SO....what are your plans for the holidays? Are you taking any time off? What do you have to get done before some vacation time?

 I am planning on enjoying the wonderful holidays at home in sunny California! I can't wait for Christmas parties filled with lots of yummy food and desserts! I'm also looking forward to spending a lot of time at home watching Christmas movies with me, myself, and my teddy bear.

I'm planning on taking off the three days in between Christmas and New Year's, but my flight lands on January 2 at 7AM - just in time to make it back to work at 9AM (hoooraaayyyyyyyy)! Though my trip back home will be short-lived, I'm definitely excited to be back home - even if it's only for a week and a half.

Before I return home for vacation, I'm still continuing to work on the monster that is the medication database for MARQUIS. Though it's making progress, I doubt I'll be able to finish it before then.

HOLIDAYS!!

My plans for the holidays (and by holidays I mean Christmas because Hanukkah is over) are seeing my DOGS and sleeping.  I mean I was super popular in high school, so I will probably be welcomed into New Hampshire with a surprise party that my entire graduating class attends. 

I am taking off December 26, 27, and 28^th from work.  I don’t have anything really exciting planned for break, I’m just want to spend some time with my sister, friends, and dogs.  My only definite plan I have is to go to the movies with my mom and little sister, it’s a tradition.  But I will most likely be doing some shopping over break as well.

Before I leave I need to do a lot of email reports.  I won’t finish them before I leave because they are never ending.  Most all of my projects are ongoing, so there is nothing that has to be/can be finished before I leave.  I will continue working on market research when I return from break, creating a survey for membership.  Also, I will continue working on creative briefs and Hm13 staff information when I get back. 

Home for THe Holidays....I HOPE

This holiday season I don’t really have any awesome plans, besides just seeing friends and family and relaxing. I am going home this Friday after work hopefully my mom can pick me up if not later that night my dad will get me after he is done with work. I took off the 26^th, 27^th and 28^th like everyone mostly so I can have a nice 12 days off from work. Once I get home I will probably hang with my good friends and just chill watch some NBA games since we are all huge basketball fans! GO KNICKS! I started my Christmas fun already this past weekend when I went to New York City with friends to see the tree and just walk around which was sick! NYC during Christmas time is honestly the best time! While home, I am excited to see my family and going to Brooklyn where most of my family is and just eating a lot of great food! 

Besides the holiday festivities, I plan on catching up on a lot of TV and watch so many movies while I am home which I always love to do! Besides that I am going to be chilling listening to music, going out with friends and just having a good time! I will probably be buying a lot of things while I am home also, specifically clothes. (I am a girl when it comes to that but I don’t even care hahaha). I am excited to get back home especially because Drexel’s campus is dead and it’s super boring.

Before I return home, I have to continue my work with the Media Kit as well as working on the Membership Benefits webinar that is coming in the end of January. Both these projects will not be finished before I leave but it is work that I hopefully make a dent in so when I come back there is not as much to work on. I also am working on a few smaller projects for Ashley that she needs me to do before the 21^st. Overall, I am trying to survive to the 21^st and go home!

PS. I hope we go home because if the world ends on the 21st we are all going to die at SHM (Which would kind of be depressing hahaha) 

 

Holiday Holiday HOLIDAAAAY

I, for one, am SO EXCITED for my holiday vacation. On Saturday I'm waking up early and hitting the road with my fiance to spend 11 glorious days in North Carolina.

Last week and this week have been very deadline heavy, which is fine - but the break is much needed and rewarding. On my to-do list before my vacation:
-Get that newsletter out!
-Report on CODE-H
-Update a policy about CODE-H that I wrote
-Web updates
-Some things for the upcoming February Board Meeting


There's some little things mixed in there but it's nice having a list to cross off. It reminds me that I'm getting closer and closer to some R&R (which, at 25, I just realized means rest and relaxation).

SO....what are your plans for the holidays? Are you taking any time off? What do you have to get done before some vacation time?

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I GUESS I'LL ANSWER MEREDITH

Before I get 5,000 questions again, I should probably answer the Blog from last week.

So where do I start? Every project is rewarding in it's own way, and how does one measure the reward? Is it personal reward, corporate or otherwise? For the sake of the question, and for what I'm sure Meredith is going for here, I'll assume the reward is personal. More specifically, what has made me better or smarter.

Again, where do I start? On one hand, there is the QSC, and on the other there is the numerous IT Projects I've worked on so far this time. (I'm assuming my first time here is not part of the question.)

The QSC has been the biggest project in terms of importance (which is almost irrelevant in a corporate setting, as everything anyone in the company does is important) but if you look at all the IT projects, they're right on par. So lets name all the IT projects:

Dual Monitors - Completed - Purchasing and installing dual monitors on everyone's desks
Computer Replacements - In Progress - Purchasing and replacing old computers
MIL (Master Inventory List) updates - Always In Progress - updating the MIL project from my last time
Automatic Email Signatures - In Progress - getting everyone set up with the automated service
PerfectIt - Completed - Purchasing and rolling out the PerfectIt software for Marketing & Communications
Policy Pak - Always In Progress - updating and maintaining software I purchased last co-op
And the multiple high-level IT issues I had to handle.

Each of these is rewarding in it's own way, as is the QSC. However, I do have to pick one. So, in terms of knowledge gained in ONE project, it would be the QSC. Learning how to coordinate multiple departments and how cross-departmental work will be very rewarding in the future.

Rewarding Projects

 

I have had zero interesting tasks/projects.

 

HAHA TOTALLY KIDDING. I have been learning more and more about the Experient program which is the portal we use for HM13 registration. It's very scary and when I register someone I feel like if I mess up one little piece of information I am going to pee my pants.

 



 

I was just asked to do a mail merge and send out certificates to those who attended the AHA meeting in October. I am super good at putting things into envelopes and I love sticking labels on things so this is actually something I am enjoying because I can put my talents that I thought were useless to good use. I think it's awesome that we send out certificates acknowledging each attendee's participation and I'm sure they enjoy getting those certificates, I mean who doesn't enjoy getting an award? It's also kind of cool to see how many people attended and where they all live. Okay well now that I read that back to myself it sounds kind of creepy but it's a lot like looking at people's license plates on the highway, or am I the only one who does that too? #procreeperstatus #notashamed

 

Who is excited for all of the holiday festivities coming up? I am SUPER excited!



What has been your most rewarding task or project during your co-op with SHM so far?

Ever since starting here at SHM, JoAnne has slowly started giving me more and more tasks to work on for SHM's project on MARQUIS.  From entering patient data to creating excel spreadsheets for hospital sites, I've really been able to appreciate more the behind-the-scenes work for patient quality and improvement. It reminds me more and more that you are able to serve in healthcare not only by directly making patient contact, but helping improve their stay in hospitals and prevent patients from re-entering the hospital.

Especially for entering med history for patient data into QuesGen, I am constantly reminded how lucky I am to be healthy (for the most part). Seeing patients taking 30+ medications at the same time really reminds me how painful it is for a lot of people who are struggling physically with their health. With all those medications, it also encourages me to continue studying more to become more knowledgeable in pharmacology so I am able to effectively care for my future patients.