After my month of medicine at University I was went to Tulane hospital. The month was really busy more so than university. So I have thought about how I am going to write a synopsis about how the last month went, along with how medicine was in general. So instead of going on and on. Im going to try to make a list of the things I liked and didn’t like, hopefully it works.
Things I enjoyed
taking care of complicated uninsured patients
Being in complete control of patient care, making the decisions and writing the orders, and not just giving advice to the primary team.
diagnosing and learning about a wide variety of diseases
having my own patients, and really getting to know them
Feeling like I had a somewhat important role on the team, even if it wasn’t all the time
Going to things like morning report, Tuesday school, and EKG lectures. Having more methods of learning than just reading a book on my own time.
Getting to watch procedures like lumbar punctures and central line placements
Getting to play with a scalpel and drain a diabetic foot wound
Finally getting to apply a lot of the things that I crammed in my head during second year
Helping patients understand their illness
teaching diabetic patients about nutrition
doing things the nurses don’t always have time for like giving a patient a backrub, bringing a warm towel, making a calendar for my one guy that was there for 8 weeks
interacting with different sub specialties like cardiology, neurology, radiology, etc.
learning how to get things done on your own, and not relying on ancillary staff, there is a sense of independence that comes with this and at times can be redeeming.
Having a great attending at Tulane that would make time for students, have give us lectures on whatever we wanted.
Having a great resident at University that was organized and efficient
Knowing how to read an EKG with some amount of confidence.
Things I disliked
taking care of complicated uninsured patients that refused to manage there disease once they were out the doors of the hospital
Being on call, and not sleeping enough
Not having a weekend off in two months
Having constant things to do, like going to class in the afternoon, writing presentations and case reports
The horrible nursing staff at University
Having a couple incompetent interns, and being scared that some people are doctors
The complete disconnect between the health care needs of this city, and the infrastructure provided
discussing small details about a patient at length that ultimately aren’t going to matter.
having a good opinion about something, but nobody listening because you're just the med student.
The fact that some attendings care about the med students, and some could give a crap, essentially the complete lack of standardization in the protocol for how attendings are supposed to interact with the students, and how much is to be taught on the wards.
Being bothered with scut work the week of the exam.
Working with people everyday that I would rather scratch my eyes out than work another day with them.
Evaluations that don’t make any sense, or not getting an evaluation at all. The general lack of feedback
Studying every spare second for a month, and still getting my teeth kicked in on the written exam.
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