Last day of clinic was today and i am a lil sad that it is over. I had 2 doctors give me a 2 week evaluation and both said i did great and worked hard. a vast difference from 2 weeks ago for sure.
Something i have to share with you are the ridiculous kid names i experienced in my last 2 weeks. Some of the greatest have been:
Myson
Mylove and Romeo [twins]
God
Divine trinity
Bobyyz
Aquaneta [yes, like the hair spray]
Khriz
and my favorites:
La-a [pronounced La-dash-a..seriously]
Speedracer
and last but not least, the sisters:
Mauriahna'ju'nyse and Mauriaja ju'nay
Now that i have finished up my 2 weeks of peds clinic, i am starting newborn nursery on monday. that means i get to trade in my dress up clothes for scrubs....but that also means i have to trade my 8:30am start time to 7am. boo
Friday, August 26, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Clinic Continues
Peds clinic has gotten much better and i am actually starting to enjoy my time there. i have started to realize that i need to not take things so personally and just get used to different attending styles. the same attending i was worried about last week is now someone i laugh and joke with. i guess everyone has their bad days and i shouldn't always assume things are about me. the more i get experience with this the better i will do in my future rotations and in my residency.
though i am enjoying the people i am working with, i still am no closer to wanting to do pediatrics in the future. the days are very monotonous and parents are idiots. every other kid i see is terrified of me no matter what i try and its starting to get annoying. that said, the days go by fast and we are learning a lot.
the most influential thing that happened to me last week was a 9 year old girl [call her Jane..not her real name] who came in for a well child care visit. she was very nice but very shy. i tried to get her talking to me and she eventually became a little more relaxed and talkative. Jane was a slightly bigger girl but by no means would i say she was overweight. she was at the higher end of the growth curve for her age but compared to the overweight kids i have seen at the clinic, she did not look it at all. When my attending came in we all talked and she mentioned to the girl and her mom that she should probably loose some weight. when Dr. C said this, the girl got quiet and whispered to her mom "see, i told you im fat."
my heart sank a little bit when i heard this because i could just feel the confidence leaving this lovely young lady. the attending kept talking to her mom and i felt the need to cut in [even though this was the same attending that put her hand up to cut me off before]. I looked at Jane and said right into her eyes "Jane, you are not fat at all. please do not think we are saying you are fat. we are just worried about what foods you may be eating and want to make sure you are staying healthy." I went on to tell her that maybe she could get more active at recess or school sports and then her mom admitted that Jane didnt have any friends and that she was worried about her. when her mom was telling me this Jane was looking at her mother and pleading with her to stop talking, that things were "no big deal." but i pressed on and talked to Jane more about how she was feeling with school, her friends, and her shyness. At this point my attending had left the room and i stayed for about 15 minutes and continued to try to raise the self esteem of this young shy girl. I told her stories of my own childhood and encouraged her to like herself even though she was different. I told her that she was not the only one that was this shy and that many other people feel this way and i think this seemed to help her.
after speaking with Jane for a long time, i gave her a hug and her mom gave me one of the most appreciative "thank you's" i had ever received. she shook my hand and i could see in her eyes that she was so happy to have someone reach out to her daughter like that.
in the moment i felt like a great mentor and for a moment, i really liked peds again.
just for a moment...
though i am enjoying the people i am working with, i still am no closer to wanting to do pediatrics in the future. the days are very monotonous and parents are idiots. every other kid i see is terrified of me no matter what i try and its starting to get annoying. that said, the days go by fast and we are learning a lot.
the most influential thing that happened to me last week was a 9 year old girl [call her Jane..not her real name] who came in for a well child care visit. she was very nice but very shy. i tried to get her talking to me and she eventually became a little more relaxed and talkative. Jane was a slightly bigger girl but by no means would i say she was overweight. she was at the higher end of the growth curve for her age but compared to the overweight kids i have seen at the clinic, she did not look it at all. When my attending came in we all talked and she mentioned to the girl and her mom that she should probably loose some weight. when Dr. C said this, the girl got quiet and whispered to her mom "see, i told you im fat."
