Rotation 4: Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Plano

This week my rotation was at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Plano, which is about 17 miles from Dallas. The drive takes anywhere from 20 minutes to over an hour during rush hour traffic. I worked with the food service Director, Mary Spicer and Chef, Gary Vorstenbosch. The food service is room service style and all the food is made to order for patients. It is called Five-Star Dining and it won the Ivy Award in 2008. The Ivy Award is given annually by Restaurants and Institutions Magazine to a select group of restaurants, hotels, and noncommercial food operators that exemplify the highest standards of excellence in food service.

My main assignment for the week was to interview at least 40 patients about their satisfaction with the temperature and quality of the food. The patients varied in age (20-89), type of diet, and duration of stay. Some patients have been there for three months or more for pregnancy complications or long term illness, these people had a lot to say about the food because they've tried everything on the menu. It was really fun spending about two hours a day talking with patients. I learned a lot and was able to point out problems and recommend changes for the menu.

Throughout the week I followed random food service staff around doing many different things. I prepared and delivered floor stocks, set up for caterings and cleaned up after them, assisted on tray line and in the call center, delivered trays to patients, made sandwiches, served on the cafeteria line during lunch, flipped cheeseburgers, dropped french fries in grease, garnished desserts, ate yummy food, had lots of great conversations, and put food orders away in dry storage and in the freezer...again.

Chef Gary is Dutch and grew up in The Netherlands. He recognized that I am also Dutch from my last name. After talking with him, I definitely hope I make it there some day to explore my heritage and get a pair of wooden shoes.

It's a small world...Mary Spicer is a friend and colleague of my boss from Saint Clare's Hospital back in Weston, Wisconsin. In the middle of having a nice chat with her about her history and accomplishments, which is amazing--she is famous in the food service world, I randomly asked her if she knew Dale Evert. It was so funny, she was completely surprised.

To sum up the week, it was very busy, fun, interesting, and motivating....minus the rush hour traffic and crazy drivers. I was thrilled to be invited to join a couple other interns on Friday night at the mall to drool over expensive shoes and clothes. We also checked out the food court, which also just happens to have beer :) Great way to end the week.

Rotation 3: Purchasing and Production

Monday morning when I showed up in the kitchen at 7:30 in my white scrubs I was sent to work with Jorge to do inventory in the FREEZER-which is kept at about -10 degrees! I woke up fast. In an oversized puffy jacket and thin gloves, I stood in the freezer calling off 140 items from a hand-held palm pilot and recorded the number that Jorge shouted back to me. Things were not going smooth. The hand-held device lost reception twice while in the freezer...once on item 33 and another time on item 60 something. It does not have an automatic save, meaning we had to start over each time. A lot of the kitchen staff joked around about how I should be used to conditions like that since I'm from Wisconsin. If you know me well, you know that my fingers and toes turn white and lose circulation when they get cold. It was miserable! At least we got the worst over with first. From the freezer we moved to the produce cooler, then the dairy cooler, then the meat cooler, and finally dry storage. When all the inventory was taken we had to place the order through U.S. Food Service. I got to leave at 12:30 because I had to be downtown for WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) orientation at 1:30. I went home for lunch and said my goodbyes to Dan since I couldn't take him to the airport. The WIC orientation lasted three hours. We learned what WIC has to offer and what we will be doing during our one week rotation there.

Tuesday I had to be there at 7 am. This time I was more prepared to be in the freezer. I showed up with my winter hat on. I worked with the store room clerks to put away one and a half semis worth of food. The food comes in boxes on wrapped pallets. It then needs to be put away in the proper storage area (freezer, meat, produce, or dairy refrigerator, or dry storage). I got a great workout from lifting all those boxes and my fingers stayed a healthy red color because I was moving around so much. When I was done putting the order away I met with Chef Kelly (my preceptor for the week) and got a tour of the kitchen and tasted food along the way.=)

Wednesday I was in the kitchen by 5 am to help prepare a breakfast for the third shift employees. I buttered biscuits and panned up bacon and sausages then helped set it up in the cafeteria and helped serve the breakfast. For the rest of the day I followed Chef Kelly around. We met with a representative from True Lemon for product testing. True Lemon is a crystallized form of lemon to replace fresh lemon wedges and lemon juice packets. It was very sour, I puckered my lips. It can be sprinkled on fish, used in iced tea, or used in recipes. The packet looks like a sugar packet and is much easier to open than a lemon juice packet, this would be very beneficial for patients and it only costs a tenth of a cent more per packet. At lunch we did more product testing, this time with sweets. Desserts! There was a mango sorbet cheesecake, chocolate bomb, chocolate peanut butter torte, chocolate truffle, red velvet cake, tiramisu, apple cake, and strawberry shortcake. I think I would be a great professional food taster.

