Internship Journal

The internship is over (Hurrah!)! For anyone who is interested, here is the journal I had to write for my class. Some of the dates do not correspond to my previous blog entries (blogtries, entrogs) because I couldn't remember when I did what and I didn't write this as I went along like I was supposed to have done. But this is all true stuff; it just may not have happened on the particular dates or in the order I said they did. Also, I talk alot about a book in this journal. That is because it was required that we link our experience to what we read in that stupid, useless, self-helpish book. So, enjoy.


October 8, 2007
2pm – 4pm

Today was my orientation at Hospice. I had to fill out a lot of paperwork and sign a paper about HIPPA. I never even thought about having to sign something like that, although it does make sense since I’ll have access to information about the patients and their families. HIPPA says that I cannot divulge any information about people receiving services at Hospice to anyone else.
After filling out all the paperwork I got a tour of the place. The building is only the office for Hospice. The inpatient facility is elsewhere. Upstairs is where the home health aids, doctors, and nurses, as well as others, have their offices. I will be working mostly downstairs in the bereavement department.
I’m still not entirely sure what it is that I’ll be doing here. I know that I will be working in bereavement and, after discussing my goals with my supervisor here, we’ve decided that I’ll be going on some ride-alongs as well. I hope this internship turns out the way I want and I actually learn something from it.
My orientation made me think about what I read in our book this week about why I want a human service career. I didn’t always want a human service career. I’ve wanted to do so many things, probably because I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. It was until the beginning of my third year in college that I decided to be a sociology major. Then it was another semester before I decided I wanted to be a social worker. I’ve known for a long time that I didn’t ever want to do something meaningless for my career. I’ve had some terrible jobs and I want to feel like the career I choose is really helping people. In this internship, I’m hoping to gain some skills that will help me to help others.

October 19, 2007
9am – 2:30pm

I’ve started to learn a little about what is expected of me. I was taught how to make bereavement calls today. I was absolutely terrified when I was told that I would be calling the family members of people who had died to see how they are doing. Once I started doing it, it wasn’t so bad. I just look in their file, call the number, ask them “how are you?,” and tell them that we have individual and group support services available.
I made about twenty calls today and had to do charting for each call I made, writing down who I called, why I called, and any observations I had. Most of them didn’t take too long, except for the woman who kept talking to me for nearly an hour. These calls were 1-month calls (calls made 1 month after the death of a loved one). Sherry, the woman I’ve been working with, told me that these are usually the most time-consuming calls to make. The other calls that hospice makes are after 6 months and after 1 year, at which time the people are discharged and services discontinued.
The chapter of the book we read this week talked about the difference between a volunteer and an intern, which I thought was the most pertinent information for me. In the bereavement department there are no interns besides me and I’m not sure there ever has been. There are a lot of volunteers though, and I am classified as a volunteer since I am unpaid. I don’t do quite the same things as the other volunteers, however. The other volunteers will stuff envelopes and help decorate for special events. They do all the things that take little thought or effort while I do all the harder things like making calls. This is because I’m trying to learn and they just want to help out.
I do get a little annoyed sometimes, though. Since I’m a volunteer but I’m an intern most people working at hospice don’t know what I do there exactly. I’ve had to explain about being an intern and what I do as an intern so many times already and people still don’t really understand. I’ve heard people tell others what I’m doing and they seem to always get it completely wrong. I guess it’s okay as long as they don’t expect me to do anything I didn’t agree to.

October 26, 2007
9am – 3:30pm

I was busy making 6-month phone calls today. They are a whole easier than the 1-month calls I had been making last week. I’m getting slightly more comfortable making the calls as well. I keep forgetting I’m supposed to do certain things, though. Or else I’m supposed to do things and I don’t know that I’m supposed to because I was never told. Usually I only need to be told something once and I remember but I have forgotten a couple things. There’s so much I have to do to make these calls. Mostly I just mess up the charting if I do make a mistake. I forgot to initial the front paper in a couple charts. Everything I do has to be signed off on, though, so the mistake was caught right away. It wasn’t anything major.
The only other thing I did besides make phone calls was doing filing. It isn’t so bad. It’s certainly boring but I’ll probably have to do it anywhere I go. I have to pull files, put them back, sometimes I have to search all over for them when someone has put them in the wrong spot. That’s kind of annoying. I thought people knew the alphabet. I guess not.
I have not had any trouble with clients not accepting me like it talks about in the book. If anything I have the opposite problem. I feel like when I make my calls that they think I’m some kind of counselor or that I’m qualified to help them and give them advice. I want to tell them, “I don’t know anything! I’m just an intern. I wasn’t trained for this!” Instead, I just listen to what they have to say without interrupting and if I deem it is appropriate I give the person a phone number they can call to receive bereavement support. It’s all I know how to do. It makes me feel a little lost at times, though.

