crowsb4bros Posted November 10, 2019 Posted November 10, 2019 Have you ever found yourself frantically researching about a job or position only to find very little of the day to day information? This thread is where you can post a play by play of a role or career you've picked up along the way. Give writers enough information to accurately illustrate what a character in the same role or job would do. (I'll follow up with my positions in the comments)
crowsb4bros Posted November 10, 2019 Author Posted November 10, 2019 I'll start with my most recent positions of TA, university instructor, and stay-at-home mom. Graduate Assistant: Spoiler Hours: This particular position has a lot of variability depending on what you're going for and the academic culture. During grad school I started out teaching wee children in their principles of bio classes. My typical day focused more on my academic career than the actual teaching position. I'd arrive three days a week to classes I'd assist in (10 am M and W, 12 pm F). I'd arrive about 15-20 minutes before classes started, usually stop by the grad office and make coffee or drop off research materials for projects, and then go unlock the classroom. Our homework or exam turn around time was one week, but I usually finished my grading the night I received it with the exception of essays. My grad school classes were in the evenings for my programs so classes started around 4 pm and would go as long as 9 pm. I'd set aside two days a week to lock myself in the lab and work on my research. Usually Monday and Wednesday after my 10 am. Work: Classes for Principles of Bio were held in our biology auditorium which was a musty old room with a stage at the bottom, a huge screen that was a nightmare to pull down, and a computer from the early 2000s. I had one other grad student with me and an elderly professor (he's the one that was rumored to have died, I signed a sympathy card for his family, and then he scared the living heck out of me by showing up one day not dead). Students always sit in the far back of the auditorium except for the overachievers in the front. You could guess grades pretty accurately from the gradient in which people sat. (Also those failing will move up slowly as the semester progresses). The professor would log in to the computer if he could remember his password. If not, one of the TAs would log in for him and he'd use our copy of slides. Our primary role was to collect homework, do iClicker questions (a precursor to Kahoot!), teach if the professor was sick, explain concepts in our office hours, and grade everything. We watched the clock just as much as students did. On exam days our job was to hand out alternating exams with an A, B, or C version and do our best to make sure students stuck to that pattern. We made everyone in the auditorium sit at least one seat away from each other. We provided sharpened pencils (sharpened by TAs during office hours) and usually an eraser or two for the people who inevitably didn't have one. We would sit on uncomfortable wooden chairs on the stage and watch students to catch cheaters. If we caught a cheater, we'd confiscate the test and ask them to leave. It usually resulted in a zero instead of Dean interference, but if it happened again they'd be kicked from the course and face disciplinary actions. About ten minutes in the professor usually left and didn't return. Students would raise their hands if they need clarification and we'd go to them quietly. Most students wouldn't raise their hands even if they did have questions. Most questions were for us to define a word for them that wasn't a biology term. We'd collect all tests on a table with premade labels of A, B, or C and hover to make sure students actually sorted their scantrons correctly and wrote their test letter on it (the A, B, or C). Professors usually ran the scantrons in the fancy machine or our office administrator would do it if there was a huge backlog (think midterms and finals). We always handed the scantrons back for students to double check marking and there was usually at least one machine error per exam across three classes. Office hours were required three hours a week divided anyway you wanted. You could have one block of three straight hours one day a week, or two hours one day and one another, or three hours across three days. I had mine during my lab lunch hours since students rarely showed up, but it was a big deal that they had to be posted on the door for students. If you weren't going to be in your office at all during a typical office hour day you needed to post a note on the door. Students only ever email you during the middle of the night. Culture: Everyone had keys to the classrooms/labs they needed access too. If you lost the keys it'd cost around $200 to replace. We spent a lot of time in the grad office together just wasting time on our slowww computers. The grad office was a small room that I'm pretty sure was originally a storage closet. It was on the first floor right next to the auditorium. When you step in we had a single long desk on each wall that spanned about 15 feet and had wall dividers up between work stations. Each work station came with a computer, a book shelf above the computer, and a filing cabinet. Everyone personalized their space to fit their needs. My space had desk organizers everywhere with a file for graded exams, graded homework, to-be-graded homework, to-be-graded exams, etc. I had several plants, a drawer of snacks, my own personal coffee that I wouldn't share with those gremlins, coffee cups, and pictures of friends. One of my friends had a salamander we all loved, one had