Work, weather & friends

I have officially worked 2 days plus a few extra hours. On Monday, I just did paperwork and orientation stuff. Not as boring as I thought it would be. There was another gal that started the same day as me. She is also an RN that will be working per diem (as needed). She and I are the same age and have a lot in common. We hit it off right away! It will be fun to work with her...hopefully I will be able to see her once we are done with orientation. On Wednesday, I met again with the nursing supervisor and went over policies and hospice Medicare criteria. That was a little dry. Thankfully I had heard most of it before at the Health Department, so it wasn't all foreign! After meeting with the supervisor, we went to a staff meeting where we did chart audits. Not a fun job at all! But it helps me to see what needs to be done. Then we attended another meeting! This one was with the whole team (nurses, CNAs, social worker, counselor, and MD) We discussed how the patients are doing and what needs they have. That was pretty interesting. Another nurse and I left this meeting early to go and admit a patient. That was a good experience. The process is basically the same as what I did in Darlington. I just have to learn their paperwork. They do most of their charting on computer, so I have to learn that program too. I was supposed to be off today (Thursday) but I went in for a couple of hours so that I could see how to enter all of the data into the computer and see how to finish the admission paperwork. Tomorrow I am going on 2 visits with a nurse and then I am going on two visits by myself! That's pretty quick, but I think I am comfortable with the visits. The paperwork and computer will be the biggest challenge.

We have our first visitors of 2009 here now. Dick and Jody Tuescher are here for 9 days. They have been pretty much on their own since they got here since I started working this week, but I think they are having fun. Last night we took them to Huggos on the Rocks, the restaurant by the water that we like to go to. Friday night we are going to a luau, Saturday to Volcano and Sunday kayaking and snorkeling. It should be fun! I'm looking forward to going to Volcano. We haven't been there yet since we moved and I'm curious to see what the lava is doing. When we were here in 2007, the lava was running on top of the ground and we were able to hike to it. We got some really great pictures! I hope we are as lucky this time!

I'm going to talk about the weather now, so if you don't want to hear about it, quit reading now!! As you are well aware, it is winter. Winter in Hawaii is hardly winter! The ocean gets quite a bit rougher and it rains a bit more, but that's about it. If you ask someone who has lived here for a while, especially those who have lived here all their life, it gets darn right cold in the winter!! AJ and I have laughed several times seeing how people react to the weather! It might get down to 66 or 68 degrees at night, maybe even 62 farther up the mountain, but that's about as cold as it gets. You'd think it was 30 the way people dress over here! I have seen so many people wearing sweaters, coats, sweatshirts, and even stocking caps in the morning!! It's so funny to us! These people have no idea what cold weather really is! Actually some people have said to us, "How do you live in that kind of weather?" When I tell people that I am from WI, sometimes all they say is ooohhhh. Like they feel sorry for me or something! It's pretty funny. Anyway, I hope winter is being a little nicer to all of you enduring it! We'll try and send some warm weather that way!!

That's the latest update. I'll let you know how work is going and how our weekend went next week. So until next time...aloha!