can for them and show them that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I hope to bring a more positive experience at the kitchen for them and help them to feel more comfortable in a doctors office by opening up positive conversations with them. I  have encountered little to no struggles so far with the Clinic over the semester. The only struggle with the clinic I've had so far was during the beginning when I was still learning how things worked. At the start I didn't quite have down how to write things out on the forms and what questions to ask the patients and how to ask the questions properly but as the semester moved on I have learned how to do things more and more smoothly. At this point I'm getting to wear I know where things are and what to fill out and how to fill it out as well as what to ask the patients. Now I'm able to move past that a step further like I mentioned above and open up friendly conversations with the patients now that I'm comfortable with the business part of it. My experience with my roommates has been a very positive one. We all are very good about sharing everything and everyone has been very respectful of each others things. We haven't had to deal with any issues of any real significance. I look forward to next semester with them. The Stress Free and Wellness experience has been overall a very interesting one. Its been busy to make it to all of the events as a student athlete but I've managed to pull it off. Its been fun using  these experience to interact with the rest of the summit community being that we see them at these events. It makes it more fun with more people. Its also been interesting learning about all these different stress techniques. I didn't know what Tai Chi and Yoga consisted of before this. Overall its been a great experience though. 

11/19/10. Or something like that

It's nice to finally have  a "routine" when I go to the clinic, even if the routine is do as much of everything as you can in as short a time as possible while making sure to do a quality job. Whenever I go in to work, I get to do it all. This week was like last week because I was all over the office making sure things were getting done. I called to confirm surgeries, bottled countless medications, roomed patients, sent faxes, inventoried, and of course got to clean the rooms.

With Thanksgiving break finals week and right after Christmas break I have decided to still be available over my breaks to go in to the clinic and work. I do enjoy the work I get to do while I'm there and I feel that it will serve me well in the future. 

Ben