I had to be there at 5 am again on Thursday to work a production shift. The morning cooks get there at 4 am! I got to help Brenda, a cook who has worked at Presby for 30 years. I made a cilantro, tomatillo, jalepeno sauce to go over the tortilla tilapia. It was very fun to make and very delicious! I got to use a huge hand held blender to make the sauce smooth. I made a Jamaican jerk pork sauce that I didn't want to claim because it wasn't very good. It needed about a cup of salt and it would have been better, but I could only add spices because it was the Healthy Choice for the day. Next I made a tomato basil soup. Sound healthy? Don't let it fool you. It has about two pounds of butter and two gallons of cream. I also panned up cookies and ate some frozen cookie dough =) I was done with my shift by 1:30 but I stayed to work on homework because I had a counseling class with the interns at three. The class was done at five, but I stayed until 6:30 to finish the homework I wanted to get done. I passed out as soon as I got home!

It felt like I slept in on Friday because I didn't have to be there until 7am. I worked with the storeroom clerks to gather floor stocks and then deliver them to places around the hospital for two hours. After that Kelly and I did a safety and sanitation checklist in the kitchen. When that was done we went around to the cafeterias and tray line to taste food. I was done for the day at 11 except I stayed to work on assignments and to got to an employee forum. Everyone got cool free backpacks and a foam #1 finger. It was a very exhausting week. I totally went to bed at 9 pm on a Friday night. I still have a lot of homework to catch up on, hopefully next week will be a little easier!

Dan's Visit to Dallas!

After the birthday dinner Friday night I felt like going to bed because it was such a busy week, but had I to drive to the Dallas Fort Worth Airport to pick up Dan at 9 pm. It was very confusing around the airport. People said to just follow the signs, but knowing which terminal to go to is usually helpful. We went swimming in the pool by my apartment when we got back.

On Saturday we got up early to go to a Kettle bell workout at the Village Country Club. After the hard workout I showed Dan the pool, the putting green, tennis courts, driving range, and fitness trail. There are lakes along the fitness trail that has Coy Fish and turtles in them so we watched them for a bit. We made delicious chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast then got ready to go to Fort Worth. When we were all ready to leave we couldn't because my car wouldn't start. For some reason the headlights were left on...must have been from the frustrations at the airport. I called my Michigan friends from my apartment complex and asked for a jump. Luckily it worked! Dan and I made it to Fort Worth just in time for the cattle drive! We were starving and hot so we went to Billy Bob's for lunch and to be in air conditioning. We both got a Texas BBQ Brisket sandwich, fries, and fried Green Tomatoes. It was very good! We walked around the huge inside of Billy Bob's and checked out the dance floors, gift shop, and famous people hand prints on the walls. Dan wanted to go try on some cowboy boots so we went to some gift shops and checked out a boot store. Dan was told he has $800 feet because his shoe size is hard to find. When we got back to Dallas we met my Michigan friends at a bar called the Regal Beagle and attempted to play darts. I wasn't a good teammate.

On Sunday we went to Plano to have brunch and visit with Dan's cousin Meghan, her husband Brian, and their kids Liam, Aiden, and Nolan. The brunch was amazing and entertaining! There was baked french toast, quiche, bacon, yogurt, and lots of fruit. In the afternoon we went to the Dallas Aquarium and walked around the Kennedy assassination area. The aquarium had a wide variety of fish and birds as well as a cheetah, spiders, snakes, and frogs. For dinner we went to Central Market to find food. It is an awesome grocery store that has tons of samples of food and drinks and lots of fresh pre-made items to take home and make. We got two pasta salads, sushi, coconut chicken, goat cheese and mushroom quesadillas, and seafood enchiladas. We stopped at Pinkberry to take home some dessert for after dinner. Pinkberry is a frozen yogurt place. It is like ice cream, but it is actual yogurt so it is very healthy and low in fat. I had a coupon to get two free so we got to pick the flavor and add as many toppings that could fit in the bowl. I got coconut and chocolate yogurt with brownies, chocolate covered corn flakes, milk chocolate shavings, chocolate toffee syrup, and chocolate crunch balls. Dan got a twist of original and chocolate yogurt with a bunch of toppings. After dinner I had to get ready for the busy week and then we watched a movie. Dan got to hang out at my apartment all day Monday until he got picked by a shuttle for his 5:30 flight back to South Carolina. He got to witness an exciting fight in the parking lot by my apartment.