October 29, 2007
9am – 4pm

I did more filing and making phone calls today. I made more of the bereavement calls. I also had to call people about their addresses. Hospice sends out different mailings and some of them were returned to us because the address was not correct. So, I had to call them and check to see what their correct address is. I wasn’t able to contact most of the people, but I did correct a few addresses. I don’t know how they got so messed up in the first place. Some of them even had the city wrong, which can cause problems since we discontinue phone calls after a month if they do not live within a certain area.
The bereavement calls did not quite go as smooth as usual. I called one woman and told her that I was from Hospice. Before I could say anything else she asked me why hospice was calling her since her aunt was dead. Se sounded pretty angry. I told her that we were going to be sending her some information about support services in her area. Once again she didn’t listen to what I had to say, cut me off before I was finished speaking. She asked me why she needed services if her aunt is dead and who I was. I repeated who I was and that I worked in the bereavement department. I tried to tell her again about the purpose of my call but she interrupted me yet again to yell at me and tell me how unhappy she is with hospice. She told me she wanted nothing to be sent to her and hung up on me. I was so shocked by that. I haven’t had anyone that I’ve called treat me that way. I didn’t take it too hard, though because she did just lose somebody and that’s got to be hard. I told Sherry, the bereavement specialist, about the woman and she said she would call her to see what was wrong.
I feel like I have pretty good relationships with all of my coworkers. Of course, I don’t really have many coworkers. I haven’t had any of the problems that the book talks about. I work mostly with Sherry. When I’m at hospice we share an office. She’s very nice and I feel like I can talk to her, which is good. The other people that I’ve met are also nice. I don’t really see them, though. The only people I get a chance to talk to are Sherry, Sue – my supervisor, and Jessica – the new person in charge of volunteer work. I like Jessica a lot. She’s closer to my age than the other people who work in the office. She was a sociology major too and I feel like we get along pretty well even if we don’t get a chance to talk much. I have not encountered any problems with my coworkers thus far. Hopefully it stays that way.

November 6, 2007
6pm – 8pm

Tonight was hospice’s annual Coping With the Holidays event. It is a program to help people get through this difficult time of year after they have experienced a loss. We had a couple speakers talk about their experiences and how they manage to cope, live music, a candle lighting ceremony, and refreshments. It was a really good program.
I greeted people at the door when they arrived. I gave them programs and directed them into the conference room. People were able to bring pictures of loved ones to put on the table up front for everyone to see, so I told them where to put them also. I didn’t really do much else, but I’m glad I got to go to this.
This week’s reading talked about how everyone works together. I think I’ve gotten a better picture of that lately than when I first arrived. I’ve been able to see what many different people do at hospice and will be observing others in the weeks to come. In the bereavement department, we all deal with people after a death has occurred. We are there to give support and help people get through their first year apart from their loved one.
The little that I know of the hierarchy within this department is as follows: The main person in charge is Sue, then Sherry. Under Sherry are the people in the cubicles in the main office. (Some of this is just guess work from watching them interact with one another. I assume Sherry has more authority since I’ve seen her tell them to do things.) We also have the person in charge of volunteers, Jessica. I’m not sure exactly how Jessica fits into the hierarchy. She coordinates the volunteer work, so her job doesn’t really fall under the same category as Sherry’s but I have seen Sherry ask her to do things. I think that might be more because Jessica is still learning about her new job than the fact that she actual has to report to Sherry, though. Then, under Jessica are, of course, the volunteers. I am sort of a volunteer, and I do have to report to her to give her my time sheet, but she doesn’t tell me to do anything. If Sue has not scheduled any kind of ride-along for me I work in Sherry’s office and she tells me what to do.