my heart sank a little bit when i heard this because i could just feel the confidence leaving this lovely young lady. the attending kept talking to her mom and i felt the need to cut in [even though this was the same attending that put her hand up to cut me off before]. I looked at Jane and said right into her eyes "Jane, you are not fat at all. please do not think we are saying you are fat. we are just worried about what foods you may be eating and want to make sure you are staying healthy." I went on to tell her that maybe she could get more active at recess or school sports and then her mom admitted that Jane didnt have any friends and that she was worried about her. when her mom was telling me this Jane was looking at her mother and pleading with her to stop talking, that things were "no big deal." but i pressed on and talked to Jane more about how she was feeling with school, her friends, and her shyness. At this point my attending had left the room and i stayed for about 15 minutes and continued to try to raise the self esteem of this young shy girl. I told her stories of my own childhood and encouraged her to like herself even though she was different. I told her that she was not the only one that was this shy and that many other people feel this way and i think this seemed to help her.
after speaking with Jane for a long time, i gave her a hug and her mom gave me one of the most appreciative "thank you's" i had ever received. she shook my hand and i could see in her eyes that she was so happy to have someone reach out to her daughter like that.
in the moment i felt like a great mentor and for a moment, i really liked peds again.
just for a moment...
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
today was not much better in regards to my attendings. for the second time my attending put her hand up in front of my face.. yesterday she did it when i was following her into a room trying to ask a questions [she literally put her hand up in my face and then closed the door behind her] today it was in front of a patient [i was talking and she put her hand up to get me to stop talking so she could have the patient answer]. i dont know what kind of upbringing she had but i could not think of a more rude way to ask someone to be quiet. worst part about it is that being a medical student, you really are powerless. you cant say anything to them, you just gotta take it and shut your mouth so you dont get a bad evaluation. this whole situation makes me wonder why certain doctors work in teaching hospitals when they clearly have no interest in teaching and all they want to do is get through clinic days as fast as possible so they can go home?
if i ever become this rude, bitter or unkind when i am an attending i will know its time for a career change...
some humor from the day:
"man, the terrible twos really are the terrible twos" - Torey
"your japanese? so where did you get your eyes from " -attending referring to Torey's very light eyes
"lens crafters..."- Torey
"I saw Dr X in the hall and I could feel my adrenals pumping out the epinephrine"
-Ron [after seeing the attending that yelled/screamed at us last week]
"think costumer service. try to be like nordstroms" - one of the attendings to a nurse in the clinic [clearly trying to increase the amount of patients/money that comes in'
Monday, August 15, 2011
Peds Clinic
just got home from my first day in the peds clinic at the hospital. not too exciting but the day went by much faster than days in the inpatient ward. i will be working in the clinic for the next 2 weeks and luckily the doctor from friday [aka Judgement day] is on vacation for 2 weeks so i can start fresh with new attendings. clinic days are short- today we worked from 9 to 12, then 1:30 to 4:15. we basically do the same as other clinic, go in and do the initial history and physical, present to the attending and formulate your assessment and plan and then they go back in with you and do their own physical and ask more questions. today i saw a couple sick kids [ear infection, asthma, etc] and then did a couple well child exams. no wonder kids hate doctors, they have to get like 4 shots a visit every couple months for the first couple years of their lives!! that immunization schedule is no joke!
things i learned today:
1)if you take off your white coat before entering a room with a peds patient, you can delay crying for an extra 3 minutes than usual...though crying is inevitable by the middle of the physical exam
2) i had no idea kids could scream so loud
3) i think most children are bipolar. one second they are crying, the next they are laughing and smiling. if an adult were to do that, they would be in a psychiatric facility
4) little girls are like live dress up dolls for some moms... they can make their outfits as glamourous and girly as they want because they look damn cute and hey, they arent the ones that have to wear pigtails and huge bright pink puff scrunchies on their heads.