frogs. Posters were the norm, but I didn't have any. They were all career field related and often graffitied. All professors, instructors, and TAs went out for drinks on friday night every week. Instructor: Spoiler Hours: I taught human anatomy laboratory in conjunction with a professor who taught the lecture. We had 8 am monday morning meetings to make sure our classes were on the same page for the coming week (along with the physiology lab instructor who I became pretty close with). I didn't have anything going on mondays so I'd check my email, grab coffee, and go back to bed after the hour long meeting. I taught Tuesday 8 am/12pm, Wednesday 8am, Thursday 12 pm, and Friday 8 am/12 pm. Friday afternoons I host an open lab after class where all students can come and go as they please looking at everything and memorizing. I'd have anywhere from one to 50 students and students that came always did better on their next tests. My students met me twice per week with Tuesday and Wednesday being considered the first half of the week and Thursday and Friday being the second half of the week. I arrived at work at around 7 am or 11 am so I could set up the lab for the relevant topics.The first half of the week generally rehashed the lecture they'd attended prior to coming to class. I'd have in-class work for them using their lab manuals where they'd identify whatever we were studying and get a hang of it before dissection or practical labs. The second half of the week I'd make them pass a quiz before they could start on whatever hands-on activity we had. Work: I sat my students in 6 octagonal tables that lined the wall with 3-5 students per table depending on drop out rates. It was a weed out class for nursing and med school applicants so it was meant to be difficult and we lost a lot of students the first few weeks. For the first half of the week the rehash included me going through slides of lab material for the week, reiterating things they'd already learned in lecture, doing kahoot quizzes for fun and a couple bonus points to the winner, and then I'd usually do the lab on my teaching bench and the students would observe. We had a fancy camera that would put my lab bench on the big screen for those in the back. Students would use a lab manual written by the lecture professor, me, and a few others. The lab manual had lots of blanks and diagrams that students needed to fill in so they'd be prepared for lab. I'd have them check answers on the first class of the week. Things were hands-on for the second half of the week. To start lab students would have to pass an oral quiz. For the quiz I'd go to each table and make them work as a group to answer five random questions and if they got anything wrong I'd make them look up the answers and then come back and ask them an additional set of random questions. I usually included whatever they got wrong in those questions. If they were wrong again, I'd walk them through the answer until I was sure they understood and then I'd wait a few minutes until I'd ask them questions again. The questions usually came from either pictures, diagrams, or the anatomy models eg (identify this body part, what is this cell, etc). Usually all but one or two tables would get the answers correct on the first try and could start lab. During the lab I'd try to move to each table or station at least every five minutes to observe and assist. You'd know which students needed you to hover within the first week or so. Some students were brilliant but just needed me to listen to them talk themselves through answers. I pulled out the Syllabus. Some weeks had multiple subjects depending on time, but this was the order and general lab associated with it: Intro to the class/integumentary system (skin) this was how to use a microscope week. Despite all being sophomore or juniors, no one knows how I made them memorize all the skin cell types on sight. A lot of students change majors or drop this week Connective Tissue, Cartilage, Bone, and the axial skeleton (head/trunk) more microscope work in identifying connective tissue, cartilage, and bone cells learn the skull bones! (a serious struggle again). I took apart skulls and made them reassemble them while quizzing them on each of the parts and the left and rights without context. learn the vertebral column and the ribcage bones (disarticulated as well) Appendicular Skeleton (arms, legs, pelvis, pectoral girdle) + how they articulate Students are still miserable. I have chests of real and replica bones that are sorted into what they are and they have to identify them disarticulated, characteristics of the bones, and where they go plus left and right. Exam One-We'd have an exam covering this material and our majority will drop this week. The exam would consist of mostly of microscopes, bones, or models set up at all of the tables the students sit at. 100 questions total with around 2-4 questions per seat. If they miss the right or left they lose the entire point. They'd have L tibia for example. Half-point if they misspelled it by one letter, full point off if two or more letters. Muscles we divided this by axial and appendicular as well and it had some slides which students still are scared of using the microscope for we have models for appendages as well as the torso for these and I make students reassemble muscles from memory and quiz them with sticky notes on the model so they have to give me the name and what the muscle does Nervous System identify the parts of nerve tissue, nerve cells, cranial nerves, brain, and spinal cord this is the hard one in particular for students, but they enjoy brain dissections (sheep