My time at the VA intensive care unit has come to a close, and while I am currently enrolled in a class (name: “Medical Imaging and Anatomy,” actual name, “Nate Gives Absolutely No F*cks”), what I’m actually doing is just twiddling my thumbs until it’s time to match on Friday. Continue reading
student
The Coming Reckoning
Two things right up front:
- I still have no idea what I’m going to do with my rank order list;
- I still do not have access to the VA system, where I begin my acting internship on Monday.
With that said, I write this post while experiencing a fairly complex, ebbing and flowing mix of trepidation, desperation, apathy, and outright nihilism. These are the emotions of a compromised fourth year student with a willpower wellspring shallower than a lunchbox. When you do nothing for almost three months, your brain atrophies; at this point, all I’m really capable of doing is following the smells of free food and clicking “Yes, I’m Still Watching” on the Netflix popup. This bodes poorly for my ICU rotation starting tomorrow. Continue reading
On The Trail
Holy crap, interviews.
The first thing you should know about medical school interviews is that your medical student is supposed to go on a lot of them, and that they all blend together into one big Vitamix of tours, catered lunches, and Powerpoint presentations. Continue reading
Bronching The Inbox
ERAS is in, my away rotations are done, and I’m stuck here waiting for interview invitations along with the other 100% of 4th year medical students. Well, except the two loudly proclaiming to all who will listen, “I HAVE SO MANY INVITES GUYS SO MANY INVITES!”
You know who you are. Continue reading
“Is There A Doctor On The Plane?”
I was all set to write a wrap-up of my month abroad before starting on another away rotation. I had a wonderful time, learned an incredible amount of information that I could never have obtained in the States, and got to spend a month exploring a wholly different culture. It was great. I was jazzed to write about it.
And then I flew home. Continue reading
Impostor Syndrome XXVII
Okay, so, my plan to write more and not less during Nate’s Summer Away From Home has not panned out. I probably should have expected that an audition/away rotation would take up more of my time than I thought, but I was pretending otherwise.
To recap, I spent last month taking shifts in the ED at a large county hospital on the West Coast. Like everything else here, it will remain unnamed out of the remote possibility that I can be identified. Continue reading
Away Rotations
One of the coolest parts about medical school is the ability to go to other schools, hospitals, or institutions to see what medicine is like at their house – to explore a different area of the country, a hospital where you want to match, or just to take a trip. Typically we’ll do this during the tail end of third year and early fourth year (i.e., right now) before residency applications go out in September. I’m doing two – one this month and another in the fall. Continue reading
“Nate Does Not Have A Career In Critical Care”
Disclaimer: I am especially salty tonight because I have trudged one small step closer to the inglorious age milestone of 30, and have little to show for it except two aborted jobs, knee pain, and a shitty Mazda with an outstanding recall for premature airbag deployment.
Read on.
This month, I’m taking a hybrid course called Critical Illness, which as you might imagine focuses on the unique aspects of caring for the very sick or injured. We spend a week learning “skills” in our simulation center, followed by some combination of an ICU week and two weeks of case-based learning, similar to what we did first year. Continue reading
Up and Away
I only have one month of research left! Thank god. I can’t wait to get back to clinical medicine.
Medical school is a fascinating place. It’s bound to be; you’re taking 100 or so of the highest-stress, maximum type A personalities that exist and forcing them to attend class, scrap for grades (sometimes), and cohabitate for four years. If we had time for lives and drama, it would make a fantastic reality TV show. Continue reading
I Took Step 2 And It Was Long
A little over two weeks ago I took Step 2. About two weeks from now I should receive my score. Neither of these two events particularly matter, considering Step 2 is largely a test that exists so that you can pay money to the testing service. Continue reading
crashing resident 