An Introduction to Marian Extended Care

I'm almost 2 weeks into my travel rotation and it's time for an update! 

I wrote my last post from a motel room.  After 4 days in the motel, I was finally able to move into my little cottage at Pismo Beach and now I get to write to you from the comfort of my kitchen table.

Let me tell you briefly about my work setting and my experiences there thus far:

I arrived to California last Sunday and presented myself at Marian Extended Care Center in Santa Maria on Monday morning for orientation.  Orientation lasted 4 hours, 2 of which involved computer modules- and then they had me on the floor treating patients all afternoon! I thought I might get one day to settle in, but clearly they expect people to hit the ground running!

Unfortunately, I wasn't granted access to the patients' electronic medical records until that Thursday- so I ended up with an impressive 4-day backlog of unwritten progress notes. It all got sorted out in the end and I'm settling into more of a routine now.

The patients here are mostly older (70s, 80s, 90s) and, when they discharged from the hospital, they were essentially deemed unready and/or unsafe to return home.  Part of my job at Duke Raleigh Hospital was to make recommendations regarding who was ready to go home and who would benefit from ongoing, in-patient therapy services.  For many patients, facilities like Marian Extended Care serve as the next step along the rehabilitation continuum.  (For any of you in the therapy world, as far as I can tell, 'extended care' and 'skilled nursing facility' are interchangeable terms). Marian Extended Care has 4 wings- 2 of those wings house permanent residents- essentially a nursing home- and the 2 wings where I work house temporary residents.

The majority of patients I see here are able to do so much more and move so much faster than their counterparts in the hospital.  In many ways it is easier than the acute care environment- generally speaking, I'm not so worried that these patients are going to pass out on me or fall over every other second- but it does mean that I need to work on a slew of higher level skills, activities, and exercises with them- and come up with fun and functional ways to do so!

And, just as I'm starting to get the hang of things at Extended Care, I'm getting shipped over to the main hospital tomorrow to get oriented to acute care (the setting I worked in at Duke Raleigh) so that I can eventually float back and forth between the two- wherever they need me most!  Thankfully, the two buildings are just across the road from each other.

Greetings from California

And just like that, I'm on the West coast!

I had planned on taking 'Before' and 'After' pictures of my odometer but the silly thing somehow reset itself along the way.  You'll just have to trust that I did the math correctly as I tell you- with some pride- that I drove 3028 miles during my coast-to-coast road trip.  I have yet to calculate how much money I spent at the gas pump, although my little Ford Focus does pretty well for fuel efficiency.

Many thanks to the friends that hosted me and made time to catch up along the way.  I made strategic stops in Chattanooga (thanks Whitney!), St Louis (thanks Lisa, Greg, Anna, and Ashley!), Hays, Kansas (turns out I don't know anyone in Kansas...), Denver (thanks Robin, Brian, and Julie!), and Las Vegas (thanks Anna and Joel!), before arriving yesterday afternoon in Santa Maria, California.

Unfortunately, my little cottage at Pismo Beach won't be move-in ready until Wednesday. In the meantime, I'm camped out at a motel near the hospital. I've got my bike stored in the bathroom and my dinner consisted of a Trader Joe's deli sandwich in a local park watching kiddos playing soccer.

 

 

When taking a long, solo road trip, you too may find yourself parking your car strategically for photo ops with beautiful backdrops.  (I might have done it more than once!) Here's a photo of the little cutie that carried me across the country- I've decided to call her Roxie.

...and I'm back!

Ladies and gentlemen, after a lengthy hiatus, I've decided to flex my blogging muscles once again!

Why, you ask? Well, I've signed up to work as a traveling Occupational Therapist so I'll be bouncing around to new facilities and new locations every three months for the next little while. I think it sounds like quite the adventure.

I'm planning to use this space to keep a rough record of where I go and what I get up to while I'm there.  Selfishly, I'll be writing to jog my own memory later on- but armchair travelers and interested friends and family are more than welcome to tag along for the ride!

I depart for my first assignment TOMORROW!

My car is (mostly) packed and I'm (almost) ready to hit the road and head across the country. ALL THE WAY across the country. Santa Maria, California, to be exact. Fasten your seatbelts!