usually) Cardiovascular, Respiratory, and lymphs systems heart focused which is a muscle but there's soooo much so it's separate Another dissection of sheep heart but they have to memorize models before they start Exam two: this is a hard test because of the huge amount of info, but students do well on it and it's the most fun. Digestion/Urinary system/Reproduction these are all models and slides and this is by far the easiest test. It has a lot of trivia, but students nail this one. Exam three: just super easy. Too easy maybe because they seem to get cocky before finals Exam four: final. It's cumulative and we spend a lot of time reviewing. I host extra open labs during this time. Culture: Because I was young I had to stress boundaries a lot with male students. They were often inappropriate with me and I'd have to threaten class removal and meetings with the dean. The professor in charge of lectures often handled this for me because I was intimidated sometimes and his office was next to the lab. Staff culture in general is great though. We all ate in our offices but socialized in the admin office or in the kitchen. We checked on each other's classes and covered for each other. There were a few staff members no one could stand, but for the most part I think it was like any other work place. My office was tiny in a hallway no one ever went down but I had students at every single office hours. If they showed up I usually gave at least one point back for the effort. One student was so grateful for the open lab study 1 on 1 study sessions that he brought me coffee after he went from a D to a B. Stay-at-Home Mom Spoiler Hours: 24/7 but the schedule is constantly changing. Right now I'm up around 5 am and I lay her down at around 7 pm for quiet time, bed by 8 pm. An 8 am feed/nap, 9 am bath, 11 am nap, 2 pm mini nap, 4 pm mini nap and bed at 8 are the only sure things about my day. I usually do an afternoon drive somewhere to make sure she takes her nap and I sit in a parking lot playing games on my phone. In the meantime she's moving and learning and growing constantly. I aim for a chunk of time outside 10 minutes to an hour depending on weather. Every month I look ahead in the what to expect baby book to find age appropriate games and activities to help her grow! Work: She's constantly working on toys for mental milestones, crawling and STANDING AS I TYPE for physical milestones, and working on language for verbal milestones. All day with brief relief exceptions where I hand her off to either my mom or my husband. Each month we spend our time working toward new milestones. The first months I could get more done because she was a napping blob all day but she's at the age now where she's mobile and in to everything and requires constant attention. It's much more difficult than my professional life ever was and I love her but I'm also counting the days until I'm back in a professional environment. Culture: It's easy to feel isolated post-baby. It's challenging to do little things like go to dinner or catch a movie and when most of my friends don't have kids they aren't the most understanding. It requires a lot of active effort for me to make sure I don't isolate myself. As a stay-at-home mom with an understanding, loving working partner I struggle with finding my self worth. I'm a busy body who needs to feel productive so not being able to contribute is a huge mental challenge for me. It's also really hard for me to let myself indulge in things I enjoy. I used to do trials every single saturday with my guildies but now I can't complete them even if I have someone to hang out with her or if she's asleep. I feel like I should be doing something, anything productive.
aelaia Posted November 11, 2019 Posted November 11, 2019 Nursing. I've seen a few little Madam Pomfrey fics out there but not many. I admittedly tend to shirk away from them because who wants to spend their leisure time reading about a character that is essentially your daily life? One thing I have always wanted to do mind you, is write someone as a nurse in Azkaban (I was a prison nurse for a while) but that's a major WIP. This is a really good resource idea actually! I look forward to using all your roles in fics in the future. Anyway, I'll pop in daily duties/roles as a generic ward nurse and prison nurse. I'm actually an elderly care sister but that's too specific to give you much use (and more admin than any nurse wishes to do) Ward Nurse Spoiler Hours: Most of us are contracted to do the standard 37.5 hour weeks, however the majority of us do a lot more. We will be rostered to do the 37.5 but most of us pick up 'bank' shifts for the extra money and it's not unusual to find nurses pulling 50-60 hour weeks. We're a 24/7 service, hospitals don't shut, so we work any day, any time. On my ward, the usual shifts are generally a 'Long Day' 7am - 7:30pm a 'Night' (which is the exact same in reverse) 7pm - 7:30am or we have Earlies or Lates which are smaller 7.5 hour shifts (these are generally only picked up as 'bank') within the 12.5 hour shifts, we have one hour's unpaid break, on the day shift this is split into x2 half hours, on the night it's your x1 hour. Most nurses do not have their full break. It's also very very rare we leave on time. If a patient falls sick, you can't just walk off shift. We'll do rostered, 3-4 of these shifts a week, plus extra if you pick up bank. Work: Day Shift Daily Routine: 7am - 7:30am Handover - what happened overnight, who's poorly, who needs close monitoring, what needs to be discussed with the doctors, who's fallen over (very common in care of the elderly) and a general catch up with the night staff