Field notes

Well, I’m a couple of weeks in now and only starting to feel semi-organized with the recent development of my study schedule and a slightly more familiar sense of direction in the hospital. It’s been (and will continue to be) a steep learning curve.

A couple of things of note in the last week, I’ve noticed that some of the women (patient’s moms) have a different reaction to me than to the male residents and pediatricians. I haven’t spent enough time with any female pediatricians to see if it’s specific to me/my style or a reaction to my gender. Once I was interviewing a patient when the male paediatrician came in. I tried to do the hand off of info I’d collected so far and he tried to collect the remainder of the info, but a couple of times when the mom wasn’t sure what he was asking, she looked at me with a question/Help! look in her eyes, at which point I jumped in, interpreting into layspeak what he was saying. The same thing happened with another patient’s mom. I’m not sure if it’s because I had started both interviews and they therefore were looking to me for clarity or ?? Anyway, it’s going to be something I continue to observe and try to figure out during this year of rotations.

Today when I was out for a run (actually really I should be describing it as more of a high-impact walk with the speed I’m going) I was reminded about something they said to us in the MBA. On our first day of school and after pumping us up re being the future CEO’s of Canada, they said, “You have 3 things that you need to do during this program – academic work, social activities and physical activity. But you’ll only have time for 2 of them. And academics had better be one of them.” I think that’s really coming true for me this year and unlike previously, I’ve decided to make physical activity one of two. I think I’ll need the mental and physical health to get through the academic part of the year, so my usual social activities are already being curtailed. Yuk. Feel free to write though – I can read fast. :)

Over the last 2 weeks I’ve been thrown into lots of things and feeling a bit out of my league a few times but I’ve decided that even when my heart says “No” in that timid, scared voice in terms of volunteering to do things, my head & mouth need to say “Yes!” since that’s the only way I’ll get to experience and learn what I need to. However, luckily sometimes they’re just joking when they ask. Like the urologist I was with on Friday assisting on some circumcisions – after I assisted with the first 2, he said “Ok, so you’ve seen a couple, how about you do the next one?” and then promptly started to laugh. Thankfully I only had to do one stitch (Note: Being slow will reduce the chance of being asked to do very many stitches it seems).

Also this week I started to see some similarities re getting things done in business vs the hospital. No matter where you go, people do things you ask them to do because they like you, not because it’s in their job description. Pretty much everything that’s done extra carefully, quickly or cheaply is done as a ‘favour’. Recognizing that commonality has helped me so far – I think the nurses that I’ve been working with like me and they’ve started showing me how the ward equipment works. I sense I’m going to learn a lot from them in the coming weeks…and I’m looking forward to it.