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Professionalism 101

November 29, 2007 By Leave a Comment

I was just browsing through Facebook and looking at a few of my classmates pages. Here’s an interesting post I found on Jane’s (not real name) page. She received an email that I’ve quoted below (with her permission, of course).

Jane,

We noticed on your most recent CSF Quiz that you just wrote down

Jane

While first name use does allow for larger letters and neater handwriting on the line provided, it is not considered very professional for a future physician. If you find that you must shorten your full name for space purposes, we would prefer this version:

J. Doe

Thank-you, in advance, for helping us out in this matter. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, please feel free to contact us at anytime.

Sincerely,
Sharon and/or Rachel

hmm… i’ll have to write that down and file it away under “lessons of the first year”… its great that they teach us these things. i mean, when you’re paying $30,000+ per year, i wanna squeeze out every last bit of advice on how to be a better doctor one day. i would hate to sign only my first name on a prescription pad and have the DEA come after me or something…

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On the Wards – Pediatrics

August 13, 2007 By Leave a Comment

At Orientation I learned that I had been assigned to Pediatrics for my first two weeks before classes begin. Not quite sure what to expect, I followed the directions and found myself sitting in a conference room Monday morning with the rest of the Freshman who had been assigned to Pediatrics.

The group in the conference room also included third and fourth years who were on their Pediatrics rotations. After an orientation to how things were done in the Children’s Hospital, the Attending Physician took sent us off to find the teams we were assigned to. Some first years went to the cardiology consult team, others to the GI team, some to the NICU and others to the PICU.

I, along with one other first year, headed to the Pediatric Teaching Office (PTO). The PTO is located across the street from the Children’s Hospital.

I quickly found out that the PTO is a very relaxing place to rotate through. Over my one week there, most of my time was spent sitting in the office along with the residents.

When the residents did go in to visit patients I was able to go in with them and watch, hand out lolipops, smile, and ask the parents some questions regarding the development of their child. The residents/attendings were really nice about letting me listen to some sounds with my stethoscope. One of the interesting things I had a chance to listen to was a heart murmur that indicated that the patient had a ventricular septal defect.

In between patients, there was not much to do. I did not bring a textbook to study. I would have found it interesting to talk to the 3rd year medical students or even the residents and attendings. But I didn’t want to get in their way. Those not seeing patients were busy looking up things on the internet, reading an article, telling jokes, discussing wedding plans, and describing the latest exciting cases going on across the street in the main hospital.

As a first year it was at times very overwhelming because I had no idea what the acronyms and jargon meant. I couldn’t chime in on the discussions of exotic childhood diseases or advise on the appropriate vaccination for a 6 month old coming in for a “well child check-up.” I did, however, appreciate being able to watch a number of different doctor interacting with their patients. It is interesting to note the different styles — some bad, but mostly good. Those little things will definitely be something to pay attention to as I cultivate my own style in dealing and interacting with patients.

Part of me feels like I just want to get through these first two weeks of “Clinical Experience” and start lectures. At least I will have something to do. And I will know what to do — study. But I realize that once lectures start I will miss the PTO.

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Pine Springs Ranch Retreat

October 1, 2006 By 1 Comment

This past weekend we just had our Pine Springs Ranch Retreat. Every year, Loma Linda University School of Medicine invites all their students on a weekend retreat to Pine Springs Ranch. The Pine Springs Ranch tradition began in the 1970s and in the 1990s an endowment fund was created with the hopes of ensuring that future retreats would have the necessary funds. The event is free of charge to the students and a guest if they decide to bring one.

All of the first year guys were assigned to cabins. All married couples as well as the rest of the students got to stay in the lodge.

The retreat began on Friday and concluded on Sunday. However, most students left Saturday night after the ever-popular talent show featuring the medical students.

I think the weekend was a great experience. It was nice to get to know more of our classmates in a setting other than the classroom or anatomy lab. It was also a chance to meet the other classes and talk to them as well.

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Fuzzy Lines

September 4, 2006 By Leave a Comment

The school year “began” on August 7. The first two weeks, however, were not spent in the lecture hall. Instead, we had two weeks of wards experience. Most people were assigned to a third or fourth year student and we followed them on their two-week rotation.

I was assigned to a fourth year student who happened to be doing a rotation through MICU/CCU. During the first week, our attending was a cardiologist and so the majority of our patients were on the CCU service; although there were times when we did venture out of the CCU.

On one of the mornings I came in and sat as the fourth year student I was assigned to wrote his notes. We were sitting at the nurses’ station in the CCU. A nurse came and stood beside me. She looked like she was getting something at the printer. But then, another nurse called her for help and off she ran to a patient’s room. Then the blue light above the doorway of that room began flashing and an alarm went off.

Chaos ensued. Nurses, medical students, and residents ran to do the room. I wasn’t sure what to do. Should I follow? Should I stand at the nurses’ station? Could I go watch? I ended standing near the doorway so as to peer in at what was unfolding.

The team grabbed the crash cart. Someone got the defibrilator ready. A loud voice yelled, “Clear!”

Nothing happened. They tried again. Still, nothing happened. They yelled for another machine. Someone rushed one over from down the hallway…

A couple other first-year students gathered with me outside the room. Someone yelled to page surgery because the patient was a surgery patient. Soon a surgical resident arrived and asked us (the first year students) who the resident was inside. He just looked inside and started working on his pager…

As we stood outside watching we saw a medical student (3rd or 4th year) get on the bed and begin chest compressions. He would trade off with another person every few minutes. I am not too sure what happened about using the defibrilator….

A nurse walks into the room and tells the team that the family has asked that they stop. The patient was coding for over 15 minutes. I heard the resident call the time of death…

I had always thought of the line between life and death as a solid line. One was either dead or alive, right (and please don’t bring up Schrödinger’s cat)? There is no in between. But for over a quarter of an hour, I watched as a patient lay on a bed with no change in condition. There was no breathing throughout that time, nor was there a heartbeat. But only when they declared the time of death was the patient “dead.” If you ask me, that’s a pretty fuzzy line…

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Registration & Orientation

August 5, 2006 By Leave a Comment

On Thursday and Friday (August 3-4) Loma Linda University had an orientation for the incoming freshman class. By 8:00 AM on Thursday morning, 175 eager, anxious, excited, and nervous students had found their way into the Wong Kerlee International Conference Center located on the basement level of Coleman Pavilion (home to the Loma Linda University School of Medicine).

Over the next two days we sat through hours of presentations which ranged in topics from “How to succeed in medical school” to expected behavior and dress of students. On the first day we were deluged with “welcomes” from deans, administrators, faculty, and other students. We were also captive audiences to the marketing from various on-campus groups that wanted us to sign-up with them.

Afternoons were left for us to do as we pleased. However, those students who had not yet finished all the registration requirements were advised to go and complete them. This involved asking the records office to sign one up for classes, obtaining financial clearance, requesting a parking permit from security, and taking pictures for a school ID as well as a medical center ID.

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