It's the last day of our Pedia OPD rotation. Tomorrow, our group (8) will plunge headlong to our final clerkship rotation, Pediatrics Ward, which is divided into 6 separate posts, namely: Fabella, 316, 318, 320/324, 322, and Nursery, each taking up 5 days. I'll elaborate on this later when I eventually finish clerkship (man, it feels so good to say things with such certainty!) :D.
I'll give a brief rundown on Pedia OPD. The OPD rotation is divided into 3 posts: ER, Sick-Baby Clinic (SBC), and Well-Baby Clinic (WBC). I first rotated through the ER. 8 days of sliding duty, oh man.. As expected, it was really tiring, having to go on duty every other day. But it wasn't as bad as Medicine ER. Complaints were the typical fever, diarrhea, vomiting, or ciugh and colds. Management was quite simple, and we hardly ever admitted any patients. :) I also liked the ER post coz it gave us time to study for the revalida. I was fortunate enough to be ER before the revalida. Swerte-swertehan na lang talaga yung mga posts. But the ER peeps passed din naman eh, so its no biggie. After duty hours, you went to the PICU to attend PICU rounds (a new development by the Pedia department as far as I know). Then you'd have to go back to the SBC OPD to help out until 12nn, where you get to go home. :D Oh yeah, that's one thing I really like about Pedia, they have FROM status (which means that if you are from duty, you don't have to stay as long as the pre-duty people. May distinction kumbaga).
Next up was the Sick-Baby Clinic. It was pretty tiring, coz there were just so many pedia patients coming in for consult! But I guess it was ok, since we got sundays off and saturdays were half day. =D It is one of the most dreaded OPDs to rotate in 'coz of the stories that they have remained open even until 9pm because no cut-off was implemented. Fortunately, that never happened during my time. =D It was in the midst of the Sick-Baby rotation when I had my revalida.. which turned out well in the end. =)
Last up was the Well-Baby Clinic. The WBC was located on the 2nd floor of the OPD, where it shares the corridor with Derma, Medicine, and Neuro/Psych. Patients there came in mostly for their scheduled immunizations. That is also where the Neurodevelopmental clinic is located. I had the "privilege" of being decked with a new neurodev patient, and I was in awe of the way the clinic was conducted..
I'll follow up at another date with the Pedia Ward stories.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Revalida 2007: The last day
Revalida season is finally over (unless there were tribes that opted to re-schedule beyond today that we were unaware of).
Looking back, it was really a life-changing experience. Besides the fact that I had finally earned my MD, it brought newfound confidence in my abilities.
But before anything else, I want to thank the Lord for the revalida. It may have seemed like a horrible trial by fire, but it greatly deepened my faith and I learned to trust God even more. My father was right in saying that it does not matter if you are the smartest guy on the planet. There are so many variables beyond your control, so many things that are left up to luck and chance, things that only God can help you with.. Thank you so much.. I offer my MD up to you, because without you, I would have nothing, and without your help, this would not have come to be..
This makes me think back to first year, even as far as my MedTech internship days.. It was like "Wow, will I ever make it to that point when I would be taking my own revalida? What would it be like?" and stuff like that. Now that I've crossed the threshold from "pre-Rev" to "post-Rev", when I take a look at all the things I've been through to get to this point, it just seems absolutely incredible... All these books I've read (?), all the stuff I've learned, all the things I've seen (in clerkship), all the insights gained, etc.. everything leading up to this culmination of roughly four years' worth of sacrifices and hard decisions.
Yeah, I know I'm babbling, but I guess that's just what happens when you're feeling a million different emotions and want to say so many things at the same time. I have to wrap up now. Need to be back at the OPD in a while..
Looking back, it was really a life-changing experience. Besides the fact that I had finally earned my MD, it brought newfound confidence in my abilities.
But before anything else, I want to thank the Lord for the revalida. It may have seemed like a horrible trial by fire, but it greatly deepened my faith and I learned to trust God even more. My father was right in saying that it does not matter if you are the smartest guy on the planet. There are so many variables beyond your control, so many things that are left up to luck and chance, things that only God can help you with.. Thank you so much.. I offer my MD up to you, because without you, I would have nothing, and without your help, this would not have come to be..
