Thursday, December 1, 2011

Last Day

Tomorrow is my last day in the hospital. I cannot believe that I am halfway done third year already.

Does life always move this fast? Everyone said it would, but I didn't believe them.

I am really going to miss the hospital. I've only just figured out the best shortcuts through the wards, the codes to all the change rooms, where the best coffee is served, the names of the nurses, the passwords for the diagnostic reports, lab results. Not to mention I'll miss some of the lovely working relationships I've made and friendships that have formed.

Now I will be in GP land until May. A new set of people, codes, computer systems. Another adventure.

I was hoping to go to Dalhousie for a 3 week elective in January, but unfortunately it fell through just recently. Now I am trying to figure out what I should do with that time. I need as many weeks of electives back in North America as I can get. So many schools don't even take international students, and the ones that do want you to apply 9 months in advance. I don't know where or what I am going to do now. (And no, a holiday isn't an option. With international medical graduates the competition is so fierce I am going to have to basically invent my own specialty and write a textbook on it by next fall if I want to study in Canada once I graduate!)

I shouldn't be thinking of all this now, it is so late, and I'll never sleep. Reflecting instead on the past 18 weeks...

Have you learned the lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed passage with you?
 
-Walt Whitman

Indeed, Mr. Whitman, some great lessons...

5 comments:

OMDG said...

Wait, if you're done with inpatient, when do you do Ob/Gyn stuff or inpatient peds?

Anonymous said...

Ugh. That's frustrating. Any chance of just contacting the preceptor directly and working with them that way?

In any event, congrats on being halfways done third year! It's amazing how quickly things pass here in medicine.

Liana said...

If your problem at Dal is that they couldn't find you a preceptor, I could try to find someone for you. Can't guarantee it would be in the specialty you want but a fair number of people in my class ended up doing residency and are now attendings there...

scott said...

Why is a North American residency so important for you? If you went abroad for med school--and apparently like Ireland--what do you have against staying abroad for residency?

Albinoblackbear said...

OMDG--We don't do ob/gyn or peds until 4th year (after CaRMS is submitted) which is why I am desperate to get some gyne time during my holidays.

IANH + Liana--My contact at Dal is the head of his department but the electives are dolled out via centralized application system. So even though he has been trying like hell to give me an elective there the admin people basically nixed it because all of the school's "allocated spots" are full. But thank you Liana for offering to help!

Seems that contacts in medicine are now seen as a 'back door' no no. :/

Scott--Mainly because N.A postgrad training is structured in a much more efficient way (i.e there is no such thing as 'residency-->attending' in Ireland.)

Plus I am a Canadian, I want to live in Canada (or the US) and be close to my little nieces and nephews, my siblings, my one surviving parent, and my boyfriend. I am in Ireland because Canada didn't want me, not because I didn't want Canada.