Rotation Shake Down!!

Well we finally got our rotation schedule. I was really nervous when we found out in an email during class that we would be getting our schedules right after lecture. Needless to say I dont think I remember a single thing that was taught after that. I am not sure why I was so freaked. I had told myself a long time ago that I have no control over where I go. I even told our clinical coordinator that I didnt care where she sent me, asn long as the rotation site was good and she thought I would do well / learn a lot there. Still I was pretty nervous. Well without further ado:

Clinical Rotation Schedule

1) Aug 31st - Pediatrics
2) Sept 28th - Surgery
3) Oct 26th - Psychiatry
4) Nov 30th - Rural Medicine (elective)
5) Jan 4th - Critical Care (elective)
6) Feb 1st - Family Medicine (2 months)
7) April 5th - OB/GYN (3 weeks at a planned parenthood clinic/ 1 week OB in hospital)
8) May 3rd - Internal Medicine (2 months)
9) July 6th - Emergency Medicine

I am really excited. However my motivation has almost completely run away from me. I need to get my head back in the game. If you see my motivation will you tell it to go back home? Thanks!

M-R

A Word On Punctuality...

Hey guys,

I wanted to devote this next post to Punctuality. This is something that should be a no-brainer, but yet there have been many that have not adhered to this basic, yet fundamental concept. Please be on time to class. If you are not able to be on time to class, then please, in the name of all that is holy, do NOT walk into the classroom after class has already started. This is very distracting, disrespectful, and unprofessional in general. Also, if one of your friends happen to be the one locked outside, do NOT let them in. This is just as disrespectful as the guy walking into class late. There is a simple solution to this, if you must be late just wait outside the classroom until the class takes a break. Then, no harm no fowl.

I guess the bottom line here is I dont really care if people are late that much. What bugs the holy bahjesus outta me is when someone walks into class 40 mins late ... with coffee in hand!!!! Come on, really?!

Don't do it folks, unless you like the feeling of 35 pairs of eyes burning a hole straight through your soul! :-) Oh and remember this old saying and you shall never be late: "If you are on-time ... you're late."

Now, I know you must be thinking to yourself, "Now M-R, have you never been late?" Honestly, yes I have. But again, the point in this is NOT to make things worse by walking into the classroom after the class has already begun as if you are some sort of V.I.P. or something.

Respect your instructers and your fellow classmates; no matter how much they get under your skin. When you get into PA school you are now a professional. Do everything you can to work on being professional.

M-R

P.S. - The picture is supposed to be a joke. I'm really not THAT insensitive...

Surgery ... Not What I Was Expecting

Well our Surgery module is kicking my butt. Not necessarily because the material is hard, but because we have shunned all of our other classes away in order to fit surgery in one week. Here is our schedule for this week:

8AM - Meet in lecture room for Surgery topic lectures

12:30PM - Break for lunch (and you better woof it down fast)

1:00PM - Back to lecture room for more Surgery topic lectures
4:00PM - Either go home and start studying to try and catch up with the enormous amount of material given to you that day OR:

4-6PM - If it is your groups day you go to the suture and "how to gown up for surgery" lab room and practice, practice, practice.

So far it has been that schedule for the past 3 days. Needless to say (maybe?), this week has found me fighting every nerve and muscle in my body to stay awake during the 4 hour lecture marathons.

I thought that when we did surgery we would be talking a lot about procedures, how to do them, what to look out for, etc. Instead we have been more talking about when is it appropriate to do surgery, pre-op/post-op considerations, and prophylactic therapies. Much of what we have been talking about has been a lot of review from the GI module. We really havent talked much about cardiac surgeries or anything like that. I think it's because the PA teaching us right now is teaching us mainly from what he does at their hospital. That's fine I guess. I just wish we were getting a little more diverse exposure. But maybe thats what next year is for.

Well back to work!!

M-R

Half of ACLS Certification In The Bag!

