That's right people, I'm a Federal Employee

As some of you might know, I started a new job on August 18th at the Milwaukee Veteran's Hospital, also known as "The VA". Back in January I applied for a fellowship on the Palliative Care Unit. What's a fellowship, you might ask? A fellowship is like a post-graduate paid internship (unfortunately this one does not pay very much). Why would you do a fellowship? Because it gave me the opportunity to do something completely different from what I've always done in the field of social work: work with kids. Which leads to the next question that I've anticipated: What is palliative care? Palliative care is similar to hospice care in than that it focuses on helping those with chronic illness die comfortably and with dignity. It's different from hospice in that you can still receive palliative care while aggressively treating your illness, such as receiving chemotherapy. It's also different in that you don't necessarily have to be terminally ill (prognosis of six months to live or less) to receive palliative care.

So on the Palliative Care Unit we have veterans that come there for end of life care as well as veterans that come for radiation, or chemotherapy, or general rehab and strengthening. In a lot of ways this job has been very different from working with kids, but not as different as I thought. I definitely feel like I'm using the same skill set with the veterans as with kids, you know, those important social work skills like listening and empathy. One bummer about this job is that I can't joke around as much as I would like. The patients actually appreciate a sense of humor every now and then, but their families are often so worried and upset about their loved ones' health (understandably) that it's not really a time for joking. I have to be somber, which can be a little difficult for me. I never realized I was so darn bubbly!

I really appreciate having a Gospel perspective with this job and having the comfort of knowing that these guys are leaving this world for a better place. It is very different having only male patients (female patients on our unit are very rare) and I assure you I have gotten quite a few crusty comments ("Do you mind if I take a minute of your time and ask you a couple of questions, Mr. So-and-so?" "Sure, I still like to look at pretty girls."), but nothing disrespectful. The best is the guys that are very hard of hearing. You'll be walking down the hall and hear the nurse practicioner hollering, "HOW ARE YOUR BOWELS?"

One bummer about working at the VA are the smells. All kinds of not good smells. Especially on the elevators, which get pretty crowded. Especially when you have the heavy smokers on the elevator, and then there's the heavy smokers that probably don't bathe quite often enough. Then there are places in the VA that have their own weird smell that has unknown origins. Like one hallway that smells like stale Vietnamese food. Not sure why. Our unit tends to smell like pureed food and...urine? and bleach? Really hard to place. Luckily you get used to it.

The GREAT thing about the VA is that everyone is extremely nice to me and really helpful as I am learning about working with a completely different population. It's also nice working under my supervisor and not having a caseload that's all my own right now, because I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing half the time. Tim says that this is the least stressed out he's ever seen me, so that's good. I've been able to listen to/read the news again, which was not an option before (I hear about enough horrible things happening to people at work, why listen to more?). So I guess all in all the change has been a good thing. I will keep you all updated on my progress, as I'll be in this position for a year.