Saturday, May 5, 2012

From now until next July!

Our course director sent out our rotation schedules for next year. It is good to know what I will be doing starting in July. After the preceptor week I start off on a week of autopsy, then a week of histology, and then a stretch of surg path split between the VA and Duke North.

It is funny looking at the schedule because the attitude is, "Yes! I'm working with _____, I love working with them!" but then it is also a lot of looking at it and going, "Awwwww, I don't get to work with _____, I really like them." But there are much, much worse problems to have in the world! We will all still see each other in the PA room, in other classes, and socially so it isn't like being scattered across a dozen different rotation sites in different states or anything like that.

In a way I'm really excited to see the schedule, in another it makes me impatient to be on rotations! I did have a stint at the VA this past week. The derm path folks didn't come in so I got to stay for the entire slide sign out. It was really interesting! For example, I've grossed in so many prostate biopsies (literally thousands! The guy I worked with didn't like them so I would always grab them when they they came in.) but it was the first time I've ever really seen them microscopically. The difference between healthy tissue and neoplastic tissue is pretty drastic. I am sure it will all be old hat by the time I graduate, but for now I like being able to see the whole process through diagnosis.

3 comments:

  1. That's one thing that I never really focused on during rotations: seeing who I'd be working with. If I get along fine with someone, great. If not, that doesn't bother me in the least. I just put all of my focus into my patients and their specimens while ignoring any incompatible co-workers. As long as the work is done timely and accurately, that's all that matters, and you don't even have to pay attention to or be bothered by your co-workers. Remember, they mean little compared to your patients! If everything else is collapsing around you while you're still able to serve your patients, you're A-OK. It's when you have difficulty performing your patient care job duties that there's a problem.

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    1. Who we are on rotation with doesn't make much difference academically because we will all be on our own stations. It is just a social issue since I do genuinely like all of my classmates and enjoy spending time with them.

      In the gross room, I found that having a good working dynamic with my coworkers made a huge difference. It was good to know that we were all conscientious about making sure the work was evenly handled and no one person was stuck doing all of a certain specimen type (unless they wanted to).

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    2. Absolutely! Well said! I think that when you have a great working dynamic with your coworkers, that's just a nice bonus. Although it's possible to still get the work done if you have a rude coworker or two, it always brightens up the work day when you work with someone who's very congenial, obliging, fair, and has a great work ethic.

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