November 16, 2007
9am – 4pm

I made more phone calls and sent out mailings for the Christmas event that hospice is having. The calls were 12-month calls. These calls are much easier to make and usually take less time, especially since I’ve gotten used to doing the charting and remember what I’m supposed to say to everyone. I think I made about 30 – 40 calls today. It’s getting to be kind of boring. Sending out the mailings was very tedious work, but it was nice to not have to talk to anyone for a little while. I don’t mind making phone calls as much as I once did but I still get tired of it at times.
The chapter we read this week was all about getting to know the community that your site is in. I don’t know that I really understand the community any better than I did before. I’ve met many people, none of them alike. Hospice is in Modesto, which I still know little about. Not everyone I work with is from Modesto, though. Also, the patients at Hospice come from all over the county. I think there are even some in San Joaquin County, which I don’t really understand since there’s Hospice there as well. The only community I can think of categorizing them into is the Central Valley. It’s very hard to generalize. Many, perhaps most, of the patients on hospice are very poor and live out near rural areas. But some are very well off too, although they are in the minority. Other than that I don’t know too much about this specific community and I don’t really see how it would help me anyway.

November 21, 2007
9:30am – 4pm

Today I put together files for the children’s support group. A group is going to be meeting so I made files and put each child’s registration papers and signed forms into them. It was pretty easy and didn’t take too long. Once again, I made phone calls. These were more 1-month calls, my least favorite. At least no one yelled at me this time. I talked to one woman for a very long time. I thought I would never be able to get off the phone. She had just lost her husband a few weeks ago and they had been married for 76 years. I thought that was incredible. I’ve never met anyone who’d been married for so long. It’s no wonder she was having such a difficult time after losing someone who had been with her for nearly all of her life.
Well, I haven’t had any problems yet. This book keeps talking about the bad things that can happen and all the difficulties that people face but I don’t relate to that at all. Everything is going well for me. I have thought about my suitability for a career working with people, though. My career goal is to be a social worker and I’m having doubts now. Just making these phone calls every week seems to take everything out of me. I don’t know if I want this kind of career anymore or, rather, if I’d really be good at it. What I’m doing now isn’t what I’d be doing in a real job so I’m not sure. I keep thinking, “What if I try to pursue this and I fail? What will I do then?” I think I’m just getting nervous. I can do this internship just fine but I worry about the future when I’m out of school and I’m expected to know how to do things.

November 26, 2007
9:30am – 2pm

Today was a little more interesting. I went on another ride-along. This was one was with one of the social workers, Kristi. She took me out to one house that she had to visit. This was her first visit to the residence. The patient had Alzheimer’s. She was very nice and so were her daughter and son-in-law. The woman was very confused at times and didn’t answer many of the questions she was asked appropriately. When Kristi asked how many children she had, she started talking about her siblings. She did that kind of thing pretty often. Also, her daughter said that she sometimes sees a little girl who isn’t there sitting in one of the chairs. Kristi said it wasn’t uncommon. She talked to them about what they might need, got to know a little about them, and gave them a number to call in case they needed anything before she came back.
This visit actually made me feel much better about wanting to be a social worker. I think I could do this and really like it. Maybe not at hospice, but I think I could be a social worker. I’d rather work in a different area, though. I’m not sure what area yet. I guess I’ll have time to decide that.
This chapter was about confrontation and problem resolution. I did not find this applicable to me whatsoever. I have had no confrontations or reasons for confrontations and I definitely don’t have problems that need to be resolved. I get along really well with everyone and I usually work alone anyway. When I do need something from a coworker or have to work with them, we get along fine. I have no problem with my supervisor either. I only ever see her in passing so it isn’t an issue.

December 3, 2007
9am – 4pm

I had a ride-along with a home health aide, Janet, today. We drove all over the place going to different patients’ houses. It was interesting to see what other people do who work for hospice. She had to give a couple people baths. When the person can’t get out of bed, they have to be given a bed bath. This is done by removing their clothing and using a wet washcloth to clean them off. This takes more time than it sounds although Janet can do it pretty quickly. That was most of what she did. She just gave them baths since that is what they needed today and brushed hair, and got them dressed.
I couldn’t believe how awful the patients looked. I’ve never seen people who look so deteriorated. One woman had so many sores that were bandaged up. She was really bony too. She is the skinniest person I have ever seen in my entire life. I’m not exaggerating either. She looked like those pictures I always see of people starving to death or of anorexics when they are close to death. She was all bones and flaps of skin. It was horrible. It made me hurt to look at her. At least they all weren’t like that.
This week’s chapter talked about being competent and fulfilled at work. I feel like I am much more competent now. Instead of having everything explained to me I can do many tasks assigned to me without needing any help. I even find the phone calls somewhat fulfilling at times, especially when I get to help someone with something. Even if all I do is give them a phone number to call, it feels like I’m finally helping somebody. The other day I helped a woman who wanted to donate some furniture and she was so grateful. It’s such a huge change from the last job I worked at. I was so unappreciated and it made me so unhappy working at such a useless, thankless job. I need to feel like I’m doing something important and I do feel that sometimes here at hospice. These people need someone to talk to, to help them and I can do something about that.

