Fifth-cum-sixth year elective sorted! Sort-of. Well, everyone has agreed to have me via email; I've just got to get various bits of paper work to seal the deal.
So, should I successfully pass the FIFTH YEAR OSCE OF DOOM and proceed to the next level, I'll be spending a month in a ~150 bed regional hospital in country WA. By the beach. In wine country. And then I'll be spending another month in Sri Lanka with a registrar I had on surgery last year. He made Sri Lankan medical teaching sound far superior to the Australian model (we're all lazy, entitled, don't see enough patients, have no discipline, rely on too many tests and not our clinical judgement etc. etc.), so I'll look forward to gaining some superior clinical skillz during my time there. Plus, I'll get to eat more Sri Lankan food and fall in love all over again with that beautiful country.
And then, after that? I'm thinking I'll keep on traveling. We've got 4 weeks holiday in February 2013 and I'm going to use it, because - dammit! I'm a student and I've got the time. Time i'm not going to have when I'm working again. Now I've just got to find the funds to make my plans come true.
I'm excited!
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Secretly
Just secretly: sometimes I google pictures of labradors just for a laugh. Their silly faces make me smile every time.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Actually...
I hate clinic. I knew I hated surgical clinics, but turns out I hate all kinds of clinic. I've sat in radiotherapy clinics and haem clinics and oncology clinics in the last fortnight, and I am 100% sure that my career decisions in the future will be partly informed by the percentage of time spent in a clinic.
I REALLY hate clinic.
So, I guess that's a 'no' for oncology from me.
I REALLY hate clinic.
So, I guess that's a 'no' for oncology from me.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Good news med
I'm verging on excited because I've just found a specialty I can circumspectly, maybe - but yes - actually imagine myself doing. I mean, I'm not making any commitment of hope at this stage, but yes - I'm interested.
And what is it? Oncology. Cancer. Chemo... all that jazz. I'm loving it. Which may sound kind of wrong - except it's gripping stuff.
Anyway, that's all I have to say about that for the moment. I must do more research about this area before I get too carried away. And you know there's the problem of it being a medical specialty - which means basic physician training, which by all accounts sounds like a cruel and unusual torture. And there's the fact that I'm too old and no one will want to hire me in the years to come... but yes, apart from that I'm excited.
_______
And in other exciting medical news: I finished my last rotation with some really encouraging and complementary feedback from the consultant. And it felt good! The consultant was someone to admire and on the second last day he organised feedback sessions with my med buddy and I.
He said I had a really strong knowledge base and had a great rapport with the patients. He also told me I'd 'stepped up to the plate', I'd performed beyond my level and had quickly made myself a valuable member of the team.
I don't know what he said to my buddy - maybe he says this kind of thing to everyone? Still - who doesn't appreciate some kind words and encouragement, especially when it concerns something that you really care about and put effort into?
Maybe it's nothing special, but it was encouraging to me. Mostly I feel invisible in the course, and I am never quite sure if I'm doing okay or not. So it's nice to know - I'm doing okay. Thank-you!
And what is it? Oncology. Cancer. Chemo... all that jazz. I'm loving it. Which may sound kind of wrong - except it's gripping stuff.
Anyway, that's all I have to say about that for the moment. I must do more research about this area before I get too carried away. And you know there's the problem of it being a medical specialty - which means basic physician training, which by all accounts sounds like a cruel and unusual torture. And there's the fact that I'm too old and no one will want to hire me in the years to come... but yes, apart from that I'm excited.
_______
And in other exciting medical news: I finished my last rotation with some really encouraging and complementary feedback from the consultant. And it felt good! The consultant was someone to admire and on the second last day he organised feedback sessions with my med buddy and I.
He said I had a really strong knowledge base and had a great rapport with the patients. He also told me I'd 'stepped up to the plate', I'd performed beyond my level and had quickly made myself a valuable member of the team.
I don't know what he said to my buddy - maybe he says this kind of thing to everyone? Still - who doesn't appreciate some kind words and encouragement, especially when it concerns something that you really care about and put effort into?
Maybe it's nothing special, but it was encouraging to me. Mostly I feel invisible in the course, and I am never quite sure if I'm doing okay or not. So it's nice to know - I'm doing okay. Thank-you!
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Due for decent rain
I was focused on the footpath on my walk home from the train station this evening. It took me a while to realise the patchwork of baked on reds and faded yellows on the concrete was in fact evidence of too many on too many hot summer nights. Vomit.