This makes me think back to first year, even as far as my MedTech internship days.. It was like "Wow, will I ever make it to that point when I would be taking my own revalida? What would it be like?" and stuff like that. Now that I've crossed the threshold from "pre-Rev" to "post-Rev", when I take a look at all the things I've been through to get to this point, it just seems absolutely incredible... All these books I've read (?), all the stuff I've learned, all the things I've seen (in clerkship), all the insights gained, etc.. everything leading up to this culmination of roughly four years' worth of sacrifices and hard decisions.
Yeah, I know I'm babbling, but I guess that's just what happens when you're feeling a million different emotions and want to say so many things at the same time. I have to wrap up now. Need to be back at the OPD in a while..
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Clerkship update: Dermatology
At last, some free time to myself.
I've decided to shelve the San Lazaro Chronicles indefinitely (or until I finish clerkship) and will now continue my stories of the other rotations while the memories are still fresh..
DERMATOLOGY
Now, picking up from where I previously left off (about 3-4 entries ago), it was time to move on to Derma. Now, the cool thing about derma is that it was mainly an OPD thing. This meant I got to go home every day and have Sundays off for two weeks. However, Dermatology requires a clerk on duty every day to answer calls and referrals from both the ERCD and TR-Pay, kinda like an acting intern. (Hehe, intern na rin nga pala ako in a few weeks time..) After seeing the patient in qestion, you text your resident on duty for disposition of the patient. As the duty clerk, it's also your responsibility to check up on all ward referrals to Derma, and also to monitor and do scut work if ever there would be patients confined at the 3-bed Dermatology Ward. Seems pretty benign enough dosen't it? Not quite...
The OPD experience there is really very extensive. You see a great number of patients with varying complaints every day, ranging from the most disturbing skin lesions, to the silliest of problems like simple acne (especially on Saturdays, when the OPD is only open for half the day). However, I still felt unprepared for the revalida if ever I should get a Derma case for my clinicals.. Nahihirapan kasi ako magdistinguish and gumawa ng differentials.. Buti na lang hinde!!!
It's a relatively stress-free rotation, and your only concern is getting the required 3 teachings from 3 different consultants before the rotation was over. This proved to be a bit more chellenging on our part, because we rotated there duringthe pre-residency period, where aspiring candidates for residency fill the hospital and pick up some of the slack. It dosen't really sound so bad, but when you consider the fact that they also take patients to present to consultants, sometimes you find yourselves scrambling near the end to finish. Don't get me wrong, the Derma pre-residents were nice, and we got along with most of them pretty well. As a matter of fact, the 3 among them who we were secretly rooting for were eventually accepted as residents!! :D Belated congratulations to Drs. Ces, Ingrid, and Pam!
Derma duty was a differnt thing for me altogether. Derma had no official clerks' room, so the poor derma clerk on duty either 1)went home if home was nearby to await any calls, or 2) was forced to squat at a clerks' room of another service to spend the night and rest. I had two duty nights. The first one found me all alone, while I had Johnny Ona during the 2nd duty. The first one wasn't so bad, I had a handful of calls to the ER, had a patient admitted to the ward. It was pretty tiring from 5pm til midnight, but things quieted down thereafter. I found myself squatting at the Neuro Clerks room and Surgery Clerks' room on two different occasions, dead tired but happy that the blasted duty would be ending in a few hours. Oh yeah, I also worked on the discharge papers of another patient who woud be leaving the following day..
The duty with Pat was a different deal. We were being toxic in bursts, admitting an obnoxious "scaly man" who had exfoliative dermatitis. Being called to the ER/TR about 5-6 different times, and admitting an equally diffcult "scaly lady" at 4am in the morning. We squatted at the Legal Med office, though I can't remember who among our classmates were duty there at the time.. Toxic talaga yung combination namin ni Pat!!