5) not so much what i have learned but what i predict: these same little girls that were dressed up as diva's by their moms when they were little are probably the same kids that grow up to be teenage diva's that demand things and wont listen to a word you say
6) thus, the last thing i learned today was that if i have kids, it will only be after i can genetically verify it will be a boy
things i learned today:
1)if you take off your white coat before entering a room with a peds patient, you can delay crying for an extra 3 minutes than usual...though crying is inevitable by the middle of the physical exam
2) i had no idea kids could scream so loud
3) i think most children are bipolar. one second they are crying, the next they are laughing and smiling. if an adult were to do that, they would be in a psychiatric facility
4) little girls are like live dress up dolls for some moms... they can make their outfits as glamourous and girly as they want because they look damn cute and hey, they arent the ones that have to wear pigtails and huge bright pink puff scrunchies on their heads.
5) not so much what i have learned but what i predict: these same little girls that were dressed up as diva's by their moms when they were little are probably the same kids that grow up to be teenage diva's that demand things and wont listen to a word you say
6) thus, the last thing i learned today was that if i have kids, it will only be after i can genetically verify it will be a boy
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Peds... lots of disney stuff around but not the happiest place on earth?
This has been a really rough week. I thought that peds would be filled with happy people and fun attendings but boy was i wrong...
On Tuesday, shit hit the fan when we got yelled at [more like screamed at] by the head honcho of the peds department. Reason being is that we are supposed to stay everyday until 5pm but since there isnt much to do in the afternoon, the interns AND the residents we have worked with have had one of us stay for the afternoon while the rest of us go home to use our time wisely. This worked all last week and then up until Tuesday when Dr. X [we will call him that for safety's sake] came in and found only Torey in the office. He told her to tell all of us to come back to the hospital by 2pm or else we will fail the rotation. SO we all came back and dr. X walked in at 2 and gave us a 5 minute speech that started with, " im gonnna make this short and to the point, you are all failing the rotation as of right now. you are going to have to work your way back up and bring your A game to pass this rotation. I have never be do disrespected in my life...blah blah blah." This went on for a while. he then just turned around and walked out the door. at first i really thought he was joking around because we rounded with him the week before and he asked a lot of questions but he still was fun to work with. i thought this lil rant was a joke and he was gonna stop in the middle and say, 'haha, just kidding' but he didnt. oh boy he didnt.
So this week we rounded with another doctor and boy was she a debby downer. this lady never smiled, made the meanest faces at you, and was not very fun to work with. She had her positive moments [telling me she was proud of me because i was 'teachable' because i went home and read about something she taught us the day before] but mostly, she was not very excited about anything. She was known to ask a ton of questions about your patients so we were warned to read everything about them and be able to answer her detailed questions. It was really hit or miss with her. Sometimes you would answer her question and she would be happy, other times you would answer and she wouldnt even look at you. Then of course, the times when you didnt know the answer she nailed us for it. Everytime i didnt know one of her questions she would tell us off about how 'you should know this and that' but she never gave you the opportunity to explain. She was ok at teaching but her accent kinda got in the way sometimes.
Anyways, on Wednesday I did a presentation [we have to do 1 every 2 weeks] and she gave me a good evaluation for it. But then Friday came about and she must have really changed her opinion on me. On rounds i guess i just didnt shine. She asked me what my plan was for a baby with a UTI and when i told her what antibiotics i wanted to put him on she said 'absolutely not, completely wrong' and went on to tell me why i was so wrong [even though my answer wasnt that off and i never got to explain why i chose them so really it just looked like i guessed an answer]. i mean, dont get my wrong, if i dont answer something correctly im not going to be upset at the attending for correction me because i am a medial student and i expect to be wrong most of the time, but the way she made me feel about being wrong was just really mean. then later during rounds i asked why she had decreased a dose of antibiotics and she said, 'no, i am not going to answer your question. we talked about that earlier in the week and you should know why.' So to prove i knew the basics of why and just that i was confused at why she was doing it that day instead of the next day, i ran through some of it with her but she still just looked at my like i was stupid. So, as we talked she told me how i shouldnt ask so many questions and that i should just look at the answers instead of asking people. That it makes me look stupid and when i get to other services people will pick on me for it. Yes, i am not shy and dont mind asking questions, but i have never been scolded for it. i guess i didnt formulate my questions right with her since she jut thought i was an idiot. but that doesnt make to much sense to me considering this is schooling and they are there to teach us. yes, i will look something up also but who is it hurting to ask a simple question during rounds to get the doctors opinion on the matter?
