July 1 = The Medical New Year

This year, I was actually on the wards when the infamous "JULY 1" occurred. It was interesting, and a bit terrifying.

One of our new interns was from my medical school, the other, from a state in the North East... a foreign man in a very foreign country. He had the unfortunate "luck" of getting one of our most complicated patients for his first day EVER as a REAL DOCTOR.

Poor thing, to say he was a bit discombobulated is putting it lightly. His first presentation was probably the quality of a third year medical student in their first few months of school. Granted, as I said, this patient was VERY complicated, but he was not able to calm himself enough before hand and get collected over the whole thing. His order was wrong, he left things out, included things he shouldn't have, and said the name of each electrolyte before each of their values in the BMP. Needless to say, by the end of his presentation, there were beads of sweat on his brow. By the end of rounds, he was kneeling down, muttering unintelligible phrases and what I think were a few curse words as well.

In the next few days, he seemed to rebound, but his rebound came in the form of assertiveness about things sort of ancillary to the beef of the presentation. I'm sure he'll be fine, but to see his thrashing, treading, and near-drowning the first day was a learning point.

Lesson Learned--
1. July 1 stinks
2. Remember to breathe July 1, 2009---this could very well be me (and will probably be me in 2009)
3. Consider staying the night of June 30, 2009 in the hospital, just to get ready
4. Do whatever it takes to prepare for the morning of July 1, 2009
5. Remember to breathe July 1, 2009

What It's Worth--
It will probably be worth not feeling as if my entire previous 4 years of medical education weren't wasted, and also be worth some self-esteem that first gut and mind wrenching day.