We need some decent rain to clean this place up a little.
We need some decent rain to clean this place up a little.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Things I'm doing right
I'm not alone in having a tendency to focus on what I'm doing wrong, and not what I do right. So with that in mind, here's a few quick thoughts on some positive progressive I'm making:
REGULAR EXERCISE. You brush your teeth everyday, iron your clothes, do the dishes... and exercise? After following an irregular routine of exercise for most of last year, I wanted to make getting hot and sweating and a little breathless part of normal hygiene. So far I've succeeded; sometimes despite myself. Exercise is a wonderful thing, but sometimes you've got to convince yourself - but that after glow is worth it. I know I'm only transformed in my mind, but after a really good workout, I'm hotter, younger, smarter, fantastic. Yeah!
GOOD COMMUNICATION. Okay, sometimes I fall down when it comes to personal relationships, but I think with patients, I am a good communicator. I'm an active listener, getting better at steering the course between time management and letting patients get whatever off their chest. I really do care about the patients on our team. Even the difficult ones. And I think I'm improving on the concise patient summary delivery to others. The best part is: I think I'll only get better with time and practice.
TIME MANAGEMENT. Since I became a born-again student, I've been improving on this each year. It's not always easy to balance personal responsibilities, work, hospital time, study - all that jazz - but it happens and I'm getting better at it. Sometimes I wish I could give my boyfriend more time and more attention, but I could ask the same favour of him. This is life.
CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. Okay, I'm not there yet, but this was my new year's resolution: to be more conscientious, have better attention to detail, etc. I can report I have been using a diary and so far I haven't had "where am I meant to be? What was it that I should have done already?" moments. Early days yet, but I'm making an effort okay!
REGULAR EXERCISE. You brush your teeth everyday, iron your clothes, do the dishes... and exercise? After following an irregular routine of exercise for most of last year, I wanted to make getting hot and sweating and a little breathless part of normal hygiene. So far I've succeeded; sometimes despite myself. Exercise is a wonderful thing, but sometimes you've got to convince yourself - but that after glow is worth it. I know I'm only transformed in my mind, but after a really good workout, I'm hotter, younger, smarter, fantastic. Yeah!
GOOD COMMUNICATION. Okay, sometimes I fall down when it comes to personal relationships, but I think with patients, I am a good communicator. I'm an active listener, getting better at steering the course between time management and letting patients get whatever off their chest. I really do care about the patients on our team. Even the difficult ones. And I think I'm improving on the concise patient summary delivery to others. The best part is: I think I'll only get better with time and practice.
TIME MANAGEMENT. Since I became a born-again student, I've been improving on this each year. It's not always easy to balance personal responsibilities, work, hospital time, study - all that jazz - but it happens and I'm getting better at it. Sometimes I wish I could give my boyfriend more time and more attention, but I could ask the same favour of him. This is life.
CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. Okay, I'm not there yet, but this was my new year's resolution: to be more conscientious, have better attention to detail, etc. I can report I have been using a diary and so far I haven't had "where am I meant to be? What was it that I should have done already?" moments. Early days yet, but I'm making an effort okay!
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Career considerations
I've got a really lovely registrar at the moment. She's one year a way from not being a registrar anymore, so she's knowledgeable, she's experienced - and because she's a registrar and not a consultant yet, she's also there. Generous enough to involve me in most things, patient enough to let me work things through.
But you know, at the end of the next 8 days, she'll have worked 14 days straight and had at least five 16 hour days, one over-night and 3 mornings that started at 7am after finishing at 11pm the night before.
She also has a daughter. The other morning she was up at 4.30am baking cupcakes for her daughter's birthday that she wouldn't be there for. And she's always so lovely. Always.
Part of the story is that she's been helping out another reg who sits his exams tomorrow. She also said this isn't typical of all her rotations. Last year, she was doing her specialty - which is more outpatient clinic heavy, no on-call, and more normal people hours - and this rotation is just part of her gen med component... but still. I ask her what her husband thinks - and she laughs, a little too long. She laughs some more and said he's looking forward to next year. And so's she.
Kiko doesn't like it because I'm swinging between uni and work and study. The other day he mused: "you know my friends, they have weekends with their partners. They can go away, spend time together, they've got time..." And you know the inference: I don't - I don't have the time. Which would be the case, whatever I'm studying - but I don't know I can look forward to a time when I will have lazy weekends ahead of me. He asked: "can I look forward to something different?"