i wasnt too surprised when later that morning i asked her to do my 2 week evaluation and she pretty much just criticized me for about 3 minutes. She said i 'didnt know my patients at all' and that my knowledge was lacking. I need to read more and study more and that i have a lot of room for improvement [emphasis on the LOT]. I sat there just nodding and saying ok and trying to be as accepting as possible to her criticism. the part that made me the most angry is that she never gave me specific examples of what i did wrong and she never gave me any constructive criticism as how to improve. she just talked for a couple minutes, circled a bunch of low %s on my eval and then got up to leave. its like she just put me down, said [in not exact words] that i was stupid and that i needed to work harder. Oh, and then as she gets up and walks out the door she says have a good weekend, dont worry, you will be a good doctor you just have a lot of work to do. WHAT THE FUCK?
I may not have been a complete gunner on this rotation like that annoying girl [who at several times threw us under the bus and made herself look great on our expense] but i have still worked hard, gotten to the hospital early to read up on my patients and see them, and i worked hard to make the intern's lives easier. at this point i still dont know exactly what to do to make my grade go up because clearly my grade for this rotation is going to be at minimum passing level. on the bottom of the evalution she wrote 'student has much room for improvement over the rest of the 4 week rotation.' great...
i had to work this AM [saturday] and when working with one of the residents, we got to talking about that doctor and i told him what happened. he says she does that all the time and really does pick on certain medical students and residents and gives them really bad evals. so i guess i cant feel too bad if she does this to one person in the group everytime. but i cant stop wondering why me? i guess im just to talkative and normal...haha. this is the first time [of many i am sure] an attending has not liked me and i just need to get used to it and know that some people are gonna love me and some are gonna not love me and thats just life. i am able to kinda laugh it off today but honestly yesterday was a hard day. first time i have cried about rotations so far.
i worked all week, worked today and tomorrow [sunday] work all next week and then get saturday off. i will then work sunday- friday.
im really ready for vacation
On Tuesday, shit hit the fan when we got yelled at [more like screamed at] by the head honcho of the peds department. Reason being is that we are supposed to stay everyday until 5pm but since there isnt much to do in the afternoon, the interns AND the residents we have worked with have had one of us stay for the afternoon while the rest of us go home to use our time wisely. This worked all last week and then up until Tuesday when Dr. X [we will call him that for safety's sake] came in and found only Torey in the office. He told her to tell all of us to come back to the hospital by 2pm or else we will fail the rotation. SO we all came back and dr. X walked in at 2 and gave us a 5 minute speech that started with, " im gonnna make this short and to the point, you are all failing the rotation as of right now. you are going to have to work your way back up and bring your A game to pass this rotation. I have never be do disrespected in my life...blah blah blah." This went on for a while. he then just turned around and walked out the door. at first i really thought he was joking around because we rounded with him the week before and he asked a lot of questions but he still was fun to work with. i thought this lil rant was a joke and he was gonna stop in the middle and say, 'haha, just kidding' but he didnt. oh boy he didnt.
So this week we rounded with another doctor and boy was she a debby downer. this lady never smiled, made the meanest faces at you, and was not very fun to work with. She had her positive moments [telling me she was proud of me because i was 'teachable' because i went home and read about something she taught us the day before] but mostly, she was not very excited about anything. She was known to ask a ton of questions about your patients so we were warned to read everything about them and be able to answer her detailed questions. It was really hit or miss with her. Sometimes you would answer her question and she would be happy, other times you would answer and she wouldnt even look at you. Then of course, the times when you didnt know the answer she nailed us for it. Everytime i didnt know one of her questions she would tell us off about how 'you should know this and that' but she never gave you the opportunity to explain. She was ok at teaching but her accent kinda got in the way sometimes.
