I'm in a new place!
Good bye, California, I have loved exploring you. Hello, Washington, show me your finest!
I'm staying in a metro area with lovely friends I met in the Midwest and am commuting about 50 minutes west toward the coast. The town to which I am assigned reminds me of the small Midwestern communities in which I have spent a chunk of my career. Many of the older folks grew up there and spent most of their lives within a several hour range of there. They are good, hard working people living simple lives, beacons of light making their communities a better place.
The assignment...is a challenge. Let's just say the state is involved and there are many problems to correct. The building is beautiful and has one of the largest and most well stocked rehab departments in which I have worked in quite a while. Despite the nice paint job and the manicured gardens, I walk through the front door into a dimly lit deserted corridor. Room after room is empty. The remaining residents have been moved to the back of the building following a mass exodus of residents from the facility.
I feel an undercurrent of unease. There is no therapy staff in the building to orient me or the new travel PT who has arrived at the appointed time. I spend my first hour in the building answering call lights because the office is locked.
The Director is a no-show that day (and the next). The tech (her son) shows up a couple hours later but is of little assistance. He goes to morning meeting then spends the rest of his time in the office on his cell phone. There is another travel OT who has been there for three or four days, and a permanent PT with very limited long term care experience who has been in the US for about 8 months.
This is the kind of assignment in which I am so very glad that I am not a new grad!!
It has trouble written all over it.
It's a new place, and I will give it a chance.
Having been around the block, though, I am already concerned...
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