We had a grand duty for the residents before moving on to Neurology and Psychiatry. KFC chicken.. Mmm... :D
That's all the time I have for now. I'll be heading back to the Pedia OPD in a while. More catch-up updates to follow next time..
Rotation stories not yet told:
San Lazaro
Psychiatry
Neurology
Medicine (Medyo mahaba ito)
"Dr. Go" (Medicine) elective
Neurology elective
Radiology ( the cumpolsory elective..)
Community Med (Sapang! Wohoo!)
Pediatrics OPD (still ongoing)
Pediatrics Ward (including Nursery and Fabella part II)
The Lord has done great things for me.. Never in my entire life have I imagined that I would one day earn the right to have an MD attached to my name... Thank you po..
I've decided to shelve the San Lazaro Chronicles indefinitely (or until I finish clerkship) and will now continue my stories of the other rotations while the memories are still fresh..
DERMATOLOGY
Now, picking up from where I previously left off (about 3-4 entries ago), it was time to move on to Derma. Now, the cool thing about derma is that it was mainly an OPD thing. This meant I got to go home every day and have Sundays off for two weeks. However, Dermatology requires a clerk on duty every day to answer calls and referrals from both the ERCD and TR-Pay, kinda like an acting intern. (Hehe, intern na rin nga pala ako in a few weeks time..) After seeing the patient in qestion, you text your resident on duty for disposition of the patient. As the duty clerk, it's also your responsibility to check up on all ward referrals to Derma, and also to monitor and do scut work if ever there would be patients confined at the 3-bed Dermatology Ward. Seems pretty benign enough dosen't it? Not quite...
The OPD experience there is really very extensive. You see a great number of patients with varying complaints every day, ranging from the most disturbing skin lesions, to the silliest of problems like simple acne (especially on Saturdays, when the OPD is only open for half the day). However, I still felt unprepared for the revalida if ever I should get a Derma case for my clinicals.. Nahihirapan kasi ako magdistinguish and gumawa ng differentials.. Buti na lang hinde!!!
It's a relatively stress-free rotation, and your only concern is getting the required 3 teachings from 3 different consultants before the rotation was over. This proved to be a bit more chellenging on our part, because we rotated there duringthe pre-residency period, where aspiring candidates for residency fill the hospital and pick up some of the slack. It dosen't really sound so bad, but when you consider the fact that they also take patients to present to consultants, sometimes you find yourselves scrambling near the end to finish. Don't get me wrong, the Derma pre-residents were nice, and we got along with most of them pretty well. As a matter of fact, the 3 among them who we were secretly rooting for were eventually accepted as residents!! :D Belated congratulations to Drs. Ces, Ingrid, and Pam!
Derma duty was a differnt thing for me altogether. Derma had no official clerks' room, so the poor derma clerk on duty either 1)went home if home was nearby to await any calls, or 2) was forced to squat at a clerks' room of another service to spend the night and rest. I had two duty nights. The first one found me all alone, while I had Johnny Ona during the 2nd duty. The first one wasn't so bad, I had a handful of calls to the ER, had a patient admitted to the ward. It was pretty tiring from 5pm til midnight, but things quieted down thereafter. I found myself squatting at the Neuro Clerks room and Surgery Clerks' room on two different occasions, dead tired but happy that the blasted duty would be ending in a few hours. Oh yeah, I also worked on the discharge papers of another patient who woud be leaving the following day..
The duty with Pat was a different deal. We were being toxic in bursts, admitting an obnoxious "scaly man" who had exfoliative dermatitis. Being called to the ER/TR about 5-6 different times, and admitting an equally diffcult "scaly lady" at 4am in the morning. We squatted at the Legal Med office, though I can't remember who among our classmates were duty there at the time.. Toxic talaga yung combination namin ni Pat!!
We had a grand duty for the residents before moving on to Neurology and Psychiatry. KFC chicken.. Mmm... :D
That's all the time I have for now. I'll be heading back to the Pedia OPD in a while. More catch-up updates to follow next time..
Rotation stories not yet told:
San Lazaro
Psychiatry
Neurology
Medicine (Medyo mahaba ito)
"Dr. Go" (Medicine) elective
Neurology elective
Radiology ( the cumpolsory elective..)
