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I was taken by surprise this morning as I stepped into the office that I am currently working in. Two more new graduate doctors came. At first I felt this mild sensation of jealousy: "I won't be the one and only general practitioner working here... I won't be the spoiled one anymore! :/("
After a few seconds, I came to a realisation that having coworkers around had positive sides as well, such as less workload. Besides, making new friends is a good thing, right?
Yeah, I was right. The two other coworkers are lovely, and we have lots of things in common. One of them likes outfit designs, so I learned a couple of websites that I would be spending time with during my lonely nightshifts from her. The other wants to specialise in paediatrics, which is what I am considering for now. Both of them like watching movies, so that was also good news, since I was looking for some movie nerds that I would be able to discuss a repulsive 95-minute long festival film in which a bunch of French dancers were heavily influenced by LSD that was put into their drinks during a party they were throwing.
"It's gonna be the movie of the year for one half and the cinematic equivalent of dogshit for the other".
That was the best comment about the movie according to the friend that I went watching with.
Anyways, not only was I happy with the welcome of 2 other coworkers for a ton of reasons like the ones that I just mentioned, I was also quite relieved by the existence of other white coated people at the office, especially when I saw the anger towards me in the eyes of a patient whose blood donation I didn't accept because he confessed that he'd used illegal drugs in the past. It was the moment that I realised that having information didn't do the magic, approaching to the patient in the right way did. He was an illiterate guy, so I had to read all the questions out loud to him. As a doctor I was supposed to be non-judgemental, but without even knowing I looked down on him. Naturally he reacted and gave a threatening look that could easily convert to something physical. Luckily I wasn't alone.
I'm not going to end telling the positive sides of having good companies by your side. It's important not taking them for granted, as it's always better to share a mistake with a friend than taking the whole responsibility of that mistake. Ok, let me tell you... The machines in the healthcare system do not work perfectly all the time. And today was one of those days, in which the machine that works out the hemogram didn't tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And one of the male patients were told that their hemoglobin value was too low (5.8), which is quite a scary number. We took his history, and nothing raised any suspect. Desperately, we thought of referring him to the internal medicine department. Then somehow it occurred to us that maybe the machine needed a second chance. The second result was pretty pleasing (14.6). If I were alone with that mistake, telling the patient a false blood value and advising him to go see a specialist, I would have been so ashamed.
Eventually, the two other coworkers left me when their shift was over. And another patient came. An excessively talkative one. "Why would I ask him about the time period that he'd been in Great Britain?... What did toxoplasmosis mean? Why did I ask him about his prescriptions? Why did the whole process take so long?" etc.
I have to admit. Knowing more than the patients made me feel accomplished and responsible at the same time. And unlike my previous thoughts that I had before I got into this job, being able to practise this job requires team work. It's not an individual job.
I remember the times that I fought with my parents about the job that I wanted to do right before university admissions, years ago. I said I wanted to be relaxed, so studying medicine was the least thing that I wanted to involve in. My parents disagreed, and they told me that being a doctor would make me the happiest version of myself. I disagreed back then, ignoring the fact that what parents say usually come true. And yes, it WAS true, feeling like a doctor is an addicting one ;)
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I am a 25 year-old Turkish graduate from medical school.
My special interests follow as: reading medical articles, writing (currently indulged in 3 other personal blogs, one being a foodie-blog, the other ones serving as open diaries), playing violin and spending time with my little budgie.