Anyways, on Wednesday I did a presentation [we have to do 1 every 2 weeks] and she gave me a good evaluation for it. But then Friday came about and she must have really changed her opinion on me. On rounds i guess i just didnt shine. She asked me what my plan was for a baby with a UTI and when i told her what antibiotics i wanted to put him on she said 'absolutely not, completely wrong' and went on to tell me why i was so wrong [even though my answer wasnt that off and i never got to explain why i chose them so really it just looked like i guessed an answer]. i mean, dont get my wrong, if i dont answer something correctly im not going to be upset at the attending for correction me because i am a medial student and i expect to be wrong most of the time, but the way she made me feel about being wrong was just really mean. then later during rounds i asked why she had decreased a dose of antibiotics and she said, 'no, i am not going to answer your question. we talked about that earlier in the week and you should know why.' So to prove i knew the basics of why and just that i was confused at why she was doing it that day instead of the next day, i ran through some of it with her but she still just looked at my like i was stupid. So, as we talked she told me how i shouldnt ask so many questions and that i should just look at the answers instead of asking people. That it makes me look stupid and when i get to other services people will pick on me for it. Yes, i am not shy and dont mind asking questions, but i have never been scolded for it. i guess i didnt formulate my questions right with her since she jut thought i was an idiot. but that doesnt make to much sense to me considering this is schooling and they are there to teach us. yes, i will look something up also but who is it hurting to ask a simple question during rounds to get the doctors opinion on the matter?
i wasnt too surprised when later that morning i asked her to do my 2 week evaluation and she pretty much just criticized me for about 3 minutes. She said i 'didnt know my patients at all' and that my knowledge was lacking. I need to read more and study more and that i have a lot of room for improvement [emphasis on the LOT]. I sat there just nodding and saying ok and trying to be as accepting as possible to her criticism. the part that made me the most angry is that she never gave me specific examples of what i did wrong and she never gave me any constructive criticism as how to improve. she just talked for a couple minutes, circled a bunch of low %s on my eval and then got up to leave. its like she just put me down, said [in not exact words] that i was stupid and that i needed to work harder. Oh, and then as she gets up and walks out the door she says have a good weekend, dont worry, you will be a good doctor you just have a lot of work to do. WHAT THE FUCK?
I may not have been a complete gunner on this rotation like that annoying girl [who at several times threw us under the bus and made herself look great on our expense] but i have still worked hard, gotten to the hospital early to read up on my patients and see them, and i worked hard to make the intern's lives easier. at this point i still dont know exactly what to do to make my grade go up because clearly my grade for this rotation is going to be at minimum passing level. on the bottom of the evalution she wrote 'student has much room for improvement over the rest of the 4 week rotation.' great...
i had to work this AM [saturday] and when working with one of the residents, we got to talking about that doctor and i told him what happened. he says she does that all the time and really does pick on certain medical students and residents and gives them really bad evals. so i guess i cant feel too bad if she does this to one person in the group everytime. but i cant stop wondering why me? i guess im just to talkative and normal...haha. this is the first time [of many i am sure] an attending has not liked me and i just need to get used to it and know that some people are gonna love me and some are gonna not love me and thats just life. i am able to kinda laugh it off today but honestly yesterday was a hard day. first time i have cried about rotations so far.
i worked all week, worked today and tomorrow [sunday] work all next week and then get saturday off. i will then work sunday- friday.
im really ready for vacation
Thursday, August 11, 2011
I have officially become a germ-a-phobe. I find myself putting alcohol sanitizer on everything a child touches. I knew it has become more apparent when after doing a physical exam on a child with a viral infection and a rash, i washed my hands for at least 2 minutes and after drying them, used hand sanitizer [just in case]. Another strike against peds.
i miss OB/GYN a lot.... is this a sign? is there more meaning to this they i realize?
ok, time to go to bed. i need to get to the hospital tomorrow so i can write a progress note on [yet again] a child with a UTI that i admitted from the ER this afternoon. *sigh*
i miss OB/GYN a lot.... is this a sign? is there more meaning to this they i realize?
ok, time to go to bed. i need to get to the hospital tomorrow so i can write a progress note on [yet again] a child with a UTI that i admitted from the ER this afternoon. *sigh*
Thursday, August 4, 2011
"Miss you, miss our group, miss ob/gyn. You off this weekend? P.S. I like PEDS but it is MUCH slower..."
-Nicole
Im not the only one that feels like peds is much slower than OB/GYN. i knew this was going to happen.
