OH MY GIDDY AUNT
Far out. How can words possibly describe the first few days as a House Officer. The whole experience is so freakishly overwhelming. Honestly, I was so scared on my first day. Everything I did made me shake - especially if nobody was checking what I was doing. The first time I charted a drug, and it was only maxalon, made me shake like crazy!
I'm just so scared of making a serious mistake. It's a horrible feeling because you want to know everything about a patient before you do something for them, but if you sit down and think about every single minor point, each job would take hours and you'll never get home! However if you do things too quickly, you get burned. For example I charted maxalon in an elderly patient and the next day a bright yellow sticker was left waiting for me by pharmacy saying that I shouldn't chart it due to extrapyramidal side effects! I also got burned badly by an AT&R reg for a crappy referral. She wrote with big font and asterixes telling me to rewrite the referral with clearer information... I was definitely feeling small after that...
One of the weirdest things has been getting used to having a pager! Sometimes it goes off and I hear it but don't respond to it! It just doesn't click in my brain that I have a pager, it's going off, and it's my job to respond to it! Several times it's been going on and on and on and it's only when somebody near me says, "is that your pager??" that I actually realise what's happening! I guess it's all those years of just ignoring pager sounds as a student.
Ward calls on Monday night was the most freaky thing. My very first call was for a painful red eye. On my way, I was trying to remember all I could about ophthalmology. Painful red eye... infection... glaucoma... exploding eyeball... when I got there, the eye was not painful or red. After asking a few questions, I soon found out that the problem was that he couldn't move his arms and just needed his eyes wiped! So I got a tissue and wiped his eyes for him. YAY! First ward call problem solved!
The rest of the night wasn't too traumatic. Mostly charting fluids and pain relief. Although there wasn't all that much to do, I managed to spend most of it running around like a bunny. In fact, the whole week so far has pretty much been like that. Not many jobs but I fill the day walking between wards, doing jobs in an illogical order, taking ages to figure out simple problems and generally flapping around. Like this morning it took me until 11.30 before I actually achieved something. It would be really interesting to track my movements around the hospital. It would look something like a bowl of instant noodles.
Actually I've been relatively lucky that the work load hasn't been too large. I've also had heaps of help from the other house officer on the team, the house officer buddies around the hospital and all of the other more senior doctors. I know things will get worse, but at least I've had a relatively gentle introduction compared with what I know it could have been. I'm just waiting for the $*** to hit the fan... lots has been coming my way, but none has hit the fan yet. It's just a matter of time... I just know it...
I'm just so scared of making a serious mistake. It's a horrible feeling because you want to know everything about a patient before you do something for them, but if you sit down and think about every single minor point, each job would take hours and you'll never get home! However if you do things too quickly, you get burned. For example I charted maxalon in an elderly patient and the next day a bright yellow sticker was left waiting for me by pharmacy saying that I shouldn't chart it due to extrapyramidal side effects! I also got burned badly by an AT&R reg for a crappy referral. She wrote with big font and asterixes telling me to rewrite the referral with clearer information... I was definitely feeling small after that...
One of the weirdest things has been getting used to having a pager! Sometimes it goes off and I hear it but don't respond to it! It just doesn't click in my brain that I have a pager, it's going off, and it's my job to respond to it! Several times it's been going on and on and on and it's only when somebody near me says, "is that your pager??" that I actually realise what's happening! I guess it's all those years of just ignoring pager sounds as a student.
Ward calls on Monday night was the most freaky thing. My very first call was for a painful red eye. On my way, I was trying to remember all I could about ophthalmology. Painful red eye... infection... glaucoma... exploding eyeball... when I got there, the eye was not painful or red. After asking a few questions, I soon found out that the problem was that he couldn't move his arms and just needed his eyes wiped! So I got a tissue and wiped his eyes for him. YAY! First ward call problem solved!
The rest of the night wasn't too traumatic. Mostly charting fluids and pain relief. Although there wasn't all that much to do, I managed to spend most of it running around like a bunny. In fact, the whole week so far has pretty much been like that. Not many jobs but I fill the day walking between wards, doing jobs in an illogical order, taking ages to figure out simple problems and generally flapping around. Like this morning it took me until 11.30 before I actually achieved something. It would be really interesting to track my movements around the hospital. It would look something like a bowl of instant noodles.
Actually I've been relatively lucky that the work load hasn't been too large. I've also had heaps of help from the other house officer on the team, the house officer buddies around the hospital and all of the other more senior doctors. I know things will get worse, but at least I've had a relatively gentle introduction compared with what I know it could have been. I'm just waiting for the $*** to hit the fan... lots has been coming my way, but none has hit the fan yet. It's just a matter of time... I just know it...
posted by SpongeMike @ 20:08
1 Comments:
"It would look something like a bowl of instant noodles." - Think it as a good chance to exercise! And lose all that central obesity u gained from MMH food! :D
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