Step 2 Boards

I feel like I have been worried about boards for the last 1.5 years. Last July, I took Step 1. This June, I flew to Philadelphia to take Step 2 PE. Tomorrow, I am taking Step 2 CE, which is basically an 8 hour multiple choice test. Super fun huh? I cannot wait for this to be over. This has been hanging over my head for awhile and I'm looking forward to rejoining humanity tomorrow evening. My plans are to see a movie or two, get a pedi, and then a decent dinner. While I wish I could celebrate with Jake, he won't be here until Thursday. I suppose I will survive.

So the rest of my boards.....Within 1 year of graduation I will have to take Step 3. In my 3rd or 4th year of residency I will take my written Ob/Gyn boards. And then within 5 years of finishing residency, I have to take oral ob/gyn boards. How craptastic is that? Not every specialty gets to have the luxury of doing this, but of course I chose one that does. And then, every so many years I will have to recertify. Basically, what I'm saying is that I'll be spending loads of money every time I take one of these exams, and I'll be doing them the rest of my life.

So, wish me luck for tomorrow or at least send some good vibes to the Cincinnati vicinity :)

The Gunner

In the world of med students a "gunner" is a person who is always trying to make themselves look good by being obnoxious, making other people look bad, being overly aggressive, etc. Well, I've previously blogged about the girl on this rotation who I have met up with before and didn't like. Today, she was a super gunner, and it bit her in the ass big time.

For reference, I have a preceptor on this rotation who I am assigned to. He happens to be the program director. So it kind of sucks for everyone else on their audition rotations because they want to work with him and impress them, but I'm HIS student, so I get first dibs.

So, today in morning report, I found out that my attending had a woman who was going to deliver soon. I should get to do this delivery. The Gunner asks my attending if she can do the delivery with him. I was livid! I was sitting right there and she didn't bother asking me if I minded ( I would have said yes I minded). The attending hims and haws and says "I guess." For one hour of morning report, I am stewing. Literally, I'm sure there was steam coming out of my ears.  Report ends and I walk out of the room with my preceptor and one of the residents and I just ask "So is the Gunner (used her name) doing the delivery with you?" Well, the resident gets mad and says that it should be mine since I'm the student assigned with that dr, and that she's too dominant.

Ok, we get to L&D and the Gunner runs to the room. I casually let the resident know that the Gunner went to the room to start pushing the girl. She was LIVID. She said "She has been stealing deliveries from other students as well and that is not how we do things at this hospital." Then she went and pulled her out of the room and sent me in. OMG, I was floored. So, I got to do the delivery.

When I came out, her face was priceless. She was so pissed.

And that's why you should not be a gunner.

Weekend Day 1

I showed up this morning at 4:45 to help out the residents. I rounded on the post partum patients and then a resident sent me over the to the floor (post op) to round there as well. I was the only student who showed up!!!! Booyah. Yup that makes me look a hell of a lot better than everyone else, especially since I'm not really even on the hospital rotation while all the others are! I got to assist with a delivery today and a c-section. I told the resident that I would be there tomorrow morning to help out again and she seemed pleased.

Speaking of c-sections....As a student I usually get to help sew them back up. I'm contemplating taking a basic sewing class this winter out by Jake. I can't wait for them to ask what my previous sewing experience is: people :)

If tomorrow comes and goes, and I'm still the only student coming in on my time off, I'll just be a happy little camper.

Competition in an Audition Rotation

As I've previously mentioned, I was invited back to do another audition rotation at the place I did in June. When I was there at that time, I was the only medical student, so my time with the residents was all one-on-one, plus I had lots of attending time. THIS time, it's a little different. There are 4 other medical students on the rotation (3 of them want to go to this program) and 1 PA student. This means that there is lots of competition going on. Nobody is being down right rude or mean, but it's uncomfortable and I hate it. One student, who I have had a previous run in with, is there. She's not my favorite person and I caught her lying to an attending yesterday. I chose not to say anything because you're not supposed to ever speak badly about other medical students. But for anyone who knows me, keeping my mouth shut was super difficult. I guess the residents don't love her, so that's good. There's another student who I met while I was here before and I thought she was really nice, but yesterday she kept asking me when I was going to clinic (because I was in the OR and she wanted me out of there!). 

I'm holding my own and have been getting lots of compliments. But it's tough, because I know how badly the other girls want to come here as well. I've heard that none of the students have been rounding on the weekends, so I will be there tomorrow morning at 5 am with a smile on my face ready to work hard.

I just have to say that this entire process is really stressful and annoying. There is so much uncertainty that it makes things a lot harder than I want them to be. Is it spring yet?

It's Over!

Well, my dreaded rotation is over. That might have been the longest month of my whole life. It really was a strange month. It was very challenging, in that these patients were very very sick with multiple problems: acute respiratory failure, pneumonia, acute renal failure, NSTEMI (heart attack), and hypokalemia. And that's just one patient. The hard part is trying to figure out medication management: you have to make sure that the adverse effects of one medication won't make another problem worse, etc. Not so fun. The good news is that not a single patient died on our 1 month rotation! I was absolutely floored.

So in the last few weeks there, I was told by different preceptors that I should go into critical care medicine. The first time it was brought up was like this "I don't mean to be rude, but why are you going into OB/GYN? You are smarter than that. You should be a critical care physician." Ummmmm, absolutely stunned. STUNNED! Paul told me that my face was completely blank.

Of course on my worst rotation ever, I receive for the very first time an evaluation from the doctors to fill out about the rotation, with very specific questions. It took me about an hour to fill out. I wanted to be honest, but diplomatic at the same time to ensure that no connections were ruined. So on our last day, Dr. A had a sitdown evaluation with each one of us. I told him things that needed to be changed (which he did write down) and that it was such a challenging rotation. He told me that I did very well and that I was operating at least a year ahead of where I'm at. And one of my favorite comments: "The way you present is very unique. I've never seen anything like it before, and I like it." Okkkkkkayyy. I didn't think I was doing anything unusual.

Anyways, it's all over. I never have to think about it again. Jake is here and we have had an amazing weekend. We spent Saturday at Cedar Point (the number 1 amusement park!) with our friends Andy and Kara. It was basically one of the things that I've wanted to do since I was little. The roller coasters were amazing and everything I had hoped for! Today we are headed to the Ohio Renaissance Festival. What can I say? I'm a good wife.

Tomorrow starts the 8 week string of audition rotations. I'm not sure if I wrote about this, but the program in Dayton that I previously auditioned is where I will be for my next two weeks. The program director invited me back to his private practice.  If you ask anybody close to me, it seems that the only thing I am capable of talking about is residency. Ugh, I'm so over this process and it has only just begun.