BLOOOOD!
Today, I volunteered at a blood drive. It was the first time I had ever been to a blood drive, so I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I started off registering people, which was like a thirty step process. Hey, donating blood today? K, do you have an appointment or are you a walk-in? Appointment numbers are blue, walk-in numbers are white. Are you a first-time donor or returning donor? If you're a first-time donor, take a green sticker and write your name, if you're a returning donor, take a red sticker and write your name. Now sign in here, and take these pamphlets. Do you have any ID on you? K good, they'll be checking for that later. Are you over 17? No? Do you have the parental consent forms then? K good. Now take a laminated packet, read that, and then read the board. When you're done reading, return the packet, and take a seat up there where they'll take care of you. Oh, and once you're done, are you willing to do a survey? We need to have one done by a person on the hour.
I then wound up transporting the packets of blood to a processing station and replenished the blood bags at each station. I'm a queasy person, so this was not pleasant whatsoever. But what did I expect?, I offered to volunteer at a blood drive after all.
At one point, when I was bringing a packet to the processing station, I saw a spot of blood in the bucket. I reached for the antibacterial wipes, but then someone stopped me and said:
"Wrong."
"Wrong?"
"Yeah, you're not supposed to touch those."
"Oh, okay."
"Thanks for trying to help."
"No problem."
Even if I had gloves on, the guy probably wouldn't have let me. There's just this intrinsic paranoia amongst adults about letting kids do stuff. It kind of made me feel worthless.
Another strange thing happened. One of the doctors got me and said:
"Hey, could you bring me a water? WITH bendy straw?"
Thinking he was kidding, jokingly pinning me as the lowly intern, I got a water and said:
"Here's the water. Couldn't supply the bendy straw though." And I kind of smiled a little bit.
His tone was nothing short of serious:
"In the green container, there should be two boxes of bendy straws."
All of a sudden, it connected and I felt very stupid. It was for the patient, and the straw was to be sanitary. I think my face was red for a while and I was on edge for a little bit after that.
~-~
1 comment:
Ouch on the straw thing. Kinda funny though.
I remember writing a paper in high school about how adults treat teens in different situations. That it's an age where your role in society is kind of ambiguous. I remember writing about being the responsible adult when I was coaching sports, the guy in charge of a kitchen with thousands of dollars and the success of weddings on the line at my other job, and then being completely condescended to at school.
I think people pretty much perform to the level of responsibility/respect that they are given. Micromanagers end up with spiteful incompetant employees. Asshole teachers end up spending lots of time in detention.
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