Avis-+West+Suburban+Medical+Center

Organization Name: West Suburban Medical Center

Mission: to create life-long relationships focused on excellent quality, exceptional service and compassionate care.

Contact: sdean@westsubmc.com

Journals: Day 1: Today I got to meet the nice ladies that I will be helping out in the food services area of the hospital. They all seem really friendly and also enjoy what they do. I had to wipe down the tables, put food on the shelves and take out the various garbage cans. The work wasn't all that bad, even though it sounds like it was. The people around me made it much better.

Day 2: I did pretty much the same thing today as I did on day one, except this time i met Gerri, the head of food services. She was very nice and grateful that I was helping her out.

Day 3: Today Gerri asked if I was looking for a job, which I am. I was pleased to hear they might need some help in the future. Volunteering helped get my foot in the door and now may have provided me with an opportunity I otherwise wouldn't have had. The work I did was the same.

Day 4: Same thing as the day before.

Day 5: See day 4.

Day 6: Today Gerri started some sort of job training with me. I first did my usual work, then stayed after and made meals for the patients with another worker there. Trays went down a conveyer belt and each one had a little menu with what the patient wanted. My job was to put their drinks on the tray, which is much more challenging than it sounds. Each patient had unique needs when it came to drinks. Some couldn't drink certain drinks and others needed special portions. Once all the meals were made I helped clean up a bit and took a short break. Then all the meals I had helped make came back and I had to help clean all the leftover food off the plates. About 70% of the meals didn't even have a bite taken out of them, which made for a lot of messy cleaning. After I helped clean about 200 meals I had to take out the trash with the guy who was showing me the ropes. We went to the dumpster which is right by the morgue and I heard some pretty gruesome stories about how sometimes bodies are being identified while the trash is being taken out, making for some awkward situations. Luckily there were no bodies today. Just when I thought all the dirty work was done my partner in dirty work informed me we had to clean all the extra bits of food we had missed. This seems like an easy task, but it took about half an hour. Finally my long day was done and I got to head home.

Day 7: Gerri told me today that they actually aren't looking for work, which was disappointing.

Day 8: See day 5.

Day 9: See day 8.