you never get to spend time talking to. 7:30 am - 09:30am - Medication Round and Personal Care Rounds - Now, depending on your patients, depends on how long this takes. I've had drug rounds that have taken two hours, I've had drug rounds that have taken 30 minutes. We have to watch every patient swallow every tablet, and as you can imagine, some individuals sadly have a lot to take. We're also desperately trying to deliver care in this time period also. We have our care assitants who we literally cannot survive without, but they cannot do everything alone. They need you. 09:30 am - 1st Break 10am - 12pm - Consultant Ward Round/Observations/Notes - It's a lot to fit into 2 hours, especially when you can't really sit and write full notes without the doctor's plan. 12pm - 1pm Lunches & Medication Round - Depending on how long you took with your first medication round, depends on how quickly you can commence your second. 1pm - 3pm - Frantic note writing, and more observations, also any dressings you need to do, intravenous antibiotics, encouraging doctors to speed up a little bit and do what needs to be done to facilitate discharges etc. 3pm - 5:30pm - Visiting Time (and somehow, 2nd break if you can fit it in) - Every nurse's worst nightmare. If you haven't completed your notes by now, it's going to be a late finish. Visitors will take up every minute of this two and a half hours. You're also trying to deliver further personal hygiene, catch up with the doctors before they go home (they all leave at 5pm, then you have the 'oncall' doctors who don't know your patients and only wish to be called for emergencies) whilst trying to explain to someone's daughter that they aren't going to become critically unwell because they refused to take their paracetamol that morning. 5:30pm - 7pm - Final Medication Round and Dinners - Nowhere near as intense as the morning round, (the morning is when people take the majority of their tablets) but you're usually trying to rush because you have to finish whatever else you haven't managed to do for the entirety of the shift. You're also trying to encourage the final few straggling visitors to leave (visiting starts again at 8pm) we have set visiting times for a reason. Nurses cannot work effectively when being interrupted every five seconds. There's always a few injections in this round, which aren't taken to too kindly. 7pm-7:30pm - Handover - Who's fallen ill over the day? Who's relative has complained? Who needs extra monitoring overnight? What do you need the night team to handover to the day team the following morning? What have the doctors said on their rounds? You get the gist. 7:30pm till... ??? - If you haven't finished your documentation, technically everything you've just tried to do for the last 12.5 hours never happened. You have to stay. Until it's all done. I think my record presently is 10:30pm (I did have a massive cardiac arrest as I was about to leave and I was in the following day at 7am) it's why we're so tired. Culture You know the horrific 'the customer is always right' saying? Well, in nursing, your patient comes first. The culture generally is, we don't get our full breaks, we don't leave on time. The whole, 'I must have 11 hours between each shift' thing doesn't exist... because it can't. It just doesn't work. We're permenantly exhausted, quite often beaten and yelled at with no reprecussions for the abuser (because chances are they have dementia - it's my speciality, I could talk about that all day) but don't get me wrong. We love our jobs. If we didn't want to deal with it, we wouldn't be nurses. It's a way of life more than a profession. Prison Nurse Spoiler This is for a UK Prison Nurse, (I cannot speak for prisons in the US, I've never been to one) I imagine it's very different. This is literally just to give you a rough overview of what nurse's in UK prisons do, it may not please you, I have a lot of feelings about it personally (there's a reason why I left) but this information is literally just to help anyone who wishes to write about nurses in Azkaban. It's not a statement in any way. Hours: 13.5 hour days 12 hour nights (no 7.5 hour shifts) 7:00am - 8:30pm or 7:00pm - 7:00am with x1 1 hour break. Daily Routine: 7am - 8am - Handover - Who's behaved themselves? Who's left their dressings intact? Who's caused injury or has had a 'code' called, Who's got court? Who's withdrawing? You're either then placed in clinic or reception (where the new prisoners come in) 8am - 12pm (Clinic) - Think of your local GP surgery. We have phlebotomy (blood) clinics, woundcare clinics, wellbeing reviews, diabetic reviews, you name it we probably do it. We also have an 'emergency' clinic. There isn't a guarenteed doctor on shift during the day, so we have to assess and decide whether or not they really are as unwell as they're claiming to be, or if it's an attempt to have a day out to hospital. 8am - 12pm (Reception) - You just sit, and wait for new prisoners to arrive. Then we ask them about their full medical history, do some tests, and assess whether they're fit enough to be in the establishment or require redirecting via the emergency department. If there are no prisoners.. In some prisons, during the day we have very little to do with medicaiton, (we have pharmacy technicians who give it out) 12pm - 1pm - Lunch (although this is always interrupted as usually the new intake of prisoners generally starts around now as they're leaving court, or returning from court) 1pm - 4pm (Clinic) More clinics, yay! Another 'emergency' clinic. If one of your prisoners really are unwell, it's usually in the afternoon. In the prison I worked in, we didn't have a 'ward' and all prisoners who were genuinely unwell and required medical attention, if there was no doctor on site it meant we had to radio for permission to call 999 (it's harder than you think) to then get an ambulance for transfer to hospital. 