Well today I was tested on my ability to lead a team of 5 other people in a "megacode" in the SIM lab. I have to say that I was pretty nervous going into the testing portion. I'm not exactly sure why I was so nervous, because I knew I knew the algorithms for each of the different potential rhythms. I guess it puts a different spin on things when you are not practicing anymore and the instructors expect you to know what you are doing. Not only know what YOU are doing, but know what the other members of your team are doing and change things if need be.

It wasn't too bad though. Like I said, I knew what I had to do. I guess I was just psyching myself out right before. The rest of my team did really well too. -- For a second I thought we were going to have to push the mannequin off the table and put a couple of our team members on the monitor because they were so nervous. -- It really isn't too bad. Apparently it used to be WAY worse than it is now. Before, you didn't leave ACLS without pretty much breaking down and crying, unless you really knew your stuff! From what we were told by our profs is that it was the worst part of PA school! (That's CRAZY!) Now it is a lot more laid back and ... dare I say fun? Well lets put it this way: after 10 months of sitting on your butt talking about doing medicine it is really nice to actually be able to DO medicine.

So anyways, we still have the written exam portion to take this coming Monday. Hopefully I pass that and I will officially be an ACLS certified provider-student.

On another related note, my girlfriend bought some CPR masks with one-way valves on them for the two of us to keep in our cars. I gotta say I was a little nervous taking it. I don't know why, but I guess I have this feeling that now that I have the mask either I am going to feel obligated to help out at say an accident, or that a situation will actually present itself for me to use the mask. Like I said in an earlier post, I really hope I never have to before CPR on someone, ESPECIALLY someone out and about. Its one thing to start on someone in a hospital where there is plenty of help from people who REALLY REALLY know what they are doing. But when you are out in the middle of a parking lot things are a bit different.

Alright, enough on here, I gotta get back to studying surgery. We have our suture lab coming up Thurs. Let's see how good I am with my hands!

See ya 'til then,

M-R

Busy Week .... Sorta?

Hey guys,

Well like I said in my last post, we have been working on ACLS quite a bit this week. It has been interesting this week because I am so used to juggling multiple classes with the assignments/tests that go along with each of them over the week. This week the only classes we have had have been lectures on emergency medicine, and ACLS classes (both hands-on and lecture based). The weird part about that is that even though we have not had that many "classes" I have still been really busy. That must be why our program has put a hold on all the other classes during the two weeks that we have emergency med and surgery. There just would not have been enough time to cover what we needed to had we not had all day to have just the module classes lectures.

Well, for me this week has still been really busy. I can imagine that the few of us that have been ACLS certified this week must be pretty easy for them. However, I have not taken ACLS so this stuff is all new to me.

A word on ACLS real quick. This is definitly not something that you can simply learn by reading a book. Being the team leader in a code situation is where it is at in terms of really learning what to do in a code. When you simply read the book and learn the algorithms it seems pretty easy. But when you are the one that is calling the shots in the code, and your team is depending on you to organize all aspects of the megacode it can be pretty intimidating. In my opinion the only way to get past the stage of being completely overwhelmed is to keep volunteering to be the team leader whenever there is an opportunity to when you are practicing.

ACLS has been actually fun, once I got over my nerves that is. I think the best part of it is that it is actually hands-on. We actually get to DO something instead of just read about it. - Come to think of it this week has been really hands on. We had the IV lab and then ACLS most of the week. - I have to say I hope that I never actually have to be in a code situation. I am sure almost no one would actually want to be in that situation. But I know that odds are that I will definitly be a part of one. (Hopefully on the provider side and not the patient side!) I just hope that when the times comes I can take a deep breath and do what I have been trained to do.

Well, we have our "test" for ACLS coming up this week on Tuesday. We will be required to act as the team leader in a code that lasts 6 mins. We have to demonstrate not only that we have the knowledge of what to do during a code, but are able to effectively and efficiently manage a team of 5 other people. It should be fun ... I hope. I just hope I don't get really nervous and forget everything I know. I did pretty well during our practice sessions, based on the feedback from the instructors and me teammates. So wish me luck! :-)

M-R