December 7, 2007
9am – 4pm

I chose to write about today because I went on another ride-along and that is much more interesting than talking about filing and phone calls. I went to the Hospice House in Hughson. I met the dietician, Katie, there. We went around to the patients and she assessed them. There are sixteen beds there and she is the only dietician. She also goes out to patients who live elsewhere too. So, she usually sees each patient about once a month unless they have a special need and have to be seen more frequently.
Katie went around and asked the patients if they could chew and swallow. She asked if the food they were receiving was okay, if they were eating it, if they wanted something else. Today’s patients were fairly simple. Usually she has to do evaluations on how well they can swallow or change their diet. One thing they do if it’s hard to swallow is add a thickener to the patient’s liquids. This helps them to swallow easier.
The book talks about professional, legal, and ethical issues. I have not encountered any issues relating to this, though I see how it would be possible to do so. Working in a medical-type setting or counseling setting, I have to be careful about what I can say about my work when I’m not there. I have not heard of anyone I work with doing anything questionable and I certainly don’t give out client or patient names or identifying information. So, I don’t have any problem with these issues at all.

December 11, 2007
9am – 2pm

Today wasn’t as exciting as my last entry. I did the most boring work ever. I had to go through every file in the bereavement department and count the files that came from different places. So I went through each month and counted the files with white labels, then the files with yellow labels, then how many of the yellow and white files had a green mark on them. It took me several hours to do this. It had to be done because hospice is doing some kind of thing with all the stats and needed it all done by tomorrow.
That wasn’t the only thing I did. I also took files of recently deceased patients’ family members and got them ready for entry in to the database for the bereavement department. I had to pull out copies of one paper and put in the original after stamping it and pulling off the yellow duplicate to be sent to the office upstairs. It was more boring work but not so bad as the counting of the hundreds of files.
My internship is now finished. Finally. It was good experience but it was very time and energy consuming. I’m glad I did this. I learned a lot about how hospice works and what they do before and after a person dies. I never all the things they do. I’ve also learned a little about myself as well. I learned that I really do want to help people and that I can help people. I also learned that I don’t want to do that at hospice. Not that I hated it. I didn’t dislike it, but it isn’t what I want to do specifically. I’m much more comfortable talking to people on the phone now too! I guess all I needed to do was make a few hundred calls to get used to it. All in all, this was a good thing for me to do.

Coping With The Angry

This week I did much of the same stuff at hospice that I have been doing all along. I made phone calls and filed papers. On Tuesday though, I went their Coping With the Holidays event thingy. It was for people who had had someone pass away, obviously. There were speakers and they lit candles to symbolize remembrance. There was music too, and cookies and coffee. I just stood by the door at the beginning to greet people, give them a program, and show them the table to put their picture if they brought one. It was something different for me to do, so that was good. It was better than being on the phone all day. Today I was making more phone calls and this woman I talked to was so angry and rude. It kind of shocked me because usually people either don't want to talk, want to talk forever about how their doing, or just want to say how greatful they are to the people at hospice. This woman, however, did none of those things. I told her who I was and why I was calling (to see how she was doing) and she was very abrupt with me. I was obliged to tell her about the information we were going to be mailing her about support services in her area since she lives outside of Stanislaus County, so I did. Then she asked me (very rudely) why we would send her anything, because her aunt died. So I repeated myself. She preceded to tell me how unhappy she was with hospice and why would she want support services when she didn't like any of the services she received when her aunt was alive? She told me not to send her anything and hung up on me. So, that was fun. I have absolutely no idea what that was about. I don't think she realizes that the people who make these kind of calls are usually just volunteers and have nothing to do with patient care. Oh well. I told my supervisor and she's going to make a follow-up call to see exactly what the problem is. I hope I don't have to talk to that kind of person again. At least I was still polite to her, although I was so surprised I couldn't even think of being offended until after the fact and how mad can I be at a person who just had a family member die a month ago?

