Oh crap, it's serious, not just a 2 month frolic in the big city.
Day one at Beth Israel started with the usual form filling-in and ID cards, etc, and then I got my green scrubs - of course they are too short, and I look like a big, big dork (cry!). I then headed upstairs to the labour and delivery ward where I will spend my first week. My comfort blanket (the med student co-ordinator) left me on the ward and I was suddenly led into a triage room, handed an H&P form (which I later learned just meant history and physical) and asked to take an Ob history from a very lovely, heavily pregnant lady who was having regular contractions and about to burst. I was momentarily stunned. "Um, um, um... gosh, think Kath! Ob history. You know how to do this!"
Nice introduction. I continued the day interviewing triage patients and observing the residents examine them. I was posed the usual probe-the-visitor questions - Where are you from, Where are you staying, Why did you come here, Don't elective students go sit on beaches and pretend they're doing tropical medicine or something? Right then, I wished that I was! My feet, hips and knees were so sore from standing all day, my jet-lag had returned and I hadn't had a thing to eat or drink since 6am! I was grumpy!
The afternoon dragged, and it wasn't helped by the fact that the term patient I had been following since arriving on the ward looked like her labour was slowing. I thought, "I leave at 6.30pm, please, please, please push your bub out today so that I can leave here in a better mood, and not want to run away to Costa Rica tomorrow." 6.25pm and the residents are about to hand over to the night shift, and a nurse yells out, "Bed 9 is pushing." That's me! Yay! I had a gorgeous baby girl by 6.40pm. She had made my day! Followed the resident to complete the paperwork, send off bloods, etc, and as I'm leaving the nightshift's chief resident tells me that rounds are at 6.30am. What!?!?
I was out of there by 7.15pm, and in bed at 8pm. Wow, was that a tough day. It was not only physically exhausting, but I was mentally drained too - all the new abbreviations, medication names, trying to understand accents and interpret the rapidity of speech!, and at the same time ensuring that the staff know that I'm excited, interested, keen to learn... Even reminding myself that I was in NY wasn't helping.
I arrived for day 2 feeling like a veteran of the L&D ward. 12 hour shift ahead of me, 6.30am-6.30pm. Rounded, assisted in a caesarian section and a vaginal delivery, all before 12pm. The rest of the day dragged, much like yesterday, until later in the evening when triage was swamped with incoming patients. I interviewed a few, the format of which I now have down pat, and followed residents around again until it was home time. Gosh, who would have thought that after only 2 days in L&D I would feel like it was time to move on.
Today is Day 3 and interviews are on for the resident program for this year. I decided to pay a visit to the student co-ordinator and ask about the other services I could sit in with. I ran into some of the local med students on L&D and they tell me that because of the interviews, there's nothing going on on the ward today till after about 1pm. Fab! The student co-ordinator then introduces me to the student supervisor for Ob/Gyn - my angel for today!
So she says, "You can choose what you want to do or not do, it's your elective." She goes on, "That's the beauty of being a 4th year, you can really do anything. Move around and get a feel for the program." I had spent the last 2 days defending that I was not interested in a residency program here and that 4th year in Aus is not like 4th year in the US, which is mostly elective time spent trying out hospitals and programs that interest you for the future, but I don't care today, I'll take it today, and pretend that I am trying them on.
To me, my supervisor's words translated to, "Take today off and see New York." So that's what I'm doing. I feel like heading downtown and seeing the water. And maybe catching a movie and having some warm dumplings in Chinatown. Mmmm. I'm happy to be here again.