Rotation 2: Retail Services

Tuesday when I arrived I went over the retail services curriculum and what is expected of me with my preceptor and cafeteria manager, Bill. He demonstrated some things that he does with CBORD that I would later have to do. Each day I had to leave a voice message of the day's menu on the Cafe Presby menu line and send out an email of the menu to all employees. Then we did a pre-service checklist. We stocked foods and utensils, cleaned tables, and got hot food ready for the dinner hour. I taste-tested FRIED GIZZARDS! They taste like a really chewy chicken tender and are a huge hit of the south apparently. I've only heard of using gizzards in Thanksgiving stuffing. I won't be eating anymore fried gizzards. I got to eat lunch with the interns for once. It was nice to compare how everyone else was doing in their rotations. After lunch I sat in during a meeting with cafeteria supervisors and then I was instructed to tidy up the menus in CBORD. After working on it for two hours, I found out that I was told how to do it all wrong.

Wednesday was a long day. Tropical storm Hermine kept me up for much of the night from the pounding rain. It rained all day and night Tuesday until about 3 pm Wednesday. Luckily I don't have a long drive to the hospital because the roads were a mess. People think they have hovercrafts here. A few roads were completely covered with water. Dallas got over 6 inches of rain, other surrounding areas got over 10 inches! When I arrived in the morning, I got sent to the kitchen again to tidy up the new 4 week cycle cafeteria menu in CBORD. I was taught the correct way to do it that time. I worked on that from 7:30-11:30 then went to the cafeteria to bus tables and keep the cafeteria clean during the lunch hour. After lunch I played a manager role and met with a new employee about the Food and Nutrition department orientation. I went through a bunch of paperwork with her about her job description and department procedures. When that was done I worked on the menu in CBORD again to make it perfect. When I got home I couldn't take my eyes off the TV because they were covering all the flood damage. Weather was the only thing on TV for the night. I payed close attention when I heard there were tornado warnings in Dallas County, then I got scared when they started coming my way. Seven tornadoes struck down in north Texas, two of which were very close the area I live, heading right towards the hospital. The hospital called the first Code Grey/Black ever, which means severe weather/tornado. All of the patients (about 450) had to be moved from their rooms to the hallway. The tornado that struck closest to me was an EF2 tornado with 115 mph winds. It caused damage to buildings and threw an 18 wheeler against a building.

Thursday I was sent to work on the cash register during breakfast. I was pretty slow at first and accumulated quite the line of people. There's so many buttons on the computer! Then at lunch time the whole screen changed and I was slow again. What made it worse is that people don't know how to read signs. I was in the "NO CASH, credit card and employee badge only" line and people would hand me $20 after rung them up. I had to say "Sorry you have to go to a different line." It's not my fault they didn't see the big sign. I could help them because I didn't have any cash in my drawer. I got to be done on the cash register at 12:15 to eat lunch because us interns had orientation at the VA hospital in south Dallas at 2 pm. We had to take the DART rail to get there. It left at 12:47. We had to sprint to the station, luckily we had 2 minutes to spare after we got our $4 day pass. It was a 50 minute ride to the VA hospital. I got to see a nice tour of Dallas, including the Trinity river that flooded from all the rain. We had to make one transfer of trains. During the wait a homeless lady that smelled like sour milk came to stand next to us. You should have seen all of our noses wrinkle up the instant we smelled it. South Dallas is the run-down, crime side of Dallas. I would not feel safe if I was alone. I will probably take the DART during four weeks in the spring when I have my rotations at the VA to avoid rush hour traffic. Once at the VA we met our future preceptors and got an overview of what we will be doing. We were only there for 45 minutes then went back to Presby.

Friday was a busy, fun filled day. When I got there I made my last announcement on the menu line and sent out the day's menu to all the staff then went to the cafeteria to do the pre-service checklist. At 8:30 I got to go to the quarterly Leadership Development Institute. It is a leadership conference held at the hospital for all administrative people. I laughed a lot, there were two very funny speakers. I had to leave early to be back in the cafeteria to work the lunch hour. After lunch I helped a new food service employee complete her computer based training then Bill showed me some of his management responsibilities like payroll, budgeting, menu costs, and employee scheduling. Us interns met at Fireside Pies when we were done with work to celebrate Alyssa's birthday. It was a really yummy pizza place with the best pizza crust ever!

