I am working in a humorless environment.
Not much joking around.
Not much humor.
Not much smiling.
21 shifts left. 3 more calls.
I had a serious debate with myself today about this month.
Am I learning? Not really.
Am I improving technical skills. Yeah, kind of.
Am I gaining some kind of experience that will someday make me a better doctor when I'm back in Massachusetts, Colorado, Lesotho, or god knows where I end up? Maybe.
Because this week, for 4-6 hour every morning, and for 30 hours on wednesday-thursday and 24 hours on Sunday, I get to do newborn triage.
This morning resuscitating one newborn, on the newborn resuscitation bed, which doesn't have a working radiant warmer, I was slightly dismayed when a pair of twins were brought into the room while I was bagging and doing chest compressions on the one kid, and then within a matter of minutes, two MORE kids were brought in. Granted, those 4 other kids were fine-ish, but still...
So, I quickly had 7 kids in my triage room. And the benefit was that I get to be right there with these kids for a few hours and watch them progress (or crump). And that to me is the learning point. Someday when I'm trying to arrange evacuation/transport for a sick newborn, I'll look back to the experience this month and realize then, that I'm getting some valuable experience.
