She works hard for the money.

  I have officially completed the second day of hospital orientation and despite my initial negative attitude about the job/orientation I must admit that it is not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  I know, I have finally said something positive about Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, but it's true. I am quite smitten at the moment.  We all know the negatives about the place (please read blog post: I need a job) however I am learning that working at a smaller hospital instead of the mother ship that INOVA is, has it's perks.  The benefits are pretty awesome-the fact that I can get health insurance for free-extremely basic health insurance-but it is still insurance, is awesome.  Even though I am fully covered by tricare and the military insurance I was starting to develop intense anxiety about having to go in for my yearly exams with one of Pete's co-workers or someone that I hang out with so I am happy that I can get an outside practitioner and not even pay anything for it besides a $30.00 for preventative exams.  Nerdy I know, but it is a small weight off of my shoulders.  They also provide their staff with meal cards where you pay $10.00 for the card and you can get $30.00 worth of food in their tiny cafeteria (I am a chronic bring my lunch to work kind of a girl, but I am still able to appreciate this one).  They offer discounted movie tickets for $6.75 so you don't have to pay the ridiculous $10.50 that they normally charge-again, I am a chronic redbox/netflix girl because I am so cheap but maybe just maybe I will consider a change in my ways.  They even have a scrub machine so I don't have to spend money buying the hideous royal blue scrubs that will become my uniform, and I can leave them there so I don't have to bring any gross germs to my house and take the time to wash them!  They give out free massage gift cards when people do good things e.g. do their job, and since they are a sponsor to most of the local events they give out free tickets to local events and will reimburse registration fees for any local races that I might sign up for such as the summer solstice festival/midnight sun race.  They match 4% on my 401k (INOVA matched only 3%...) and finally: they enjoy being a non-profit hospital and truly working for the community.  The amount of money they spend to meet the needs of the community-like buying a shuttle bus to go to downtown and pick up the 'chronic inebriates' (there is that phrase again!!) and bring them to a safe place to recover I think is pretty awesome.  Again, nothing that INOVA would ever consider doing because it would not generate any type of profit.  Since it is such a small hospital there isn't nearly the politics that I am used to.  They truly have the attitude that if something doesn't make sense, why do it.  I know this seems really logical but you would be surprised at the number of things that I would see INOVA do just because it was en vogue/the latest trend. 

Wow that was a mouthful-I guess it is safe to say that I officially drank the Kool-aid they offered on the first day and I am genuinely really excited about working for a hospital that truly appreciates it's employees-ALL employees from the environmental services employees(janitor was what they were called at INOVA - [okay, that part is made up, but they did get beaten mercilessly if they didn't show up to work neatly groomed]) all the way up to the physicians. 

Here's to jumping in feet first.