1pm - 4pm (Reception) - The amount of new prisoners you can recieve is unlimited. Depends on how many spare beds there are in the establishment. Again, this is either an incredibly dull few hours, or you're rushed off your feet. 4pm - 8pm - This is generally, when your prisoners get bored. 'Codes' are called when a prisoner requires 'urgent' medical attention and you're running across the entire prison (through multiple locked doors) with a bag that almost weighs as much as you with all your medical supplies in to generally go to a cell and find someone lying on the floor pretending they've just fainted. (The stories I could tell you). 8pm - 8:30pm - Handover and hopefully, if no codes are called, home. Culture: Prison nursing within the UK is generally quite dull. It's a lot of sitting around and waiting for someone to do something, or fall unwell. We don't routinely do observations (because it isn't a hospital, they aren't unwell) we don't have much to do with medication (as mentioned above) and if clinics have finished for the day and everyone's well and behaving themselves, there's little else to really do. There's a stringent list of things you are not allowed to bring in, (eg. cutlery. You can only eat with plastic cutlery. Bringing mental cutlery into a UK prison can earn you a short sentence yourself) and your work computer presence is heavily monitored, with many sites prohibited. Saying that though, my potentially most bizarre patient stories, come from the prison. If anyone wishes to hear one, I'm a message away. I don't know how useful this will ever be, but hopefully it gives you a little bit more of an insight into what we actually do. I dated a guy once who genuinely told me that he couldn't understand why I was so tired, as all nurses did was 'sit behind a desk right?' I mean sure, as a sister to a visitor that may be all I appear to do, as I'm usually sat ferrying complaints, but hopefully now you see it's more than that.
grumpy cat Posted November 11, 2019 Posted November 11, 2019 i'm an architect and well...it's actually quite hard to describe it in a straightforward way but i'll try my best. hours: officially, i work 8 am - 4 pm but sometimes it's 7 am - 6 pm, and often i'll stay as long as it's needed to finish something. if there's a deadline approaching for a design project, the whole office will stay after hours, sometimes overnight if it's really needed, and sometimes over the weekend. i'm lucky to have a good boss who actually pays all the overtime, but from what i've heard from people/friends who work elsewhere, that's more the exception than a rule. work: argh. this part is the hard part i'll divide it up a bit. the project design process private investments (family homes, apartment buildings, office buildings ...) 99% of the time the investor first comes to the firm, they tell you where their build site is, what they want (for example, how many and which rooms in a house, how many flats, what's the desired square footage, stuff like that). you put everything on paper, talk to them about everything a bit to see what they want and then you send them on their way. we price our projects based on square footage and the complexity of the project, but since houses/apartment/office buildings are fairly simple, it's mostly the square footage that determines the price. i'll see how many square meters their building would be according to what they say they want, we'd make them an offer with our price and then wait until they accept it (or don't). in cases where we already have a ton of projects on our plate, we'll overprice so that they refuse it's bad politics to outright refuse people and tell them that you don't have the time for them, so this is a small trick everyone uses when they need to. if they accept the offer, then comes the poring over master plans to figure out how big the building can be and all sorts of different stuff (where can it be placed on the site, what can you build there typologically, how high can it be, how many stories, what's the planned land use...) and once you figure all that out you offer them a concept design. usually they'll want to change something, and if you're unlucky, you'll get stuck with unreasonable people that don't quite understand things (which is most often the case). you have to use a bit of psychology to get them to accept your way of doing things if they're being ridiculous. when the concept design is agreed upon, the work on the main architectural design begins. at this point, you have to work together with your structural, electrical and mechanical engineers to work out all the parts of the building. i'll often argue with my engineers because they're used to getting their way because most architects consider those things beneath them and they don't bother even looking at those projects, but i don't want to let them dictate my architectural design so i make the engineers do things my way (this is a leitmotif of this essay lol). at first, this was a problem and we argued a lot. like, really, a lot. but, now they seem to appreciate it and don't mind working together with me instead of just telling me where their, idk, columns or heating or plumbing will be. the final part is getting the construction permit. and this part is sometimes the hardest because the master plans are often written by people who don't actually work as architects and don't understand