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Showing posts from 2017

Burn Out

From day 1 of residency this word was on my mind. We had a seminar during orientation about how to avoid burnout giving tips on taking care of yourself and finding things that you enjoy and making time for them. It all sounds like a decent plan, though no one was really paying attention as we were all so wide eyed thinking about our first day as a resident physician. Over the next year it was as if this became a bad word. Although we were all either burnt out or close to it, no one could admit it because then they would require us all to take more seminars or lectures on avoiding burnout. And it seemed like all those told us to do was be more efficient and do fun things when you go home. But what about when you’re simply too tired to do ANYTHING much less something fun? What about the times when you do only what needs to get done and then just go to sleep? The sad truth is most residents regardless of where they go to residency or which specialty they chose want to quit by the ...

A Different Kind of Culture Shock

Sitting in the closet of a local cathedral I opened my computer and connected to our makeshift Internet, and waited for my first patient of the day. I felt at home in these surrounds; dirt floors and dust that made clean floors impossible, concrete buildings with tin roofs, and meals that always had rice as a base. This was my fourth medical brigade and though the culture and people were all too familiar this one was totally different. For starters, this was my first brigade as Doctora Janie instead of estudente de medicina. Being one of the providers brought much more responsibility and fatigue, but also great reward. The most striking difference this trip, however, was the stark contrast between my world view and that of the other 54 people on this brigade. I was very much an outsider.  I did get to see some interesting cases this trip. And seeing them on my own was very empowering but also terrifying. I saw chikungunya, epidermolysis bullosa, club feet, pyelonephritis, and...

The Abundant Life

What happens when the day to day becomes mundane and you find yourself just surviving? I know we all experience it from time to time. Discontentment with life, not knowing why we are doing what we are doing or more importantly not knowing what we are missing. Tomorrow I start the last month of my intern year of residency. That first year that is notorious for the grueling hours and hard work. That time where you have your degree and are officially a doctor, but people still smirk when you call yourself one because you really don’t know anything and everyone loves to remind you of that. You thought medical school was hard? Well, welcome to residency. Yeah, you don’t have to spend 80 hours a week on your bottom studying, but now you’ll spend 80 hours a week learning on your feet. Okay, I am being dramatic. I did not work 80 hours a week at work every week. But, on inpatient months I did average 72. I’ll be honest, I expected residency to nearly kill me and it wasn’t nearly as bad a...