I'll see you in the ICU!

"I will not be able to rescue you from the depths of your Wasabi depravity"

I am in a sushi induced ecstasy! A just discovered a place on 181st between Broadway and Fort Washington that delivers! So after nearly 4 weeks of going cold turkey I am finally indulging in more sushi than you can shake at chop stick at!

It was tough for me because in San Fran, we were going to my favorite sushi spots about twice a week minimum. Then I moved out here, to the land of McDonald's, Wendy's, and sidewalk Gyro vendors, andthere was nothing I would even remotely consider putting in my face, no matter how hungry I ever got!

So I'm pretty happy at the moment. Now, if I can find decent cup of espresso...

I will keep telling you about my clinical assignment (while I eat!)

I was walking on the street yesterday after class coming up on Broadway; I had been originally heading toward the store, but then I realized I didn't have enough money on me to buy both a fine-line green ink pen, and lunch, so I turned around quickly and headed back toward the pizza place.

Turning on my heels I nearly bumped into my friend Shannon. He is also in the ETP anesthesia program, and so we stopped to talk a little bit. He decided to come have a piece of pizza with me and while we were there, his lab partner, Hugh, came in and so the three of us ended up having lunch together.

I was glad for the company, but more importantly, I was glad for all the information they were imparting. It seems they have a very good clinical site, and are learning any number of things. While we are made to feel like intruders at our clinical site, unable to do anything on our own without the preceptor there, they have been learning how to take reports and give reports on patients, have been in charge of the patient entirely with the exception of administering medications, and they are getting a lot of practice doing physical assessment.

I told Hugh that on my floor there are about two working blood pressure cuffs, and that it is a constant struggle to try to find working equipment with which to take vital signs. The contrast between their rotation site and mine was obvious!

Later we came back to the Hammer building and practiced our physical assessment checkout run through. During our final, we will have to give an observed physical to our lab partners, and then they will have to give us one. We will be stopped along the way and asked what we are checking for, what any sign of abnormality would indicate, such as in the case of lung sounds, heart sounds, cranial nerves, etc. since my lab partner lives in Queens, it has been very hard to get together and practice, so I decided to start hanging out with Hugh and Shannon on Friday afternoons and doing the run through with them.

Honestly, I like physical assessment. I wish I had more time to dedicate to reading the chapters, studying what all this means; I feel like I am just doing pantomime, memorizing the locations of things (aortic valve sounds [S2] heard at second intercostal space right of the sternum, tactile fremitus palpated in five different regions posteriorly, stethoscope listening spots in nine different places posteriorly, five places anteriorly -- you get the drift) and not really getting a good idea of what it is I'm supposed to be hearing, seeing, feeling, assessing, etc.

I'm sure it takes time and practice. However we're not getting that time or practice during our clinical rotation, and my real worry is that I will show up to my next clinical rotation, next semester, and not know my ass from a rectal thermometer.

I guess the one positive thing I could say, is that from here, everything will seem like a better clinical site. I'm also happy to say that I will be in group four next semester and that some of my friends will be in this group, too.

And as Forrest Gump would say "that's all I have to say about that."

posted by sketchmonkey @ 12:00 PM