things are going better than i had feared. i might even say i'm happy, but that would just be silly.
despite the main consultant announcing that he's going away for six weeks ("the heart and soul of gandarra" one person told me), initial impressions of my scattered caffeine-loaded reg, and horror stories from last years interns, i have survived my first three days (well, i am walking out of here as soon as i finish typing this up).
the nurses at gandarra have been very understanding (as would befit those who have spent years working in a palliative care unit). they suggest what drugs i should prescribe, at what dose, via which routes, how often and how to spell the drug name. wonderful. slowly i'm getting to know my oldies. they're lovely. my reg clare has been holding my hands through everything, and has a wonderful attitude: all the work is hers unless i claim it. my pager has gone off once so far, and it was the previous intern asking for my email address and me offering to buy him a drink for all the paperwork he did on the weekend after he was supposed to have left. haven't done an iv yet - that fear is still there to be conquered.
ten/eleven hour days are manageable when all you've got to do after you knock off is go to the pub, or walk around the lake, or watch tennis on tv. i have a feeling that the rest of the world is rushing by crazily but i'm just cruising along...
but things are nevertheless different. i still catch myself referring to myself as a medical student. and everytime i sign my name i have to stop and admire it. but cynicism is starting to creep in. like xiu said, when you only have three patients it's easy to know them well and see them everyday. but when you have nine - or twenty - it's a little harder. and all the paperwork!
i remember watching an episode of er, in which carter tells the interns to write a letter to themselves. i think that's a fantastic idea. we should all do it. we should all try and hold on to something of the dreams we had as medical students...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I do it too! The other day I introduced myself to one of the nurses as a medical student.. It's just habit. And it's ridiculous how much your signature does. Just that little squiggle, and they can't give people medicine without it, and you have to hurry from one ward to the other just so you can put that scrawl in the box for things to happen..
And man, you're lucky on that rotation....... Want to swap?
Post a Comment