Access Denied

For part of my graduate program I am required to complete two different internships. I will be starting my first placement this fall and all summer I waited anxiously to find out where I would be placed. I will still be maintaining my full time job at SSD and will also have to juggle 16-20 hours per week at my internship (in addition to my rugby and other life commitments) so I was eager to start making plans about how all of this would work.

I finally received my placement and was assigned to work at a dialysis center. Because it is open 6 days a week for 14 hours per day, I would be able to put some of my hours in during early mornings, evenings, and weekends. This seemed like a great arrangement and I contacted my Field Supervisor to initially introduce myself and discuss scheduling and training logistics. All was fine until I mentioned that I would be bringing Morey with me. My assigned Supervisor said she would need to check the protocol for service dogs because she had not come across that situation before. After a few days she emailed me back saying I may need to restrict Morey's access to parts of the clinic-most likely having him stay in the back offices and keeping him out of the treatment rooms. I certainly understood those limits and since I don't need Morey with me all the time I didn't think this would be a problem.

As I was getting ready to finalize the details of my schedule and placement, I received a call from my Supervisor. She explained that in order to bring Morey into the center at all-even into the offices- they would have to complete extra paperwork and approval for infection control reasons. She was willing to take this responsibility on, but it would fall on her supervisor who had not agreed to take on extra responsibility and work that having an intern required. Because of this, she regretted to tell me that my placement with their center would not work out if I needed to bring Morey with me. She did say that this experience had prompted them to review their policies for the future and thanked me for giving them that motivation. (I was not feeling entirely gracious because I was thinking, well, I'm glad someone will benefit from my experience, too bad it won't be me!)

I understood their reasoning for the decision, but I was still indignant and a little upset. I shouldn't have had to be reassigned just because they don't have a protocol and it would causes someone more work.  I have never been discriminated or kept from participating in an activity because of my service dog and I did not enjoy this first experience. I operate under a "love me, love my dog" philosophy and the fact that my dog was rejected made me feel some second-hand rejection.

In the end, it has all worked out for the best because I was approved to do my internship at my current job. I will be taking on new responsibilities and roles, but I will still be in the same office and won't have to commute or work too many extra hours. But still, the experience of being rejected because of Morey was a learning experience for me and hopefully one I will not encounter in the future!