Monday, March 17, 2014

Day 2877: Happy St. Patrick's Day, indeed

I had such a great day today.

We had a new attending, as we do every Monday, and I impressed him enough for him to tell me so! Our fellow is great, she preps up for each upcoming attending -- how they like presentations on morning rounds, what to include, what not to include, good posture, etc. Well, I did what I've been working on all month, which is give my presentation without looking at my sheet, and it has been paying off. The attending last week thought I gave a great presentation and the attending this week told me so today. It was how and what he told me that is worth blogging about.

It was a good day on rounds, and then I scrubbed in to the first case with said-attending. When you walk in to an operating room, you (a student) are supposed to write your name on the whiteboard so they know who the heck you are. As I was doing that, my attending turns to me and says, "Jessica, you are doing everything right. You gave a great presentation today, and you are writing your name on the board, and you are really doing everything right." After thanking him profusely for his compliments, he continued on, saying "Really, Jess. Your presentation today was probably the best I've heard from a medical student in a few years." Insert more profuse thanks.

And! On top of all of this, my fellow and I were chatting before the surgery and she said that I "talk like a surgeon" and she was persuading me to pursue surgery (rather than medicine or med/peds) as a career. "Med/Peds is, what, four years?" "Yes." "You are most likely going to specialize, which adds at least another year to your training, which makes it five years. At that point, you might as well be a surgeon." "Huh." She did make a valid point. I have always fantasized about being a bad-ass surgeon. And the praise that day didn't hurt. But the hours are long, and I'm tired, and I need to remember that just because I do well in this specialty doesn't mean it's necessarily for me. It just means I'm a good team player and learn quickly.

But still...it's fun to dream and it's even more fun when people think you're good when you're only a lowly junior medical student. Almost makes the 5:30am call times worth it. Almost.

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