certain things or they're written in a way that they can be interpreted in different ways. so whether or not your construction permit is easy to acquire depends on how well you've interpreted the master plan and if your projects abides by all its rules and how intelligent the civil servant in charge of your permit is at this point, it often happens that you have to go talk to them, explain things, make them see reason haha....and once they're satisfied, they'll call the neighbours and offer them a chance to complain. if their complaints are valid (they rarely are if you got to this point), you have to change your project. if their complaints aren't valid, you'll still get your permit but you'll have to wait until their complaints are dealt with. and woohoo, when you get the permit, you get happy investors. some time in the process between finishing the main project design and acquiring the building permit, you'll work on the bill of quantities which is a very tedious job but very, very important. it consists of you writing out all the steps involved in the construction process, along with all the quantities associated (for example, the square footage of your facade and the material that will be on it, or, the number of windows and what type they are) so that your investor can get contractors' offers. after all that is done comes the supervision (covered a bit later) 95% of the time at a point where you're almost done with the main project, the investor will come up with a random idea that changes at least 75% of your design and you have to change it. because it's their money&their investment and it's good business politics. often, after the construction permit is acquired but before construction actually begins, you'll make the detailed design project that better explains some parts of the design and deals with architectural and construction details. it basically tells the contractors exactly what you had in mind with some specific parts of the design. public investments (health centres, kindergartens, schools, hospitals, museums ...) the process is quite similar to the above but the big difference is that it's not you who creates the design project requirements and square footage. the public office that requires something built will make its own requirements which you'll have to fill. for example, number of classrooms in a school and which specialised classrooms, stuff like that. this is usually very distinct because some of these buildings will always have special requirements. often, for these types of projects you'll have architectural competitions - these are anonymous competitions where multiple firms compete with each other. you create the concept design, often with 3d visualizations, and a jury will judge all the designs until they choose what they consider to be the best one. they're anonymous in order to achieve maximum fairness. usually, the first 3 or 4 or 5 places get a lot of money for their concept design, and the first place winner will get a contract (more money ) to create the main architectural design project and carry it out until the project gets a building permit. in croatia, a lot of architectural competition juries are corrupt and the winner is known beforehand. it's not the case all the time and the situation is probably better in other countries or in international competitions. supervision - this is field work where i, as a supervising engineer, visit build sites and oversee how and what the contractors are doing and whether everything is as it should be, in accordance with the design project. it also includes overseeing whether they're following the contracted bill of quantities and approve additional work if it's needed (as well as the additional costs. which is always, always an issue and the contractors will try to cheat you). the hours on this are all over the place because my firm does projects all over the country, so sometimes, this will include work trips and longer hours. often, the contractors won't really take me seriously because i'm a young woman, but sadly you get used to the misogyny. they do learn fast when they see that i actually know what i'm talking about. culture: this really depends on the people you work with. i'm the youngest at my firm but by far the most capable. i'm not saying that to make myself seem....whatever (?) but it's true. my boss appreciates it, he gave me a raise two times already and he expects the others at the firm to listen to me. i've got a couple of people i'm good with, some i can't stand...but i think that's true of any work place. if there's a an issue with a project or if the deadline is looming over you, tensions can run high and we'll argue sometimes and even yell, but you have to develop a tough skin or you don't really survive. you also have to constantly learn and improve. and besides being just an architect, you also have to become a little bit of a lawyer/jurist in order to interpret laws that concern the design and construction process. actual day in the life of an architect - you'll deal with a thousand problems all at the same time, work on multiple projects at the same time and probably go a little bit mad.
