If you look at the posts on this site, you’ll notice a glaring gap between the month of August and the month of October. Maybe you’ve wondered why. Maybe you attributed it to the inconsistencies and waxing, waning enthusiasm of a new blogger.
Fear is, in fact, what happened.
I’m currently the last year of my fellowship. That’s 2 years of college, 4 years of medical school, 7 years of on-the-job training: over a decade spent preparing for a profession that I’m about to officially, independently embark on. If anything, I am over-prepared. I should be impatiently chomping at the bit. I should be eager to move on.
But for the majority of residents who are not psychopaths, and certainly among majority of first year and female residents, the problem is, in fact, over-apologizing.
As a Canadian, and as an only daughter in an Asian household, I understand your pain. Politeness to the point of discomfort is practically the mortar of my being. I grew up differential and soft-spoken. I lived within the rules set by school, by parents, and by society. When coloring, I drew crisply within the lines. And it worked well for a while: the quiet, nice girl who puts her head down and does her work well may not be well known, but she is certainly well loved (if and when she is recognized).
I would argue that medicine is no place for this sensibility.
[Here begins another hopefully semi-regular series on life, love, and lack of life and/or love life during residency.
It is a map of the realities of life as a resident, an orange traffic cone pointing out the giant potholes in the seemingly smooth, post-med school, yellow-brick-road of residency.
It is a guide to things I wish I had known or done differently.
No, it’s not a comprehensive guide. And certainly, my experiences as an OBGYN resident may not be universal. But I do think that my experiences:
1) are fairly amusing
2) are applicable to most residents, regardless of the specialty
3) may help you anticipate and prepare for the pitfalls and problems you might encounter during residency,
4) might help you emerge a better, healthier, and more complete person and resident than I, Gunga Din.
CNAs and LPNs are certified in specific nursing tasks. In the hospital, they may be found taking your blood pressure, setting up medical equipment, and assisting in other tasks.
Phylum: Registered Nurses
Likely the most common kind of nurse you’ll encounter in the exotic environment known as the hospital. They may work in any field, in any area of the hospital. As opposed to the previous phylum, registered nurses have degrees in nursing. Continue reading “A Guide To Recognizing Your Hospital Saints: Nurses Edition”→
In the American medical system, the operating rooms are considered especially mysterious. In hospitals, the dedicated housestaff who operate in these places are members of an elite squad known as residents.
These are their stories.
Ravenlocks and the Three Scrub Sinks
Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Ravenlocks, with hair as black as raven feathers. But you wouldn’t know, because she had to stuff it every day under a really unflattering blue bouffant hat – two, in fact, to keep her hair from falling out through the weak elastic opening.
Most days, Ravenlocks would sit into operating room, waiting for her prince – no, wait, the patient – to come, rolled in by the anesthesia elves with their propofol magic. And after the prick of the needle, and the patient fell into a deep sleep of a hundred years (sorry, minutes), she would wander out into the wilderness that was the operating room hallways to look for a scrub sink to wash her weary hands.
Outside the operating room, she found a sink. Ravenlocks was in a hurry, so she opened a scrub brush and kicked the water panel with her knee to start the water’s flow. She tested the water from the first sink.
