There are a total of four nurses working in the clinic right now, I'd be the fifth. Three of the nurses work a schedule of 24 hours on, 48 hours off (the nurses sleep in the clinic when they're on shift, they dont have to stay awake for 24 hours). The other nurse works regular business hours, she's in charge of scheduling the clinic visits and accompanying the kids to external appointments (the very thing I was trying to avoid in Honduras!) So that leaves my position. I'd basically be doing preventative education and shadowing the doctor through the internal and external clinics, two things that I've done in the past and feel relatively confident in. I'm really psyched at this news, it means I'll be exposed to everything I had hoped but I'll have the guidance of a fulltime MD at my disposal, really an ideal situation. Of course the possible downside to that scenario is if the doctor is a jerk and then I'm stuck with him for the next 13 months. I've been really lucky in the past, I worked semi-closely to an MD when I was at WGA and she was very nice. When I was at NAC I worked hand-in-hand with the MD there and he was amazing, we became good friends and I walked away with a ton of experience. I'm hoping that this doctor will turn out to be a great person too. They can't be that bad if they're volunteering a year of their time, right??
The other good news I got was that each volunteer gets a locker in their bedrooms to store valuables so i can keep my meds with me. This has been a major concern of mine since i dont want to have to keep my injections in the clinic and then deal with curious co-workers. I didn't want to sneak them into my room if it meant kids might get to them, but now I've gotten their blessing to keep them locked up in my room. Very good news indeed :)
She also told me that the entire campus is set up with wifi (woohoo!!) so most volunteers bring laptops and use them in their rooms to contact home. At first i was slightly bummed because I only have a desktop computer (and there's no way I'm lugging THAT to Guatemala) but then I remembered that I had an old laptop that I hadn't used in a few years. There's something wrong with the battery, it doesn't hold a charge at all so the comp only works if its plugged in. I'm going to pull it out and see how it's doing, maybe i can get someone to clean it up a bit so it'll work enough for me to run skype on it. It'd be great to be able to contact my family (and update my blog!) from the comfort of my own bed. I'll add that to my list of things to do.
So after I got that information I went ahead and accepted the position :) Goal 1 from last week completed! The next step is for them to send out a welcome packet and some additional information (hopefully a packing list as well!). I should get that in a week or two, so I'll let you know about the goodies they send me then. I've been doing good with my other goals too. I havent set up a budget yet, though i can now that i know for certain where I'll be going. I've been doing good with my list making, and I'm hosting a going away BBQ/silent auction for all my crap on Sept 17th. (I'll probably try to sell a lot of stuff before then, the thought of leaving it to two weeks before i move makes me really anxious). I've been doing good with my cross-stitch project :) Check out my progress, hopefully I'll actually finish it and get it framed before i have to pack it away into a box :/
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