A Day in the Life

For the past month, I have been on job rotation at a medical center in Pennsylvania. Here are my lessons learned, thus far.



First of all, I don’t understand how people could start in this field (or any specialized field for that matter) with no training. There is so much to know, and I think it would be crazy to assume that people can do the job correctly without proper classroom training. So if you are one of the people who are lucky enough to be thrown to the geese – uh, good luck.



Next, and always important, don’t be afraid to ask questions! It’s how you understand why things work the way they do. You don’t want to go through life doing things just because that’s how someone told you to do them, without understanding the reasons behind it.



The world runs on coffee. It is amazing how much coffee one small office goes through in a day. I would have loved to be the one to invent the process of turning the little bean into highly caffeinated java.



You will make mistakes. The benefit is in learning from them. Write things down. Be organized. Take a note pad and a pen to meetings with your supervisor. You don’t want to not do something asked of you simply because you forgot.



Finally, before you ask for new tasks, make sure you have the original ones done correctly. This can be accomplished by reviewing your work, having someone else review your work, researching to make sure your processes are done correctly, etc.



And have fun! I was tied for first place in the office March Madness bracket. My bracket is hanging on the refrigerator and I feel like I got an A on a test.