Estoy feliz.

Orientation keeps clicking along.  And as we get to know each other a bit more each day I get increasingly excited.  I seriously get to work with some pretty amazing individuals over the next year.

Today, as part of orientation, we had a condensed Lifewings course.  Lifewings teaches leadership and communication in a fashion authored by such individuals as Top Gun pilots.  It has been used, for example, to facilitate the teamwork used on nuclear submarines.  Do you know how many mistakes nuclear submarines have ever made?  Zero. Talk about setting the bar high for the rest of us.  But we have to try our best nonetheless. We came out of the course having earned our set of wings.

Does that mean I can add Pilot to my CV now? ;)

Earlier this week we got our ATLS certification. Advanced Trauma Life Support.  When they test you they put you in a setting of a remote community hospital, with no resources available to handle trauma.  The goal was to stabilize the patient and then transfer.  It's a standardized course used all over the world.  By the end, I was a bit frustrated.  At WMC, we do have the ability to handle such trauma.  And knowing that, I felt like I was providing awful treatment for my patients.  Even though they were fake patients.  At one point I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes as I had a chest tube put in my patient.  In real life I would not have put the tube in at that point, but I knew it was what ATLS wanted me to do next.  I do wonder just what percentage of real life reflects textbook life?

As July 1 approaches some are celebrating this weekend.  Their last free weekend!  I've got another certification course to go through so it's not free for me.  But even if I did, I doubt I'd be able to enjoy it either way.  I am getting really antsy for July 1.  We are told fatigue and stress will be a daily constant for the rest of our lives.  We are told that within our first 2 weeks we will have been in some way responsible for a negative effect on a patient.  (Although they then come back by stating that numbers show the July Phenomenon is just a myth.)  But I can't help it.  I've been waiting and I just want to finally get started.  Thinking about it, my fingers started tingling today.  My fingers haven't tingled since I reached into a man's chest and held his beating heart.


Much Love.