Here's hoping

I dropped off the document missing from my CPSO application that presumably was shuffled in the mail strike. Hopefully things will be put in order for me to start on Monday. Without my number from the CPSO I'm not insured to see patients as a learner.

If it doesn't come in time, I'll be acquainting myself with the family practice clinic and working on my research project. And looking like an idiot who can't do simple things.


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Who?

A weird thing about today - every time they said "ask the residents to ..." or "have the residents..." I kept looking over my shoulder for where the residents were. This is going to take some adjustment.


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Residency orientation

Orientation today wasn't too bad. To me it seemed a lot like my first day of kindergarten. There were big people at the school who were nice to us, gave us apples, peanut butter and bagels. We also got stickers. There were a lot of people who I don't know but who I want to be my friends. We all talked about the things we like to do. I sometimes felt awkward and like I didn't belong. The big teacher told us things that seemed kind and important but she had a whole lot of rules. We had classes and we played together.

Unlike kindergarten, we got to play pretend intubation on neonate dolls, suture on plastic flesh and practice shoulder dystocia moves on plastic pelvises with dolls that did not have nearly enough lubrication.

I think if we got to play with things like that in kindergarten it would have been a heck of a lot more fun.





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aghhhhhhhh!!!

Residency training starts tomorrow with procedural skills.

I don't remember my skills!!
I'm not ready for this!!
What should I wear???

Why hasn't the CPSO sent me my number yet??

Is it OK if I hide under the bed instead of attending?

I'm the only expert about me

(this is the view from my bed - very peaceful - getting up for clinic next week is going to be difficult)

I was thinking this morning about other people's false expectations of me. It happens a lot because I'm older than average and tend to be more confident than the average learner at my stage of training.

Example 1: in first year during an observership I was mistaken for a resident. The nurse quickly told me Dr. Funny Pants was late and I should start clinic without him then left before I could correct her. I had no idea what to do so I sat there like a goof for a few minutes until the clerk showed up and helped me out.

Example 2: First day of clerkship I was on CTU - right up there with general surgery as the rotation most feared by clerks. I had 5 admissions to do while on call that night. The resident we were working with kept getting more and more angry until I yelled "you know this is our very first day right??!!" She didn't.

Introducing myself with my level of training

Disco, savin' lives

We did our ACLS training before our licensing exam. The new guidelines from the American Heart Association emphasize compressions over delivery of air, especially for lay persons.

The hope is that if people have to only focus on one thing - the compressions - they'll be more likely to jump in and help than if they are worried that they will have to do mouth to mouth. And who can blame them. I need a few drinks before I'd consider mouth to mouth on a stranger.

For health care providers, our emphasis is on the compressions too. When in doubt about what to do next in a code, you can't go wrong with compressions.

Ironically, "Another one bites the dust" also has the right rhythm to sing in your head to keep your compression rate perfect.

so many boxes to be unpacked

but look at that well painted wall!!

It's a bit strange being in a city where being a medical student / resident is unusual. People I meet are fascinated and want to know where I went and what's happening next and how it all happened. It's been 4 years since anyone but my family cared.

We are not going to tell out neighbours what I do for as long as possible. We live in a very blue collar area and don't want to stand out. Plus, I'm not sure I'm ready to deal with patio-side consults.