Sixteen days left on this shit-tastic rotation. Sixteen days. I count every one. Each morning as part of my routine, I like to look at the calendar and count down. It’s as if by some miracle I’ve hit the fast-forward button and all of a sudden I only have to be here 2 more days.
I like to let the gunners know how much time we have left on the rotation. You should see the look on their faces. I always make it a point to say it in front of their attending or resident too; that makes it more entertaining. I know one thing’s for fucking sure, they’ll never forget when they have to leave the rotation as long as I’m around.
Just last Friday, 3 hours of “learning” was spread out into 13.5 hours of my life. Academic medicine gets the medal for wasting time and money. Actually, they invented it. It’s pretty bad when you see the breakfast, lunch and dinner trays brought out to the patients and you don’t get to eat yourself.
I sit in the ICU listening to the beep, beep, beep of EKGs and IVs that have gotten kinked. Hour after hour, day after day.
Just another day in hell.
Sixteen more to go.
So what’s your next rotation? Have you liked any of them thus far? Do you have any friends in your class or on rotations with you, because you make it seem as though you are an island unto yourself. You’ve got to have at least ONE friend that is not a gunner, right?
Yeah, I have tons of friends that aren’t goody-goody on the rotations with me. It’s the gunners, attendings and the whole medical training process in general that piss me off. I like to write about my experiences in that regard.
This is actually my last “real” rotation. I’ll write more about this later.
What’s up dirty.
I feel your pain for sure. I still feel angry about third year to some extent but at some point you have to get past that. I think it can keep you from reaching your full potential if you can’t let go and move on, even if you do feel wronged by surgery/OB/whatever.
Anyway I hope things work out with your non-medicine job and the rest of the year treats you well.