From reading my last post it may seem like I went straight from finishing Step I to my 3rd year orientation but that isn’t the case at all. I bought a video game and played it til I beat it…I went to the beach and burned my notes from the first 2 years…I went out to a bunch of restaurants…I didn’t study. The combination of all those thing really helped me to rest. This past Monday marked our first day of orientation and overall the whole week has been pretty informative and boring.
My orientation week went like this:
MONDAY: The Dean of Career Advisement spoke to us about…our future careers and what we need to do in order to make sure that we match into our desired specialties. The information was pretty much a repeat of what you could have found out by reading the threads at the Student Doctor Network, but surprisingly a lot of my classmates don’t do this so I’m sure it was helpful to them. After that we had a long lecture on smoking cessation which I think is mandated by the government. After that we had our PPD test (test for tuberculosis) and then we were free.
TUESDAY: The Deans came back and informed us about what it took to pass each rotation our 3rd year, what would happen if we found out that we failed Step 1, what to do if we experienced sexual harassment, etc. After that I had to go to a mask fitting session (also mandated by many hospitals) where they fit me for a special mask that I would need to wear when I was around patients with serious airborne diseases. Also the coolest thing ever happened…I got my official hospital 2-way pager:
Most resident physicians hate these things because a new page usually means more work for them, but for the medical students it allows us to text message our fellow medstudent friends and do some work every now and then, lol. Also, when it goes off it makes you look important…whatever that means.
WEDNESDAY: The Deans of the school wrapped up our orientation and we had our arms examined to see whether we are positive for TB or not. Later that afternoon I had to go to the Loma Linda VA Hospital where they took us through a training session on how to use to computer system, how to log onto the system and access patient data, and how to search for important patient info. We also got our log-in information for the Loma Linda University Hospital today which was pretty cool too; I was excited about getting the log in information because for my first 2 years, whenever I would be in the hospital, I would already feel useless since I didn’t know much, and that feeling would get even worse when a busy resident would ask me to find some info quick on the computer and I couldn’t do it because I didn’t have log-in information yet.
THURSDAY: Today was called Ethics Day, where for reasons that still none of my classmates can understand the school decided to subject us to lectures on different ethics subjects from 9:00 a.m. to bloody 5:00 p.m.!!!! Never in my life had I been in lecture for that much time; I mean some of the information was useful like how to do deal with Jehovah’s Witnesses preventing their children from having life-saving blood transfusions or how to do deal patients wanting to discontinue their vent, but overall it seems like we could have gotten a 2 hour condensed version instead. Anyways, the only good thing that came out of this day was what you see below…MY NEW EMBROIDERED WHITE COAT!!!:
The white coats that we got at our white coat ceremony 2 years ago was just plain white and it had a button that had my name on it. These new coats still make us stand out because they are short but at least they look a little nicer. So with orientation done now, I am looking forward to starting my first rotation tomorrow. My wife and I both start off on Internal Medicine at the clinic; I’ve talked with a couple of 4th year medical students and they have recommended that I read Step-Up Medicine and that I carry Pocket Medicine in my white coat. I have a PDA loaded with UptoDate, Pocket Medicine, Tarascon Pharmacopia, Sanford’s Antimicrobial Guide, and Mobile DDx, so hopefully I should be covered for Internal Medicine.
My biggest fears about starting on Monday are that my book smartness may not translate into amazing bedside manners. I really desire for my patients to feel comfortable around me and at ease, but I also want to be able to treat them in the most efficient manner instilling confidence in them that they will eventually get better because of the care they are receiving. I guess I just want to be a well rounded and complete doctor who isn’t just good at surgery, or making the diagnosis, or making my patient laugh, but all of the above. We will see how it all goes.
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