Community Med (Sapang! Wohoo!)
Pediatrics OPD (still ongoing)
Pediatrics Ward (including Nursery and Fabella part II)
The Lord has done great things for me.. Never in my entire life have I imagined that I would one day earn the right to have an MD attached to my name... Thank you po..
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Brainiax, M.D. -> Revalidated
Whew! That went well..
I'm sorry for the rather long hiatus from the blogging scene. My life has been pretty hectic these past few months. Don't worry, I intend to "make kwento" those other rotations that I've yet to blog about. But for now, this is my only concern...
I've just passed the dreaded Revalida, the nightmare of every UST Medical Clerk on the brink of graduation.. Nobody said it was gonna be easy, and especially not for our group.. Let me break it down for you to make it easier to understand..
The Revalida is the "be-all" and "end-all" of the examinations that a UST medical student takes during his/her clerkship. It is basically the final examination that we have to hurdle before we earn our precious medical degree. (in other words, the right to attach "MD" to our names)
It comes in two separate steps, the written, and the orals. The written revalida is a COMPREHENSIVE examination with a scope encompassing the entirety of our first three years of medical schooling. A lot of basic questions are thrown in, along with clinical correlations to make sure that you're able to apply what you've learned to at least some basic degree. Passing this examination earns you an exemption from the first part of the oral examinations, the BASICS.
The Oral Revalida is divided into two exercises; the BASICS, and the CLINICALS & EMERGENCIES. With the basics, you can be asked anything under the sun from the basic disciplines of medicine, like anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and the rest. Whereas the CLINCALS tests your skills as a basic physician wherein you have to examine an actual patient, come up with your own diagnosis and management plan, and discuss/defend your answers. The EMERGENCIES immediately follows the CLINICALS, and this I have grouped them together. For this part, you draw three eergency cases and select one for thorough discussion. The element of luck is very important in the clinicals, as the clinical cases you get to see and the emergencies are drawn purely by chance.
The Revalidas are conducted by groups of three faculty members (each of which is called a tribunal, or "tribe"). The matching of tribes to students is also by random drawing. As our luck would have it, me and my "tribemates" (Nats and Raissa) got a consultant that has been feared throughout the history of the revalida.. Needless to say, a lot of tears were shed in Sapang Palay that fateful day when the tribes were drawn. Suddenly, there was this giant weight upon my shoulders, and there was this constant fear of failing the Revalida.
For the benefit of the other non-UST Med people out there, failing the revalida means that: 1) you won't be able to attend the graduation of your batch, 2) you have to do 3-4 months more extra hospital time, 3) you have to take yet another revalida in order to finish, and 4) you have to pay tuition for that extra time.
My heart bleeds for all our batchmates who didn't make it... :(
I don't want to seem like I'm bragging about my experience, so I'll just leave things as is for the meantime, as respect to those who have yet to take their revalida...
Thank you Lord, for being there when I really needed you....
Basta ikaw...
I'm sorry for the rather long hiatus from the blogging scene. My life has been pretty hectic these past few months. Don't worry, I intend to "make kwento" those other rotations that I've yet to blog about. But for now, this is my only concern...
I've just passed the dreaded Revalida, the nightmare of every UST Medical Clerk on the brink of graduation.. Nobody said it was gonna be easy, and especially not for our group.. Let me break it down for you to make it easier to understand..
The Revalida is the "be-all" and "end-all" of the examinations that a UST medical student takes during his/her clerkship. It is basically the final examination that we have to hurdle before we earn our precious medical degree. (in other words, the right to attach "MD" to our names)
It comes in two separate steps, the written, and the orals. The written revalida is a COMPREHENSIVE examination with a scope encompassing the entirety of our first three years of medical schooling. A lot of basic questions are thrown in, along with clinical correlations to make sure that you're able to apply what you've learned to at least some basic degree. Passing this examination earns you an exemption from the first part of the oral examinations, the BASICS.
