Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Hey Stephen

Diagnostic center can either be really tiring and stressful or boring and slow. Today happens to be the latter. Basically, my job consists of taking the patients blood test requisition and their hospital card, asking them to have a seat and wait for their name to be called, and stamp one paper for attendance and 2-10 little pappers for the blood technician. The blood technician's name is Henry. He is the best. He's been doing it for over 15 years and he's incredible. I've had patients wait an extra 30 minutes because they wanted him, he's just that good. He's also incredibly sweet and makes me feel very welcomed. This clinic is only open from 8-11. After it closes, I go to work in the Internal Medicine Unit. IMU for short, that's where my mom works.

Working with your mother is probably exactly how it sounds -- She helps you a lot, tries to make things simpler for you but isn't afraid to say "Hey, stand up straight." when you're not paying enough attention. My mom is a very hard worker and I know her clinic fairly well. The only problem I run into is that patients always ask for her. I'll answer the phone and they'll either think I am her since we sound alike or ask for her because they don't know me. And they'll ask for her for the stupidest things! Things that I could do with my eyes closed! They just don't know who I am and don't think I'll take them as seriously, I guess. Sometimes I tell them that I'm her daughter just so that they get the message -- Hey look at me, I'm trustworthy too, it's all in the genes! It sometimes works, other times, they really just don't care.

On the complete other end of the spectrum, I get overwhelming "omgs, you're gina's daughter?! I know everything about you!!!". Which I guess are less annoying depending on the day?

On a whole different note - I just called the same french patient twice to confirm an appointment for his dad, twice and he laughed at me. I guess I'm out of it, huh? Also, my french is extremely rusty.

I got to do a little bit of dictation the other day, which was really cool because I got to read some medical jargon which is similiar to the kind of thing I'll be seeing more and more in nursing. Not to mention the doctor is adorable.

Residents and Medical students, a unique breed. I find myself being the typical nurse as in "Omg it's a doctor, I hope I look cute." and I don't flippin' know why. It's just built into my brain. It's not me being a gold digger or shallow, I think it's just I find ambition and drive really attractive and knowing how difficult it is to get into medical school makes them seem more ambitious. McGills students are a special breed of their own too. I have a strong biase to anything McGill related, probably because I almost grew up in this fricken hospital. I find these medical students and residents very different from the doctors of the older generation. The newer generation of residents and medical students dress much more professionally and expensively ;) and have less patience and tolerance for patients. I mean, obviously there's examples of doctors that support both sides but I'm generalizing.

I've gotten to know a lot of the staff at the Vic. There are some people I've become very close with and others, which irritate the crap out of me. My co-worker that works in Dermatology is very sweet and always willing to help me. She gets stressed out with all the crap she has to put up with. I never realized just how many patients need dermatology appointments and how little appointments are actually available. They have a total of like 3-4 dermatologists and they're rarely here. There is however 4 residents/medical students with her this summer, and they also happen to be very cute. What's with doctors being cute? It's like, they decided one morning they were too good looking and needed to be doctors so that more people could see just how good looking they are. Looks fade though, right?

Anyway, that was a pretty long rant. There will most likely be more today, but in the mean time that's all, folks.

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