Apr 2018
Your Best Medicine with Wannette Carter
Have you ever wondered what it's like to work at a hospital? What types of jobs are available here? Or what it means to be part of BJC, one of the largest nonprofit health care organizations in the country? Learn more in this new series of interviews with the dedicated team members of Christian Hospital and Northwest HealthCare.
Today's article features Wannette Carter, a cook in Christian Hospital's Food & Nutrition Services department for almost two years.
In your job, how do you provide your best medicine to our patients?
When I get here in the morning around 10:15, the first thing I do is check the status of how many patients are in the hospital versus the number we’re actually feeding, because many patients have NPO (nothing by mouth) orders, tube-feeding orders, etc. who don’t receive a tray from us. I also check the number of patients on mechanical soft diets and pureed diets in order to prepare for those items in advance. I make sure I pull out enough for all of that as well as for the different dietary restrictions. I make sure I have all that in order and then I start to grab everything on my menu to make sure that I’m okay – I’ve got to have the meat, vegetable, starch and so forth. After that, it’s smooth sailing! (Wannette prepares an average of 200 inpatient meals per day, including about 40 special-order grill items.)
What is your favorite or most rewarding part of your job?
I like that I get to work by myself with nobody confronting me and telling me to do this, that and the other. I know to check everything when I get here, then I get all my food together and then I start to prep it to make sure everything is ready for the day by 2 p.m. Chef Kyle Hallameier knows that I know what I’m doing and doesn’t have to worry about me and that’s good! I’ve been working in kitchens since I was 17 years old and I’m now 66.
Why do you choose to work at Christian Hospital?
This really is a fun-loving place. Even when I first came in through the temp service, people would speak to me that I didn’t know and I was like I’m in this building and nobody knows me and they’d walk past me and say ‘hi’ and ‘good morning’ and it just feels good when you get here.