The Oral Revalida is divided into two exercises; the BASICS, and the CLINICALS & EMERGENCIES. With the basics, you can be asked anything under the sun from the basic disciplines of medicine, like anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and the rest. Whereas the CLINCALS tests your skills as a basic physician wherein you have to examine an actual patient, come up with your own diagnosis and management plan, and discuss/defend your answers. The EMERGENCIES immediately follows the CLINICALS, and this I have grouped them together. For this part, you draw three eergency cases and select one for thorough discussion. The element of luck is very important in the clinicals, as the clinical cases you get to see and the emergencies are drawn purely by chance.
The Revalidas are conducted by groups of three faculty members (each of which is called a tribunal, or "tribe"). The matching of tribes to students is also by random drawing. As our luck would have it, me and my "tribemates" (Nats and Raissa) got a consultant that has been feared throughout the history of the revalida.. Needless to say, a lot of tears were shed in Sapang Palay that fateful day when the tribes were drawn. Suddenly, there was this giant weight upon my shoulders, and there was this constant fear of failing the Revalida.
For the benefit of the other non-UST Med people out there, failing the revalida means that: 1) you won't be able to attend the graduation of your batch, 2) you have to do 3-4 months more extra hospital time, 3) you have to take yet another revalida in order to finish, and 4) you have to pay tuition for that extra time.
My heart bleeds for all our batchmates who didn't make it... :(
I don't want to seem like I'm bragging about my experience, so I'll just leave things as is for the meantime, as respect to those who have yet to take their revalida...
Thank you Lord, for being there when I really needed you....
Basta ikaw...
Monday, December 4, 2006
Retreat!!!!!
Ahh! I finally have a bit of time to stretch my legs, kick back, and relax... It's the Clerks' Retreat ladies and gentlemen, 3 days of solitude with no patients and no cares in the world whatsoever. :D
My bags are packed and I'm here at the LRU just chillin' while waiting for the people to get together. Man, this feels great! I know I left quite a big gap between entries and I haven't really been up-to-date with my stories per rotation, but I don't feel like doing that right now. Maybe later when I've moved on to the electives. =D
But for now, pahinga muna tayo... See you in 3 days... =)
My bags are packed and I'm here at the LRU just chillin' while waiting for the people to get together. Man, this feels great! I know I left quite a big gap between entries and I haven't really been up-to-date with my stories per rotation, but I don't feel like doing that right now. Maybe later when I've moved on to the electives. =D
But for now, pahinga muna tayo... See you in 3 days... =)
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Stallions MD: Congratulations!!!!!!
Taken from a post at the Xavier School website (www.xs.edu.ph)
Two Xaverians Top Medical Board Exam
Two Xaverians Top Medical Board Exam
August 2006 Boards Produces Ten New Doctors
Cesareo U. Tongco II (XS ’97)
The Physician Licensure Examination in August 2006 was topped by two Xaverians. Patrick Leonard G. Co (XS ’96) bested 2,696 examinees from all over the country to emerge as the board topnotcher, #1 overall. Nathaniel L. Yu Chua (XS ’97) also made it to the top ten, he tied for #8 overall. This is probably the first time that a Xaverian has become the #1 board topnotcher, and certainly the first time that two of our own have made it into the top ten.
Eight other Xaverians were among the 1,491 new doctors. These are Ishmael Christian D. Ching (XS ’97), Vicente Francisco Q. Firmalo (XS ’97), Patrick H. How (XS ’96), Rey Emmanuel S. Lu (XS ’97), Fernando A. Melendres Jr. (XS ’97), John Eric N. Tan (XS ’97), Kimberson C. Tanco (XS ’98), and Cesareo Amadeo U. Tongco II (XS ’97). The Oathtaking of the New Physicians was held on Sunday, September 17, 2006 at the PICC Plenary Hall.
Both topnotchers, Patrick Co and Nathaniel Yu Chua, were from UST, as was Kimberson Tanco. Ishmael Ching, Vicente Firmalo, Patrick How, Rey Lu, and Cesareo Tongco II, took Medicine in UERM-MMC. John Eric Tan was from De La Salle - Dasmariñas, while Fernando Melendres studied at UP-PGH.
