Internal Medicine:

Or how I stopped dithering and learned to love the nerds...

I decided on Internal Medicine after my third year of medical school rotating through each of the different specialties.  At some point or another I thought about doing all of them (except surgery those folks are crazy).  And I actually ended up with something that is pretty narrowly focused instead of Med-Peds or Family Medicine.  My favorite part about internal medicine is how nerdy everyone is and it is not a bad thing...in fact there is so much respect for the crazy smart that are also a little too enthusiastic about learning at the same time.  You also need a little swagger because medicine residents respond to codes.  I mean obviously they aren't trauma surgeons but you gotta do some procedures on the fly...intubate, central lines or in the words of Dr. Fearrington "hook 'em up to the house current."  Probably more on that choice later but here are my nuggets of wisdom for medical students:

1.  No one really cares where you are.  You can get away with not being present but I spent a lot of my time thinking I was being missed when I was attending legitimate meetings or going to class.  Eventually, I realized no one was looking for me...conveniently about the time I had surgery rotation.

2.  Medical Student advice for a code situation: Codes are crowded at the beginning but the crowd thins out eventually so stick around and learn as they go through all that they can do.

step 1: put on gloves

step 2: wait around until people doing chest compressions get tired (only people probably going to do this job are students or nursing assistants) and they really might need you

step 3: YOUR TURN! Don't be scared just put your hands on there and go to town just like they taught you

step 4: Breathe while doing compressions. It is hard to remember.

step 5: stop when you become less effective..there should be more people to help out

step 6: if they make it...rejoice (I haven't personally seen that happen yet) but if they don't you can take a moment to be shocked and mourn...a code is a crazy thing to be a part of.

3.  Study.  What do you think this is? Dental school? (j/k the dental students seem very nice and probably stressed out at times)

New posts will have more pictures as I start 4th year and the slide toward finding out where to go to residency!

love.