Well, folks, I'm back on another month of adult medicine - # 2 of 3 in the intern year. Medicine is the hardest, busiest month of all. Why? because the patients are complicated - adult patients with 4 or 5 major problems going on- and because there is just so much to learn. Anyway, after my surgery rotation in December, I was close to burned out. I was just so tired of not having a life - no time for housekeeping, shopping, email, sleep. But I had a wonderful week off at home in Houston over Christmas and came back refreshed and determined to meet the challenges of medicine head-on.
My first week on the medicine service has actually been fantastic. In October, I was on medicine at a different hospital with a private hospitalist group. This month I am at our main teaching hospital working with our own family medicine faculty. There is more teaching, more supervision and just more comradery. It's still a busy and intense month, and I will undoubtedly be exhausted by the end. However, I can already see how much I've learned and how much more confident I am about caring for patients. Now that I know the system and the basic routine, and some of the generic orders to write when admitting a patient, I can focus more on learning the art and science of medicine.
I decided to approach this month with some specific goals in mind - things I wanted to work on and learn to make the third month of medicine even better. For example, I want to get more efficient at rounding on patients in the morning - writing more concise notes, focusing on the main problems and keeping the details organized. I also want to become more comfortable managing patients on ventilators. I haven't had a lot of those yet, but there are still 3 1/2 more weeks to go in the month. I am slowly becoming more familiar with what tests to order, what questions to ask, and what medications and doses to give for a variety of conditions. I'm also less intimidated about asking questions. I've gotten to know the pharmacists, the lab techs, the social workers, the nurses and some of the consultants too. They are all very helpful, and that makes it much easier to call on them when I need help.
Now that I am halfway through my intern year (902 days of residency left), what can I say?
1. No regrets - I'm still glad I did this. Residency is harder than I ever imagined, but it is well worth it and I feel sure that I CAN in fact do it.
2. I picked the right program. I love the other residents and faculty, and the learning experience is fantastic. So I feel well supported and am becoming well-trained. And Wichita is a pretty nice place to live.
3. I cannot do this alone. I need your prayers and encouragement and most of all God's grace to face the physical, mental and emotional demands of residency. I appreciate the way God has put other Christian residents and faculty in my life and provided a great church where I can be fed and nurtured spiritually. And I thank God for all of you reading this and your sweet encouragement alon the way.
4. Only God can actually heal people. As much as I would like to fix my patients' problems, take away their pain and make them well, most of their problems are well beyond the scope of medical knowledge and technology (even if I were already a medical expert). Medicine is great, and it can do a lot. But ultimately the best remedy I can provide is to connect my patients to the Great Physician. I want to learn to do this better and more consistently. What else have I got to offer?
Meditating on the birth of Jesus this year, I was reminded of the gift of new life that we have in Christ. The old has gone, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17). This is definitely a season of old going and new coming for me in more ways than one. I pray that you also will experience anew the grace of God this New Year.
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