Luceat Lux!!!
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Legal Med, Ophtha, ENT, and now Derma...
Well, that was quite a month that passed by...
I've been through 3 rotations since the last entry. And I've yet to continue work on my much-heralded San Lazaro Chronicles, which is merely gathering dust here at the DRAFTS section of my blog..
But come to think of it, it dosen't seem as important as my Fabella stories 'coz of the simple reason that we were not the first of our batch to rotate there (at San Lazaro). So I guess I might have to put it off indefinitely.. The hoispital stay there was unremarkable anyway. Hehehe
So off we went to Legal Med, or what they called The Medico-Legal Department in the hospital. I won't go through the day-by-day occurences because much of it was pretty dull anyway. Duties were still every 3 days, but the pre- and from-duty posts really rocked. =)
PRE-DUTY:
You're supposed to report to the PNP Crime Laboratory there at Camp Crame. There you would encounter rape cases, where you're supposed to examine the victim for documentation. Eh siyempre since I'm a guy, my job was purely clerical.. which suits me just fine... =D There were also some cases of physical examination of prisoners prior to transfer, which seemed like a formality more than anything.
DUTY:
The most toxic of the posts. You stay in UST for a good 24 hours (yes, its true, only 24 freakin hours!!) to answer all calls from the ERCD or TR-Pay for medico-legal cases, which you have to document via history and PE, let the relative and attending physician sign, and go back to the legal med office to type the rest of the papers! Its that freakin' simple!! =P Well, it should be simple as long as there aren't TOO MANY cases/calls that come through... Let's just say that during my duty night (with Johnny O. as my ever trusty sidekick), we were called down for 12 cases, 5 of which were people involved in the same vehicular accident!..And that was at around 9pm up to about 2am!!! Enough said... But in fairness to the "most nontoxic rotation" label, it was only here where I was able to actually finish volume 1 of the Handbook of Must-Knows! I just wish we had a laptop during those boring duty nights. Nakakasawa nasi yung sounds sa PPC ko eh..
FROM-DUTY:
This one takes the cake... UST expects us to be at Crame.... Whilre Crame expects us to be at UST... Go figure.. ;D
After 8 wonderful days at Legal Med, it was time to move on to Ophthalmology
Ok, here goes...
Ophtha was a bit different as compared to the other services I've rotated to, since it was the first time we got to experience "duty" status that dosen't require you to stay for the full 24++ freakin' hours! :D Non-duty clerks had to man the OPD and face the seemingly never-ending masses of ophtha patients that come to consult every day. Duty days were great, since you go home by 7pm. Other than that, I found my stay in Ophtha less than appealing... In fairness to the department though, I was really able to learn a lot, especially with regards to the proper ophthalmological physical examination. I even had the chance to observe a phaecoemulsification with IOL placement done by Dr. Say himself!! Ang bilis! At ang galing!!! :D
But there's a flipside to every story... Lets just say that in my opinion, the supposed "niceness" of the ophtha staff is seriously overrated.. and I'll just leave it at that... In other words, I left the service with a bad taste in the mouth..
After another 8 days, it was time to go to the department of Otorhinolaryngology (aka ENT)...
With ENT, the group prepared for the worst.. Feedback from other groups had made ourselves brace for the worst posible scenarios.. Impressions at the time were the following...
