Orientation

I have been working  for three weeks now in Hobart.  It is a good unit.     Yesterday and today I attended orientation training.  This is a tiresome program,   covering such riveting topics as hand washing,  manual handling,  smartmoves/manutension and the like.   It is also an opportunity to be welcomed by the executive management of RHH,  although unfortunately all of the scheduled persons were unavailable or on leave or interstate.   We were allocated 1 hr for Medication Calculations.   My table was finished in 5 minutes.    It has been a long time since I have had to calculate drip rates and I suspect that it is not a practise that is undertaken very often.    It is  a technique that is unreliable as it fails to take into consideration the quality of the IV access.   If the patient moves their  canulated hand/arm,   the flow rate is likely to change/ or stop.  

It was Hot in Hobart yesterday,  36 degrees in fact.    Tasmania doesn't  tend to get these hot days very often.   Consequently the building we were in had no airconditioning.  Its hard to concentrate on anything  when its 30 degrees inside,   especially if  the subject matter is not very interesting in the first place.   I managed to get quite a headache.

The high light of today was the view over Hobart harbour .    Parking in Hobart is difficult,  most staff park in Queens Domain.   It means a 14 minute walk down the hill to the hospital and the view is delightful.   The down side is the 15 minute uphill walk back to the car after work.

view from Queens Domain over Hobart Harbour