Friday, October 26, 2012

How Do You Feel Today?

Do you remember this?  I definitely had a magnetic one of these in middle school that I hung on my bedroom door (with fun-tak obviously - my door was, unfortunately, not magnetic) so that I could warn my family ahead of time if their preteen daughter was feeling disgusted or exhausted or angry before they decided to knock on my door (or to not knock on my door).


Now, every single day my feeling is "awkward" - and that's not even an option on the magnetic feeling board!  I have realized that being a med student means always always feeling uncomfortable and out of place:

Awkwardly waiting outside of OR doors wondering if now is the right time to introduce yourself to the attending or the patient (note: no matter what time it is, it's definitely the wrong time).

Awkwardly running behind residents as they try and lose you (note: that is potentially only in my head that they are trying to lose me, but seriously why do they walk so fast and not ever tell you where they're going?!) - or, when a resident gets up and walks out of the room without saying a word to you, awkwardly wondering if you should follow or not (note: whichever you chose was the wrong decision).

med student?
Awkwardly walking in white pockets so full of crap that you look like a waddling penguin everywhere you go. 

Awkwardly asking patients for their permission to ask a question/wake them up/do any portion of the physical exam (even more awkward, getting turned down - "but wait, I actually really do need to know if you've pooped yet today... pretty please, I can't go back to my resident with no answer").

Or, silently and awkwardly standing behind the attending and resident and PA and nurse as they ask the patient questions and do the physical exam.

Awkwardly living life outside of the hospital and realizing you have nothing to talk about except for all the gross things you do/see in the hospital, or to complain about feeling awkward all the time.



....What else you got?

2 comments:

  1. I think I had the "frightened" look during my clerkship.

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  2. always "awkward" and "confuse" >_<

    ReplyDelete