1. ENT has EXTEMELY LONG ORs (20 hours long pa daw, or even 8 hours just for a simple thyroidectomy)
2. ENT residents are really strict and mean
3. ENT duties are the most "wasakan" duties this side of Medicine
4. ENT leks to mass-admit on weekends
I won't argue with #3 and #4, since the duty days were REALLY TOXIC, and they really are fond of mass-admitting patients on Saturdays and Sundays, but I feel that they've been given a bum rap with regards to #'s 1 and 2. I myself assisted an ENT total thyroidectomy, which took about 4 hours. Not really ala-GenSurg speed, but reasonable enough, since they (ENT) take great pains not to hit the recurrent laryngeal nerve and preserve vocal function. And the ENT residents really rocked! I mean, they may be strict at first, but if you get to know then, they;'re actually a pretty cool crew. :D
Yes, contrary to popular belief, the ENT people do have ORs. That's why the department is called ENT-HNS (HNS stands for Head and Neck Surgery)
Here's a rundown of the duty posts:
Pre- and From-duty:
Similar to Ophtha, non-duty clerks have to go down to man the OPD at the ground floor. There you perform the complete ENT physical examination, using such tools as the ever-popular otoscope to the lesser-known items like the nasal speculum and the laryngeal mirror (which is more familiar in the hands of dentists). We encountered the more common cases that you see if you do OPD work at ENT like impacted cerumen, acute and chronic otitis media, pharyngolaryngeal reflux, postnasal drip, and even some cases of goiter presenting with an enlarging neck mass (duh!) with/without hoarseness.
I really enjoyed the OPD time at ENT. There's just so much you can do! The residents realized my enthusiasm and gave me the go-signal to perform some simple procedures done at the OPD (which the patients have to pay a little bit extra to have done :D) like ear irrigation to remove impacted cerumen. It's just too bad they didn't let me use the vaccum yet.. hehehe
I'm really giving ENT a serious thought when the time comes to choose Elective rotations. :D
Duty:
Duties, on the other hand, were just plain terrible! In the words of our interns, it was ":THE WORST". I mean, you're just a team of 2, running the entire 2 wards (which were filled with patients over the weekend) with various "weird" tasks like CT scans, neck ultrasounds, Thyroid function tests, Radio-onco referrerals, applications to St. Cosmas, clinical abstracts for DOTS treatment, and many many more...
Sobrang nakakapagod talaga... but in fairness to them, the staff aren't that strict when it comes to monitorings.. heeheehee.. plus the fact that you get another chance to "make money" from walk-in patients from the ER by way of the ever-famous "donation box" =D.
In short, ENT was very tiring, but it was a lot of fun. ORs I attended were a Total Thyroidectomy and a Tracheostomy (where thery even let me suture!)
That's enough for this entry. I'll follow-up later on with stories from Derma and (hopefully) the San Lazaro Chronicles..
I've been through 3 rotations since the last entry. And I've yet to continue work on my much-heralded San Lazaro Chronicles, which is merely gathering dust here at the DRAFTS section of my blog..
But come to think of it, it dosen't seem as important as my Fabella stories 'coz of the simple reason that we were not the first of our batch to rotate there (at San Lazaro). So I guess I might have to put it off indefinitely.. The hoispital stay there was unremarkable anyway. Hehehe
So off we went to Legal Med, or what they called The Medico-Legal Department in the hospital. I won't go through the day-by-day occurences because much of it was pretty dull anyway. Duties were still every 3 days, but the pre- and from-duty posts really rocked. =)
PRE-DUTY:
You're supposed to report to the PNP Crime Laboratory there at Camp Crame. There you would encounter rape cases, where you're supposed to examine the victim for documentation. Eh siyempre since I'm a guy, my job was purely clerical.. which suits me just fine... =D There were also some cases of physical examination of prisoners prior to transfer, which seemed like a formality more than anything.
DUTY:
The most toxic of the posts. You stay in UST for a good 24 hours (yes, its true, only 24 freakin hours!!) to answer all calls from the ERCD or TR-Pay for medico-legal cases, which you have to document via history and PE, let the relative and attending physician sign, and go back to the legal med office to type the rest of the papers! Its that freakin' simple!! =P Well, it should be simple as long as there aren't TOO MANY cases/calls that come through... Let's just say that during my duty night (with Johnny O. as my ever trusty sidekick), we were called down for 12 cases, 5 of which were people involved in the same vehicular accident!..And that was at around 9pm up to about 2am!!! Enough said... But in fairness to the "most nontoxic rotation" label, it was only here where I was able to actually finish volume 1 of the Handbook of Must-Knows! I just wish we had a laptop during those boring duty nights. Nakakasawa nasi yung sounds sa PPC ko eh..