belgian quaffle Posted November 12, 2019 Posted November 12, 2019 so i'm a physical therapist. i work in outpatient orthopedics and have since i graduated, so i'll speak mostly to that, but also a little on some of the other settings that i know about (or at least the differences between them) hours: in outpatient ortho, we typically work two-three nights a week (or two to three mornings). right now, i work 7a-5:30p M/W, 1p-8:30p T/Th, and 7a-1p F and typically no weekends. occasionally offices will open hours on saturday mornings (my company will typically do around holidays, when there's bad weather). because a lot of patients need to come before or after work, you'll see a lot of schedules like this--with a couple longer days and then some short days--rather than each day being an 8 hour day through the week. work: typically, the early morning is people who are looking to get to work after, super early risers, and parents who have just gotten their kids on the bus. around 9am, the medicare crowd starts to come in. 10am is a really popular appointment time and some people get really upset when they can't get the appointment time they want, even though they are encouraged to schedule our far in advance in order to get said appointment time. also seen during the late morning/early afternoon are everyone who works from home because a lot of them have flexibility to come in when they want. around 2:30, is the school kids--first high school who drive themselves over and then a little younger who need to be driven by their parents--and then starting 4-4:30, the after work crowd starts coming in. last appointment is at 7:30. appointments typically last about an hour, but can range anywhere from 30mins to 3 hours, depending on limitations and deficits. the first appointment is always an evaluation, where measurements are taken for comparison for later dates. if it's one of the upper/lower extremities, measurements are taken for both sides and the non-involved side is typically used as the goal to reach by discharge. things i could look at in an evaluation are (depending on body part and whats appropriate): range of motion, strength, posture, gait, balance, joint mobility, flexibility, nerve mobility, sensation, and reflexes. i also look at functional movements like lifting, carrying, steps, and transfers (sit to stand, supine to sit, bed rolling, etc). every 10 visits or so, we look at these measurements again for a progress note to send to the doctors. each daily treatment has an associated note called a daily note, which are written in SOAP format subjective: patient report of how they are feeling that day objective: any measures taken that day, flow sheet of exercises assessment: my personal judgment about how therapy went that day--are we progressing, how that session went, did we make improvements with the addition of certain exercises plan: what should happen next--continue with current plan of care (POC), progress exercises, anything specific that i want to add all treatments include exercises targeted to improve the deficits and limitations that were found in the initial evaluation and manual therapy (a hands on treatment provided by the physical therapist). goals in outpatient ortho can include improving range of motion and strength, decreasing pain, improving gait patterns, improving balance with the intent to increase functional outcomes of activities (which can be anything from walking, sitting, standing all the way to returning to baseball, gymnastics, swimming). the actual documentation of these daily notes is only awful when the emr (electronic medical records) system goes down. right now, the biggest headache is insurance companies--they're driving everything and some people have co-pays that are ridiculously high, so they can't afford to come in as often as recommended, slowing progress (and some people can't afford health insurance altogether, but that is a separate albeit related issue). other settings: inpatient/skilled nursing facility/hospital based: goals are basically function based. i.e. for PT, our goals are to be able to perform safe bed mobility, sit to stand transfers, and gait (with or without an assistive device of cane/walker) independently (and also, stairs, if needed). unless there are other medical concerns, when they're able to do those things independently, they're discharged home-->possibly on to home care or outpatient therapy. pediatrics: school based care is, i believe, the only PT that is not insurance based? (please dont quote me on that). but since it isn't, the notes are done slightly different. kids are evaluated at the beginning of each school year (or when they move into a district/school where they qualify or someone refers them for a new patient evaluation) as part of their IEP (individualized education plan), with goals to integrate in school and the classroom better. specialties: after graduation from grad school, there are some specialty certifications you can go on for if you want. some are definitely more work than others and require various direct contact hours within that area and/or a test. some of them include: orthopedic, pediatrics, neurologic, hands, TMJ, McKenzie (spine), lymphedema culture: this for sure depends on where you work/who you work with. i used to work in a clinic where one woman literally dragged all of us down with her attitude and general dislike for basically everything, but once she left, it was great. i spend a lot of time trying not to outwardly roll my eyes at comments baby boomers make to me--i have a doctorate in this, you do not know more than me on this even if you are older than me.