Progress

Yesterday I had my progress meeting for my internship class. We all sat around in a circle and talked about what we were doing and how everything was going. It made me realize that I really need to start writing my journal. At least blogging about this helps me remember what the heck I've been doing every day. Also, listening to what other people are doing for their internships makes me wish I was doing something different. It isn't bad, but I wish it was something that would be useful to me as more than a requirement to get into grad school. I do not plan on ever working at a hospice in the future but I guess any experience is good, right? I went to my internship again today. I made about 35 phone calls (1 year calls). Plus, anyone that I did not call for various reasons, such as a request to only receive mailings or not living in the area, I had to chart why they were not receiving a phone call at this time. That took a few hours. Nearly everyone that I got a hold of didn't really have much to say so it didn't take as long as it could have. One woman seemed to still be having a really hard time. That was the hardest phone call I've had so far. The people I call only know that I'm calling on behalf of hospice. They don't know that I have neither training nor experience and have no idea what I'm doing. She actually asked for my advice. I'm not sure that what I said helped any but I told her she could call hospice if she needed to and she's already in a support group as well as receiving individual counciling. I think she'll be okay. Then, after I made all my calls, I got lunch and when I came back I arranged files for the children in the support groups. I had to go through a list of their names and label a file folder for them. Then, I got all the information and papers we had for each child and put them into the folders. That didn't take nearly as long as the phone calls. That was pretty much it for today.

More of the Same and Something Different

I've been fairly busy lately with school and work stuff. I went to hospice again on Friday. I made more phone calls for various reasons and went through files for several hours. I'm not exaggerating about that either. There are around 1300 files and I had to go through them with a list I had of everyone from San Joaquin County and mark their files with a green marker. Even with the list it took forever. They weren't in order on the list. Well, there were in a order but not the order in which the files are arranged. The names on the list were in alphabetical order only, whereas the names in the files are arranged by the month of the family member's death first then in alphabetical order. Also, I had to file copies of letters sent to all the family members of people who died in the month of September. On Monday I had to do more of the letter filing, but after a couple hours of that I got to go on a ride along with one of the nurses. We went out to 3 houses. The nurse had to drop off supplies, check medication, and change one person's catheter. The time went by pretty fast since a lot of it was spent traveling (2 people actually lived in Ceres). By the way, I definitely would not want to be a nurse, so people should not suggest that to me again. I'm getting a little tired of explaining what I'm doing in school to people also. When I say that I'm doing my internship at hospice, people naturally want to know what my major is. When I tell them it's sociology I either get blank stares or people think that the word is synonymous with social work. Although I do want to get into social work, this creates the impression that I know what I'm doing and I definitely do not have any idea what I'm doing. Whenever I hear anyone repeat what it is they think I'm doing it's always wrong. I guess it doesn't matter though.

Meat Hats

This has to be one of the weirdest things I've seen online. This is from a website about meat hats. http://www.hatsofmeat.com/

Internship, Day 2

Monday was my second day at hospice. I called people who hadn't completed certain forms to find out what their answers were to the questions they had left blank, but I didn't get a hold of anyone and had to leave messages. Then I called other people because hospice had mail returned due to incorrect addresses. I couldn't reach most of them but I got the correct addresses for a couple of people. Those I did not speak with I had to send letters to, although that made little sense to me. Why send letters to people telling them that we have been unable to contact them because the address we have on file is incorrect and the mail that was already sent has been returned? Won't the letters we send out to say this be returned as well, for the same reason? Oh, well. I just did as I was told. After that I called people who did not live near Modesto to tell them that information about support services in their area was being sent to them. Then I had to make copies of the information being sent to each person as well as the letter sent with it. One copy went into their file, the other I put into an envelope which I sealed and addressed to be mailed to them. After I was done with that I made more of the kind of phone calls that I had made on Friday. This time they were 6 month calls (I made a mistake in my last blog, it is actually 1 month, 6 month, and 12 month calls that are made - the 3 month call is something that will be implementing this next year). People don't really talk much during the 6 month calls so they went much more quickly than my calls on Friday. I should probably start on my journal sometime soon (I have to write a journal about my internship for school and turn it in so I thought I would just modify the blogs that I write).

