Well another semester is over and another break full of things that need to be done has started.
This week I'm on the pediatric ward!
I was appointed the general pediatric ward. I showed up at 8 to find another med student and an intern already there. The first day on a new ward is always a combination of chaos and boredom. Chaos because you have no idea who does what, where things are and how things are done specifically. There is always a timeframe (usually on non-surgical wards) where everyone is busy working on their own things and as a newbie, it is difficult to find productive work. This time is usually spent reading and rereading charts in order to look occupied and try to remember as much as possible about each patient.
The morning was spent getting to know all the patients before the grand rounds started. Mondays is grand rounds day. We ended up being a huge entourage of chief, attending, residents, intern, students, nurses and psychologist going from room to room. The kids were quite cooperative though.
I like peds as a specialty. The peds ward is like no other. The kids were racing on little carts. The lungs were listend to in the "pit stop" before they were able to proceed with their race. Kids are running all over the place, yelling, drawing, playing, etc. It is quite the fun environment. The kids tend to be quite cooperative. The bigger problem is usually the parents. Usually they are rightfully concerned but sometimes they just really make life unnecessarily hard for the doctors. All part of the job.
We had kids with all sorts of diseases on the ward today ranging form infections to chronic diseases to circumstances quite bizarre (but can't be discussed due to patient confidentiality). Let's just say it's never monotone.
After the morning meeting with all the pediatric wards, we students took a lunch break.
Back on the ward, more specific work was done. I was given a patient for the week. My responsibilities included finding out what diagnostic work up still had to be performed, looking for findings and starting to compose the doctors letter.
We are required to present a patient to the attending during rounds and on Friday we will have a sit down with the attending to further discuss our patient and be asked a few questions.
So what am I up to the next few weeks?
This week peds. This Friday I have a night shift. Sunday I have a 26 hour shift in the delivery room(I am hoping a lot of babies decide to be born in that time). On Tuesday I have a 10 hour OBGYN shift on the ward. The rest of February will be filled with a lot of lab work. I really need to make some progress on my doctor thesis if I ever want the thing to be done. I have three more night shifts towards the end of the month. In March I will go to Ghana for a month to work there. I am quite excited for that adventure.
I will be reporting about peds, OBGYN and of course Ghana! So feel free to stop by and see what I am up to. I appreciate your interest and time reading this!
Hope you enjoy!
Baci
V
will follow with interest!
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