Meg



My name is Meg Fletcher, I am from Indonesia. I am married and have two beautiful children with my husband.

Currently I am doing study at Migrant Education Centre to help me to sharpen both my written and spoken English. My previous job was in finance and accounting for a large private company then I moved to the operational division in one of their companies (sport and entertainment).

I worked as an operational manager, I had to make sure the place was ready to open on time, clean, and with all the equipment ready to use and all the staff happy and ready to work. I also talked to the customers from time to time to make sure they were happy with the service.

I used computer to do my job, and also telephone, fax and photocopy machines.

I love to work with many different kind of people, from them I learn how to communicate in many ways with different back ground and personalities. People are also interested me.

I am going to do some work experiences at St Ann's Compton Downs aged care in Old Beach. I chose this kind of job because it is something new for me and brings my attention to work in. And also it is going to be my first experience to work in Australian culture. I will learn hard and put all my effort in this Work Experience so I can get benefit as much as I can.

Hopefully, from this work experience I will have a better view for what I am going to do with my future. I am very excited and looking forward to doing work experience at St. Ann's Compton Downs.

//**Week I (18-19 October 2011)** //
 * My Work Experience Journal : **

I started my work experience on 18 & 19 October 2011 at St. Ann's Compton Downs. On the first day in the morning Cassandra, the person who is incharge of supervising me while David (Leisure and Lifestyle Coordinator)is away, introduced me to other staff whose worked that morning. Then they took me around the nursing home and showed me what they do every morning. I helped them to wake some residents up, it was quite challenging. Some residents refused to do what the carer asked, they screamed really loud and some cried and the other pretend they're not well. While the other carer helped them had a shower, me and theother carer cleaned up they room.

After they've cleaned then they had breakfast, some residents prefer to have their food in their room and some resident are having their meal together with others in dining room. Then we took them for a walk outside arround nursing home. They seemed really happy and enjoying being outside, having a fresh air and enjoying the garden.

//**Week 2. (25-26 October 2011). **//

The second week of my work experience went very well. I was more comfortable with my supervisor, the work place, and co-workers. We had a hot breakfast club on Tuesday morning in the activities room, they were about 25 residents came for hot breakfast with us and the rest had their hot breakfast in their room and some had chosen to have a normal breakfast. The rest of the day on Tuesday we cleaned up and re-arranged the activities room, then we cleaned two fish tanks, and printed and put on display boards some information about what activities are coming next week. In the middle time when we didn't have anything to do, the Supervisor supervised me to go to resident's room, have a talk with them, or if I see some residents in dining room, I can talk to them or ask them if they want to play games or puzzles, and I did.

On Wednesday, we had what they called " Trade Table" for residents, staff and their family for a first time. For 3 weeks before this event, they were asking the staff and people they know to donate something, so they can sell it on Trade Table to rise money for the resident's activities. This event went very well. The resident who came to our Trade Table mostly bought candies, cakes and books. Some residents bought some jewellery or scarves for their daughters or their grandchildren, also they bought some little ornaments so they can put them in their room for decoration..they were very cute though. I bought a book for my daughter too. We also provided "the customers" with a cup of tea/coffee and fresh scones (we made them in the activities room so they can watch us and share the recipes with everyone) with butter, jam and cream, it was free for all the residents and we charged for only 50 cents for staff and family members. Another succesful event we did this week.

//**Week 3. (1-2 November 2011) **// The third week. I only came on Tuesday and we're very busy on that day. We had Preps Students visit from Catholic School. They sang, and read some book they made to our residents.