My First Day at Hospice

Yesterday was the first day of my internship. I got my name badge and then was given a short tour of the place. Then I was shown how to make bereavement phone calls. These calls are made to family members one month, three months, and six months after someone has died. I was making the one month calls yesterday. I just had to ask the person how they are doing and then tell them that we have individual and group support services available if needed. Or I left a message on the answering machine saying the same thing. It wasn't too hard. A lot more people talked to me than I thought would. One woman spoke to me for about an hour. Most didn't talk for quite that long but I was still surprised at how much they would tell a person they'd never met before. I'm supposed to go back on Monday as well. I don't know when; I'm not given specific times to do anything since I'm technically there as a volunteer. I don't really know what I'm doing on Monday when I get there either. It would be much easier if they would give me more definite instructions. Oh well, I guess I'll figure out where I'm supposed to be when I get there.

Bloody Mary

I was just talking to family members recently and we were wondering where the whole chanting-Bloody-Mary-in-front-of-a-mirror-thing came from (Actually, some family members didn't even know what I was talking about). Well, I came across this story and since it's close to Halloween here it is. I should warn you, however, this retelling is not well written but it's interesting to see the story that started it all.

She lived deep in the forest in a tiny cottage and sold herbal remedies for a living. Folks living in the town nearby called her Bloody Mary, and said she was a witch. None dared cross the old crone for fear that their cows would go dry, their food-stores rot away before winter, their children take sick of fever, or any number of terrible things that an angry witch could do to her neighbors.
Then the little girls in the village began to disappear, one by one. No one could find out where they had gone. Grief-stricken families searched the woods, the local buildings, and all the houses and barns, but there was no sign of the missing girls. A few brave souls even went to Bloody Mary's home in the woods to see if the witch had taken the girls, but she denied any knowledge of the disappearances. Still, it was noted that her haggard appearance had changed. She looked younger, more attractive. The neighbors were suspicious, but they could find no proof that the witch had taken their young ones.
Then came the night when the daughter of the miller rose from her bed and walked outside, following an enchanted sound no one else could hear. The miller's wife had a toothache and was sitting up in the kitchen treating the tooth with an herbal remedy when her daughter left the house. She screamed for her husband and followed the girl out of the door. The miller came running in his nightshirt. Together, they tried to restrain the girl, but she kept breaking away from them and heading out of town.
The desperate cries of the miller and his wife woke the neighbors. They came to assist the frantic couple. Suddenly, a sharp-eyed farmer gave a shout and pointed towards a strange light at the edge of the woods. A few townsmen followed him out into the field and saw Bloody Mary standing beside a large oak tree, holding a magic wand that was pointed towards the miller's house. She was glowing with an unearthly light as she set her evil spell upon the miller's daughter.
The townsmen grabbed their guns and their pitchforks and ran toward the witch. When she heard the commotion, Bloody Mary broke off her spell and fled back into the woods. The far-sighted farmer had loaded his gun with silver bullets in case the witch ever came after his daughter. Now he took aim and shot at her. The bullet hit Bloody Mary in the hip and she fell to the ground. The angry townsmen leapt upon her and carried her back into the field, where they built a huge bonfire and burned her at the stake.
As she burned, Bloody Mary screamed a curse at the villagers. If anyone mentioned her name aloud before a mirror, she would send her spirit to revenge herself upon them for her terrible death. When she was dead, the villagers went to the house in the wood and found the unmarked graves of the little girls the evil witch had murdered. She had used their blood to make her young again.
From that day to this, anyone foolish enough to chant Bloody Mary's name three times before a darkened mirror will summon the vengeful spirit of the witch. It is said that she will tear their bodies to pieces and rip their souls from their mutilated bodies. The souls of these unfortunate ones will burn in torment as Bloody Mary once was burned, and they will be trapped forever in the mirror.

The Internship BEGINS!!! MUAHAHAHA!!!

My first blog on this blog site! Hurrah! Well, I'm finally starting my internship this week (Friday). I think it'll be good. I'm going to be working at the hospice in Modesto. I will be in the office mainly, but they're going to let me go out with the social workers as well to see what they do - since that is what I am interested in. It has taken forever to get started there. I had to talk to a zillion people, fill out a bunch of forms and get poked with needles (okay, only one needle but I still didn't like being stabbed). I'm going to have to work more hours per week than I had originally planned because I am starting so much later than I was supposed to have started. It's a good thing I quit my job or I'd have no time to do anything!