Seeking Shelter
RAM Day 2: Thursday, July 21st
We had a breakfast call at 7:30 this morning to leave for the fairgrounds at 8. Each car was assigned a task once we unloaded the second truck (the one from climate control storage), and our car was lucky enough to snag sorting through the supply carts for each section. Unfortunately, the task was much more difficult than we originally anticipated, and we clashed heads often on what sort of materials needed to be included.
For instance, I had the dental/vision cart, which was supplying the urgent care in the dental and vision areas for those who had to defer dental or vision procedures for medical treatment. I had several eye patches in my cart, which were not included on the original list of supplies. One of the nursing students on our team complained loudly that there weren't enough needles, because those needles were needed for virtually everything that nurses did in General Medicine (for the record, the nurses did very little actual treatment in general medicine, but we wouldn't find this out for a few days). The list didn't contain all the supplies needed to start an IV, but had other supplies that required an IV (for instance, IV needles were not on the list, but every card was required to have a bag of normal saline and tubing). So it took a great deal of time to actually sort through the carts and figure out where things were supposed to go. I can only imagine how much the carts were messed up when it came time to load them back in the trunk at the end of the clinic.
While the whole fairgrounds is starting to come together as the tents get set up and the mobile medical units move in, it's still a bit surreal to think that thousands of people will be milling around here tomorrow.
I was one of the fortunate individuals who had a rotation on Thursday, but I will defer the discussion of the rotation itself for another post.
After the fairgrounds was finished setting up, we went back to the dorms for another quick shower, and hopped in line at the cafeteria for dinner. While we were virtually the only volunteers from UVA on Wednesday (there were some volunteers from the Health Wagon and other local organizations), Thursday night nearly everyone arrived, so the cafeteria was backed and we were able to meet with the teams we would be spending Friday morning with once the clinics actually started. My first team was blue, a general medical team composed of UVA and EVMS physicians, plus a psychologist. Orientation was brief, and we spent the rest of the evening relaxing and playing cards.
We had a breakfast call at 7:30 this morning to leave for the fairgrounds at 8. Each car was assigned a task once we unloaded the second truck (the one from climate control storage), and our car was lucky enough to snag sorting through the supply carts for each section. Unfortunately, the task was much more difficult than we originally anticipated, and we clashed heads often on what sort of materials needed to be included.
For instance, I had the dental/vision cart, which was supplying the urgent care in the dental and vision areas for those who had to defer dental or vision procedures for medical treatment. I had several eye patches in my cart, which were not included on the original list of supplies. One of the nursing students on our team complained loudly that there weren't enough needles, because those needles were needed for virtually everything that nurses did in General Medicine (for the record, the nurses did very little actual treatment in general medicine, but we wouldn't find this out for a few days). The list didn't contain all the supplies needed to start an IV, but had other supplies that required an IV (for instance, IV needles were not on the list, but every card was required to have a bag of normal saline and tubing). So it took a great deal of time to actually sort through the carts and figure out where things were supposed to go. I can only imagine how much the carts were messed up when it came time to load them back in the trunk at the end of the clinic.
While the whole fairgrounds is starting to come together as the tents get set up and the mobile medical units move in, it's still a bit surreal to think that thousands of people will be milling around here tomorrow.
I was one of the fortunate individuals who had a rotation on Thursday, but I will defer the discussion of the rotation itself for another post.
After the fairgrounds was finished setting up, we went back to the dorms for another quick shower, and hopped in line at the cafeteria for dinner. While we were virtually the only volunteers from UVA on Wednesday (there were some volunteers from the Health Wagon and other local organizations), Thursday night nearly everyone arrived, so the cafeteria was backed and we were able to meet with the teams we would be spending Friday morning with once the clinics actually started. My first team was blue, a general medical team composed of UVA and EVMS physicians, plus a psychologist. Orientation was brief, and we spent the rest of the evening relaxing and playing cards.