Another one bites the dust

As with any institution, you have your heterogenous mix of residents.. The brilliant goofballs, the eccentric know-it-alls, the overly serious straight-arrows, etc..

I'm here to talk about two types in particular: The toxic slacker, and the hardheaded buffoon.

Bear in mind that, based from my experience working in other institutions, these two types are almost nonexistent in more reputable hospitals because their kind are weeded out early in the selection process.. but I digress..

One of these, after (probably much thought and atonement for his multitude of sins against the departrment) suddenly decides not to show up for work for the past two days, with no attempt to contact the higher ups and cannot be contacted when called.

I can't say I didn't see it coming, although I was quite surprised because I figured he'd be too thick to do something like that and that it would be the training committee who would terminate him.

Oh well, that''s life. Now, onto the next guy..

This other one is apparently the former's best buddy out of all the residents. They share the same strange sense of humor and apparent lack of concern for the gravity of their position as residents in a hospital who are directly responsible for taking care of patients. In other words, they seem to have a telling lack of a sense of responsibility.

This second guy often acts like a total scrooge to his patients, wastes a lot of time doing a lot of nothing, and works terribly slow, as in! :P

And the funny thing is, now that he's pushed to the wall because his buddy is being shown the door, he's venting his frustrations on people who may have rubbed him lightly the wrong way, yours truly included. :P I personally think he's being too much of an overly sensitive primadonna, and to think that he's a guy (or is he?). It's bad enough that we have to cover up for him when something goes wrong, but who the fuck gave him the right to threaten people when his very presence sometimes does more harm than good?

What a total ass. Why he was accepted remains a total mystery. These isolated instances are proof that being book smart isn't everything. You may be able to get high in exams, but if in order to achieve that, you just hide out in the room while the ward implodes outside, there's something very very wrong with you. Even the nurses don't like him because of his lousy attitude.

I was actually reluctant to speak out about this, but even my patience has its limits..

Oh yeah, not to make me seem important or anything, but for both of these jerks (or their patients actually), I did some important instances of ward work that may have actually saved lives when they could not (or did not.. its kinda hard to tell because even though they write so much in the charts, its hard to make sense of it all).

Oh well, it goes with the territory, I guess.. I'll do my best to bring in quality juniors when the next batch of pre-residents come around. I need more competent people to work with! :P

Whew! Niow that that's out of my system, I can resume my regular programming.. :P

Missing someone

It's 11:30 PM here at the hospital. I've just finished off my rounds and should actually be studying but my mind demands a sort of creative release in order to restore balance in my life.. Wow, that's a  lot of seemingly hippie mumbo-jumbo right there man.. :P

I just realized that no matter how comfortable you may get in a particular life situation, being away from the people you care about the most will inevitably leave you emotionally crippled.. Take today for example. It's a Sunday duty. Never mind that I will be away from my family for the nth time on a weekend, but on the way here as I was riding the bus, everything just felt like crap because of the simple reason that I was missing someone terribly. This someone whom I wish I could be together with everyday but am forced to be content with the occasional text message or the even rarer lunch date out before taking that person home.. sigh.. :(

It's of little consolation to know that she is in the same boat as I am. Then again, I guess that's why we were drawn to each other in the first place. Having similar careers, we understand each other and what we have to endure to reach our goals in our professional lives.

With that in mind, I guess what sustains us is the thought that it will all be over soon and we can finally get on with living our lives the way we see fit. Happy and together, and seeing patients on the side. :D

Having brought this up, I often imagine what life would be like when we're finally done with training.. For sure we won't be rich, but hopefully we'll be happy and content with our lives.. 

Resurfacing

Wow! I can't believe I was so inactive for such a long time! It kinda felt like ! was spending the past 3 months underwater, hence the picture. Hehehe:P

Life has become a whirlpool of sorts lately, and I think I'm doing myself a favor by just going with the flow. I seem to have learned that a lot of good things can happen if you just float along and let the tide carry you where it will. I'm quite pleased to say that a lot of things have been happening lately, and thankfully most of them are on the positive side (finally!)

In what seemed to be a very unlikely turn of events, I found myself being given yet another chance by the Big Guy upstairs to make something out of my life (Thanks God!) and am now a medical resident yet again, but this time in an institution which I never imagined myself working in, doing stuff I never thought I would get to do while still in training. It is not a private institution like Cardinal, nor is it a teaching hospital like somewhere else. I really took myself out of my comfort zone, working in an unfamiliar hospital with an unfamiliar system, forgoing the comforts of living near where I work and enduring the commute every day whether I be Pre, Duty, or From,, but quite frankly I'm surprised that I seem to be loving it more than what I've already experienced before.. ;) I'm able to study more, retain more, accomplish more, and help a far greater number of people than I ever thought would be possible at this point in my life.

Other stuff has been going on as well, most prominent is my exposure and eventual addiction to a certain genre of music which culminated in my emergence as a loyal SONE, but that discussion is reserved for a future post. ;P

At last I think I'm finally getting somewhere with my life. I'm sick of wandering around, trying different things and taking a step back when something doesn't seem to suit my fancy. I think I may have found a home here, and this is where I intend to stay (hopefully for the next three years). 

Um.. ok.. I guess that's all for now.. Strange.. I expected to be able to churn out a novel this time around.. :P