Rotation 1: Conference Services

I survived the first week of rotations. It was easier than I expected. Conference services takes care of catering events, room reservations that need A/V equipment, and the Guest House at the hospital. Conference Services at Presby is currently going through a big management switch so I didn't get to learn from the manager like I was suppose to. I got to see a little bit of behind the scenes about budget and payroll, but most days I got there in the morning and was sent to shadow conference services staff.

On Monday, I worked with Angelica and Ceasar. Ceasar is about 40 and just became a U.S. citizen a year ago. He amazed me because he learned how to speak English by listening to country music and watching TV. He can't read or write English, but he is a very good worker. Together, we prepared a catering for 150 doctors. We set up tables and made everything look pretty before they arrived. During their lunch we replenished food when it was getting low and made fun of an old doctor that always brings a zip-lock bag and fills it up with food. He tries to be sneaky by shoving the bag into his briefcase, but every time he makes a big mess on the table and floor around him. During our lunch break, Ceasar taught me how to Salsa dance. He said I need practice because I don't move my hips enough. After lunch I went to see my preceptor so she could give me my assignment for the week. My assignment was to plan our Dietetic Intern Graduation Party. Really? I just started this thing and you're asking me to plan on graduating. Wishful thinking. After all of the interns do this rotation and complete the project, the project is voted on and then used for our graduation party. I had to decide on a theme, color scheme, decorations, an ICE SCULPTURE, a menu, rental equipment, and plan a budget. I chose to do a Greek theme. Administration pays for the entire party and they don't have a budget limit, so I had to make one up. I went all out...My party will cost around $10,000! I hope I win!

On Tuesday, I got sent up the the Guest House on the ninth floor. I sat right next to a large window with a very beautiful view of Dallas. The Guest House is a hotel in the hospital. It is for family of patients or patients that need to be near the hospital for frequent or early morning treatments. The guest rooms used to be hospital rooms, in fact, half of them used to be the psych ward...kinda creepy. I learned how to discharge guests and make reservations. It was a slow day. Since it was the last day of August and I still had about $80 left to spend in the cafeteria, I decided to be courageous and try some sushi. They made it right in front of me, it was very cool. I got some spicy tuna California rolls, a salmon roll, a tuna roll, some shrimp rolls, a little ginger, and a glob of wasabi. It was very yummy except I felt like I was breathing fire out of my nose from the wasabi. I am not a fan of spicy stuff or ginger. I nearly choked.

On Wednesday, I got to follow around my preceptor, who is the supervisor of conference services. We had a few meetings about future caterings with production staff and entered catering orders into the computer for the next week. I also helped out with another doctor's luncheon. After lunch I was let go to work on my project.

On Thursday, I was sent up to the Guest House again. I did some research on area hotel rates and typed up some policies and procedures to go into the training manual. I had to go into every room and make sure everything was working. All I found was a burnt out lamp light bulb...I thought about taking a nap in one of the beds. Since I was so familiar with the rooms by then, I was able to show some prospective guests the rooms. They praised my customer service skills to the front desk lady who later e-mailed my preceptor. I had a very good evaluation for the week. Every Thursday afternoon the interns have class. This week we learned about counseling and motivational interviewing.

On Friday, I got to shadow Jared, the interim manager for conference services. He just started the position on Monday so he was still learning and training. He has been an Administrative Resident at the hospital since January and is completing his Master's Degree. It was weird because he isn't even a year older than me, but he is working in administration. Since he has access to pretty much everywhere in the hospital he gave me a tour. I finally got to see patient rooms, surgery rooms, and my favorite...the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). I got to see the cutest, tiniest babies I have ever seen. Jared is working on several big projects for the hospital. One of them is an $80 million renovation of surgery rooms that will take about five years from start to finish. Another one has to do with lowering the room rates in the Guest House. I helped brainstorm some ideas with him. It was very interesting to be a part of the behind-the-scenes planning of these projects. I was super excited when he said I could leave at 11:30.

I went to the Galleria to kill some time. It is a huge mall in Dallas. I became a member of the Godiva Chocolate Rewards Club =) If there is a Godiva store in your area and you like chocolate I highly advise you to become a member. You get a FREE piece of chocolate every month!! YUM