Woooo hooo! Finally finished my MICU elective at Cleveland Clinic, and as fantastic as it was, it was loooong. I'll miss the environment & my team, but I won't miss the 30 hr. shifts and the 3-4 hr. long ward rounds. I enjoyed the work in MICU, but man, those ward rounds...seriously, it's nearly the biggest thing keeping me from going into medicine. I definitely need an active medicine where ward rounds and conferences are minimal. I'd be more of a surgery person, but I can't stand the thought of such repetition, doing the same procedures day in and day out, or those really long 7-hr. ones. I think I'll be able to do an elective in ER at CCF in November, so they won't get rid of me for too long! It'll be great to see what ER is like here, I loved A&E (accident & emergency) in Ireland. I'm glad I learned loads, saw a lot of interesting cases, got over acting like a med student idiot and got an idea of what working in the US is like. Also met some really fun people, med students and residents alike, got a good eval and hopefully an LOR (if he doesn't forget).
I might have said before...I can completely see how doctors get so absorbed into their work and become married to medicine (which doesn't bode very well for social life/relationships!) and I can conceivably see myself being sucked in in the future. That thought is a little depressing, but at least I know now that I love medicine and I'm definitely going into something that's right for me, which I suppose is good! And I also got to see the crazy work that'll have to be put in to advance or direct your career in the way you want it to go. Scary, but who doesn't like a good challenge?
But now I'm ready for my few days of summer next weekend when I go to London for a 3 day pissup!
Before that, have to take the Step 2 CS. I haven't prepared much for it, but I don't feel I really need to. It's mainly English proficiency, H&P and physical exams. I'm not the best with HEENT and Neuro exams, but we'll see how it goes. Will post about it. Anything would be better than my Step 1 anyway! So driving to Atlanta on Sunday to take the damn thing on Tuesday. I hope I don't crash and burn in London!
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Life in the Cleveland Clinic
So I'm post-call yet again, seeing how coherently I can ramble on before I fall asleep at the keyboard. I'm not sure whether napping during call actually helps or not. Cokes definitely don't keep me awake, just make me crash further plus have to pee. I'm still enjoying it and learning a lot, but things are a little slower now than my first week - for some reason, my team isn't getting slammed with codes and new admits like other teams are. Which I suppose is lucky and good, but we're just feeling a bit bored and slacker-ish :). I got a new patient yesterday, but then she was floored and out of our service so the most I did was the admit note. Doing less doesn't make you any less tired though, you're probably more awake when you're up and running around. I still enjoy calls, but they're starting to wear me down a little. Only 2 more left!
The living quarters here are pretty basic, and you can hear everything! When someone goes to the toilet or has a shower, when someone's typing, etc. So can't get a lie in past 6 am! Most of us have long days, and most everyone tries to do a little reading if we can and aren't too tired, but it's hard cuz all we want to do is have fun and watch tv. I've met a few fun and awesome fellow students here, which is a relief. And the residents/fellows/attendings themselves are nice and not averse to some fun, so that's a relief too. This would be a really nice place to do a rotation, I think, although I imagine it'd be hard to get in. Maybe it helps that I know the city too.
Taking the Step 2 CS in 1.5 weeks. I haven't "studied" as much as I've wanted to, but I'm not too worried. All I need to do is review some exams, maybe practice with people (it hasn't really helped that my patients aren't conscious, although I could possibly get in some practicing without feeling like I'm intruding! sounds bad, I know). Seems like my whole life for the past year has been just studying and reading, and it'll definitely be like that next year too if not worse. I hope some of it's going in!
The living quarters here are pretty basic, and you can hear everything! When someone goes to the toilet or has a shower, when someone's typing, etc. So can't get a lie in past 6 am! Most of us have long days, and most everyone tries to do a little reading if we can and aren't too tired, but it's hard cuz all we want to do is have fun and watch tv. I've met a few fun and awesome fellow students here, which is a relief. And the residents/fellows/attendings themselves are nice and not averse to some fun, so that's a relief too. This would be a really nice place to do a rotation, I think, although I imagine it'd be hard to get in. Maybe it helps that I know the city too.
Taking the Step 2 CS in 1.5 weeks. I haven't "studied" as much as I've wanted to, but I'm not too worried. All I need to do is review some exams, maybe practice with people (it hasn't really helped that my patients aren't conscious, although I could possibly get in some practicing without feeling like I'm intruding! sounds bad, I know). Seems like my whole life for the past year has been just studying and reading, and it'll definitely be like that next year too if not worse. I hope some of it's going in!
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