FROM-DUTY:
This one takes the cake... UST expects us to be at Crame.... Whilre Crame expects us to be at UST... Go figure.. ;D
After 8 wonderful days at Legal Med, it was time to move on to Ophthalmology
Ok, here goes...
Ophtha was a bit different as compared to the other services I've rotated to, since it was the first time we got to experience "duty" status that dosen't require you to stay for the full 24++ freakin' hours! :D Non-duty clerks had to man the OPD and face the seemingly never-ending masses of ophtha patients that come to consult every day. Duty days were great, since you go home by 7pm. Other than that, I found my stay in Ophtha less than appealing... In fairness to the department though, I was really able to learn a lot, especially with regards to the proper ophthalmological physical examination. I even had the chance to observe a phaecoemulsification with IOL placement done by Dr. Say himself!! Ang bilis! At ang galing!!! :D
But there's a flipside to every story... Lets just say that in my opinion, the supposed "niceness" of the ophtha staff is seriously overrated.. and I'll just leave it at that... In other words, I left the service with a bad taste in the mouth..
After another 8 days, it was time to go to the department of Otorhinolaryngology (aka ENT)...
With ENT, the group prepared for the worst.. Feedback from other groups had made ourselves brace for the worst posible scenarios.. Impressions at the time were the following...
1. ENT has EXTEMELY LONG ORs (20 hours long pa daw, or even 8 hours just for a simple thyroidectomy)
2. ENT residents are really strict and mean
3. ENT duties are the most "wasakan" duties this side of Medicine
4. ENT leks to mass-admit on weekends
I won't argue with #3 and #4, since the duty days were REALLY TOXIC, and they really are fond of mass-admitting patients on Saturdays and Sundays, but I feel that they've been given a bum rap with regards to #'s 1 and 2. I myself assisted an ENT total thyroidectomy, which took about 4 hours. Not really ala-GenSurg speed, but reasonable enough, since they (ENT) take great pains not to hit the recurrent laryngeal nerve and preserve vocal function. And the ENT residents really rocked! I mean, they may be strict at first, but if you get to know then, they;'re actually a pretty cool crew. :D
Yes, contrary to popular belief, the ENT people do have ORs. That's why the department is called ENT-HNS (HNS stands for Head and Neck Surgery)
Here's a rundown of the duty posts:
Pre- and From-duty:
Similar to Ophtha, non-duty clerks have to go down to man the OPD at the ground floor. There you perform the complete ENT physical examination, using such tools as the ever-popular otoscope to the lesser-known items like the nasal speculum and the laryngeal mirror (which is more familiar in the hands of dentists). We encountered the more common cases that you see if you do OPD work at ENT like impacted cerumen, acute and chronic otitis media, pharyngolaryngeal reflux, postnasal drip, and even some cases of goiter presenting with an enlarging neck mass (duh!) with/without hoarseness.
I really enjoyed the OPD time at ENT. There's just so much you can do! The residents realized my enthusiasm and gave me the go-signal to perform some simple procedures done at the OPD (which the patients have to pay a little bit extra to have done :D) like ear irrigation to remove impacted cerumen. It's just too bad they didn't let me use the vaccum yet.. hehehe
I'm really giving ENT a serious thought when the time comes to choose Elective rotations. :D
Duty:
Duties, on the other hand, were just plain terrible! In the words of our interns, it was ":THE WORST". I mean, you're just a team of 2, running the entire 2 wards (which were filled with patients over the weekend) with various "weird" tasks like CT scans, neck ultrasounds, Thyroid function tests, Radio-onco referrerals, applications to St. Cosmas, clinical abstracts for DOTS treatment, and many many more...
Sobrang nakakapagod talaga... but in fairness to them, the staff aren't that strict when it comes to monitorings.. heeheehee.. plus the fact that you get another chance to "make money" from walk-in patients from the ER by way of the ever-famous "donation box" =D.
In short, ENT was very tiring, but it was a lot of fun. ORs I attended were a Total Thyroidectomy and a Tracheostomy (where thery even let me suture!)
That's enough for this entry. I'll follow-up later on with stories from Derma and (hopefully) the San Lazaro Chronicles..
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