Ineke Posted November 26, 2019 Posted November 26, 2019 Okay so I'm a pharmacy technician! Hours: Here in the Netherlands it's mostly an 8/8.30 am-5/5.30pm job. Kind of different at the place I work, considering we're open 24/7, but the shifts at my place are for a daytime 8 am-5.30pm. We tend to work 27-40 hours a week, depending on the contract you have and it also depends on which pharmacy you work in. Where I work it's mostly just 36 hours, divided in four days. This is pretty much the standard. Work: This is the place where most people have the most common misconceptions about my job. A lot of people tend to think 'Oh but the GP/Specialist gives you a prescription and all you have to do is hand over the box so I can get the hell out of here' but it's so much more than that. How we start is usually as followed: We open up work (on the locations not open 24/7). Which means booting up the computers, turning on all the systems, and if the order has already come in, start unpacking the order and check with the order list whether you got everything of the right brand, right amount, with the expiriy date being later than what's in the system (and either adjust it in the system or send it back if it's earlier than that), and then when you've got everything, book it all in. (And if you didn't get everything, check why and don't book whatever you didn't get in, but list it as coming in later. From when we open prescriptions can start to come in. This either goes through fax (yes, we still use that), through an electronic system which continuously spits out the prescriptions via the printer as they come in, or through the patient themselves. When you get a prescription, the first thing that needs to be checked is whether it's legimate or not. With this we check the following: Is it a legit Doctor/Specialist Is the date correct (because every prescription older than one year is invalid, in some cases it can't even be older than a week) Is everything listed correctly (ie right terms, if it's opiods is everything spelled out etc.) If handed in through a patient: is there a signature on it (or, in case of a repeated prescription, a stamp and a signature from the pharmacy which handed it out on it) With that done, we start to check if the patient's information is correct, and then look up the patient in the system If this is all still in order, we start inserting the medication prescribed in the system. With that we check the following: Is the dosage correct with the medicine prescribed If not: call the doctor Is the daily use correct when taking in the medicine prescribed If not: call the doctor Can it be combined with other medicine already being in use If not -> does action need to be undertaken? Ie, do they have to take the meds at least several hours apart? Does there need to be additonal medication prescribed to ensure it can be taken together? Do they need to take fizzy drinks with it (yes this is a thing)? Does the doctor need to prescribe something else entirely? Is the patient allergic to it? If yes -> call the doctor for a different medicine Does the insurance cover it? Is it a child/is the medicine one that has a lot of risks (ie methotrexate for rheumatic patients, oncolytics for people w cancer)? Double check the dosage. This has to be done either through age or weight or body mass, involving a different way of calculating per medicine. This is always listed on different sites on how to do this, so you always have backup to check). If the dosage is not correct (ie under or overdosage -> call the doctor. This frequently happens with childrens antibiotics considering most docs here cannot be bothered to ask for the weight and calculate the dosage as need be) If all is correct, we finish it up in the system, and then prepare the medication by getting the boxes, placing the right stickers on it, having coworkers double check to see whether it's right, and then archive it so the pharmacist can check it over later as well. When all this is done, we hand it to the patient, and give out information about how to use it, when to use it, what to look out for and the most common side effects which may happen. When a patient comes for over the counter medicine, it is possible that we have to do most of the above as well. This is in case of medicine like ibuprofen, voltaren etc. If the patient does not immediately come to collect their medication, we still do all the above, but place the medicine in a bag in a cabinet, all with tags, so we know where the packages are located for when they do get picked up If the medication needs to be delivered, we call the same/next day to explain the medication over the phone. In between we also need to send in orders to make sure the stock remains up to date. We also need to monthly check medicine that are close to expiring, check stock of the things that go the most often, check stock of opioids, keep the drawers filled with medicine and keep everything we need to use (ie bags and stuff to put medicine in) filled in the drawers/cabinets they are held in. Most of the time we spend goes up to preparing meds, and a lot of calling doctors because a lot of mistakes are made and there is a lot of things we need to check up on on a day-to-day basis. (And doctors are generally a pain to reach bc they are also busy, so it can take hours before we can get a response from a doctor),. Meanwhile less and less is being covered by the insurance as well, which leads to tons of discussions at the front desk, because people are desperate and we are the messenger, though they also don't make it easy on us by also covering only specific brands of meds. Which also leads to a lot of shortages. Which also makes us having to call for alternate meds all the time so we can make sure the patients can be treated. At the end of the day, we send out the orders, count the cash register, and close the entire pharmacy off/hand everything important and is yet to be done over to the next shift. This all depends on the pharmacy how this is done, however. If something is not clear or if you wanna know more -> feel free to ask!
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