Following the reg around, I wondered if I could be her in ten years time - but be ten years older. Is this what I want my life to be like? And at what cost? Is this what my boyfriend wants my life to be like?
The reg is trying to persuade me that GP is the answer, but I don't know. There's much about her job that I do like. The specialty. The patients. The hospital - I actually like being in a hospital. I like the people, the low level chaos. The discussion. The process. But how much does that all amount to? I don't think I could know until I've walked a while in her shoes.
I have my first proper taste of GP later in the year beyond my adventure to the Pilbara over a year ago now and a little bit during psychiatry. My impression of GP is of an office, a desk, in a room on your own. Even up in frontier town where the medicine was exciting and challenging, I didn't want to be stuck in that office. I like the idea of rural or regional GP - to some extent, but I wouldn't want to be in an inner urban practice writing out scripts for the OCP and SSRIs for the years to come. It's a thought that makes me wonder why I didn't just stay in the public service?
But of course, that's my impression based on just a little bit here and there. It's probably unfair and maybe completely wrong - but that's not what I'm hoping for - and it's not easy to change your aspirations and inclinations based on hardships and pressures and tensions that are only theoretical for me at this point. Again, I think I can only really know how much I can endure, what I can manage and how much my partner is willing to tolerate once we've given it a go.
Still, don't you wish you could have it all? Do you hear the horror stories and think 'yeah, but it'll be different for me"? Because I also hope for miracles. When weekends can be squeezed into a parallel universe and ample sleep is something you manage in express time. Things will be different because somehow I'll be more organised than the very organised, efficient woman I follow around in the day; somehow I'll do things better even when she seems to do it so well.
Right.
But you know, at the end of the next 8 days, she'll have worked 14 days straight and had at least five 16 hour days, one over-night and 3 mornings that started at 7am after finishing at 11pm the night before.
She also has a daughter. The other morning she was up at 4.30am baking cupcakes for her daughter's birthday that she wouldn't be there for. And she's always so lovely. Always.
Part of the story is that she's been helping out another reg who sits his exams tomorrow. She also said this isn't typical of all her rotations. Last year, she was doing her specialty - which is more outpatient clinic heavy, no on-call, and more normal people hours - and this rotation is just part of her gen med component... but still. I ask her what her husband thinks - and she laughs, a little too long. She laughs some more and said he's looking forward to next year. And so's she.
Kiko doesn't like it because I'm swinging between uni and work and study. The other day he mused: "you know my friends, they have weekends with their partners. They can go away, spend time together, they've got time..." And you know the inference: I don't - I don't have the time. Which would be the case, whatever I'm studying - but I don't know I can look forward to a time when I will have lazy weekends ahead of me. He asked: "can I look forward to something different?"
Following the reg around, I wondered if I could be her in ten years time - but be ten years older. Is this what I want my life to be like? And at what cost? Is this what my boyfriend wants my life to be like?
The reg is trying to persuade me that GP is the answer, but I don't know. There's much about her job that I do like. The specialty. The patients. The hospital - I actually like being in a hospital. I like the people, the low level chaos. The discussion. The process. But how much does that all amount to? I don't think I could know until I've walked a while in her shoes.
I have my first proper taste of GP later in the year beyond my adventure to the Pilbara over a year ago now and a little bit during psychiatry. My impression of GP is of an office, a desk, in a room on your own. Even up in frontier town where the medicine was exciting and challenging, I didn't want to be stuck in that office. I like the idea of rural or regional GP - to some extent, but I wouldn't want to be in an inner urban practice writing out scripts for the OCP and SSRIs for the years to come. It's a thought that makes me wonder why I didn't just stay in the public service?
But of course, that's my impression based on just a little bit here and there. It's probably unfair and maybe completely wrong - but that's not what I'm hoping for - and it's not easy to change your aspirations and inclinations based on hardships and pressures and tensions that are only theoretical for me at this point. Again, I think I can only really know how much I can endure, what I can manage and how much my partner is willing to tolerate once we've given it a go.
Still, don't you wish you could have it all? Do you hear the horror stories and think 'yeah, but it'll be different for me"? Because I also hope for miracles. When weekends can be squeezed into a parallel universe and ample sleep is something you manage in express time. Things will be different because somehow I'll be more organised than the very organised, efficient woman I follow around in the day; somehow I'll do things better even when she seems to do it so well.
Right.