Today i got to the hospital at 7:15am to prepare for rounds at 8:30 because our attending this morning was the chair of pediatrics at the hospital [the 'man']. So i got there early to know my patient very well. I saw 2 patients, one of which was the 19 month old girl who i admitted from the clinic yesterday. She was doing much better and i have to admit, she really is adorable. I wouldnt mind seeing such cute faces everyday but as everyone says about peds, you spend way more time with the parents than with the cute kids. this is making me re-think peds a lot. its not that i dont like it, but its just something to consider. Oh, and another attending today told us she didnt recommend going into peds because she didnt want us to be poor knowing how high our school loans are, she said that we shouldnt go into it. So that was interesting....
Rounds too a long time today. The doctor came in around 9:30 and then we spent almost 5 hours covering our patients. It wasnt bad though, he asked us a ton of questions but also taught a lot. We all had fun also, talked about lots of things outside of medicine and made the whole morning very interactive. When we were in OB/GYN, rounds took about an hour and a half and it was just a small part of our day. On peds, rounding IS the day because after we can go home [one student will stay each afternoon until 5pm but since there are 5 people on our team thats only once a week!] Needless to say, the hours of this rotation are much less stressful.
Lastly, there are 2 medical students from other schools on our team, 1 of them is the most annoying girl i have ever met. Well, that may be an exaggeration, but shes pretty bad. She is very eager to demonstrate her 'abilities' and will cut off other people as they are trying to explain things. It is taking me a lot of effort to not say anything to her [knowing my personality]. It is a learning experience because for the rest of my career i am going to be working with people like this girl and i just have to learn how to keep my mouth shut. The problem is that everyone else feels the same way i do, i just express my feelings while other people remain quiet. I do have something positive to take away from working with her: it helps me to shape the medical student/resident/ physician i want to become by making sure to NOT be like her and others i have worked with in the hospital...
Things i have learned:
1- kids get a lot of fevers....and a lot of illnesses can cause fevers in children
2- it doesnt matter how many times i study antibiotics, they still get mixed up in my brain
3- reading a chest x ray is not easy
-Nicole
Im not the only one that feels like peds is much slower than OB/GYN. i knew this was going to happen.
Today i got to the hospital at 7:15am to prepare for rounds at 8:30 because our attending this morning was the chair of pediatrics at the hospital [the 'man']. So i got there early to know my patient very well. I saw 2 patients, one of which was the 19 month old girl who i admitted from the clinic yesterday. She was doing much better and i have to admit, she really is adorable. I wouldnt mind seeing such cute faces everyday but as everyone says about peds, you spend way more time with the parents than with the cute kids. this is making me re-think peds a lot. its not that i dont like it, but its just something to consider. Oh, and another attending today told us she didnt recommend going into peds because she didnt want us to be poor knowing how high our school loans are, she said that we shouldnt go into it. So that was interesting....
Rounds too a long time today. The doctor came in around 9:30 and then we spent almost 5 hours covering our patients. It wasnt bad though, he asked us a ton of questions but also taught a lot. We all had fun also, talked about lots of things outside of medicine and made the whole morning very interactive. When we were in OB/GYN, rounds took about an hour and a half and it was just a small part of our day. On peds, rounding IS the day because after we can go home [one student will stay each afternoon until 5pm but since there are 5 people on our team thats only once a week!] Needless to say, the hours of this rotation are much less stressful.
Lastly, there are 2 medical students from other schools on our team, 1 of them is the most annoying girl i have ever met. Well, that may be an exaggeration, but shes pretty bad. She is very eager to demonstrate her 'abilities' and will cut off other people as they are trying to explain things. It is taking me a lot of effort to not say anything to her [knowing my personality]. It is a learning experience because for the rest of my career i am going to be working with people like this girl and i just have to learn how to keep my mouth shut. The problem is that everyone else feels the same way i do, i just express my feelings while other people remain quiet. I do have something positive to take away from working with her: it helps me to shape the medical student/resident/ physician i want to become by making sure to NOT be like her and others i have worked with in the hospital...
Things i have learned:
1- kids get a lot of fevers....and a lot of illnesses can cause fevers in children
2- it doesnt matter how many times i study antibiotics, they still get mixed up in my brain
3- reading a chest x ray is not easy
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