back again

ok. i feel that these "sorry to have not blogged for so long" excuses are getting old. Nonetheless, sorry. I'm back, now, I think.

I just came back from a month away rotation which was useful in many ways. For everyone out there who is in medical school and is going to be planning their fourth year sometime soon, here's my two bits of unsolicited advice about doing away rotations:

1. Know yourself: How well do you adjust to change? Can you work well in new settings and with people who differ from the folks who you've gotten used to over the last few years?
- There's really no denying it: medical school creates its own cliche-ish culture (gasp!) and, believe it or not, that culture varies from school to school. Even if you don't like the program you come from, you really will feel like you are staying over at somebody else's house -with their family's different roles, behaviors and dynamics, and you may find yourself either wishing to go back home or envious of how other people live. You will do best if you go with the flow and accept the pluralism of medical culture. If you don't think you can do that, it might be a very miserable month.

2. Accept the power of luck or (lack of it): Don't place all your hopes and expectations in your rotation. If you end up with one bad intern or disintrested attending, or if you just happen to be sick or tired during your rotation, you might have a very one-sided view of the place you are evaluating. You are probably just as likely to have one experience like this in the best program you could be in, but you happened to have it there.

3. Try to clearly state your goals: What is it that you like and don't about that program? What new things did you realize about your home program now that you've had others to compare it to.
It's amazing how many times I would have a good or bad gut reaction to the program I was evaluating, and could not figure out logically what was wrong with it.

Anyway, it was an interesting month. I learned a lot and met some good people. I got to see friends and family more than I had in a long item, and I even began to catch up on years of lost sleep. Unfortunately, at times, I also felt like a shizoid combination of Dorothy and Goldilocks, whispering to myself: "this one's too hot, this one's too cold, and this one...this one is just right!" and "there's no place like home, there's no place like home".

Now I'm back at my own program, beginning the ICU...which means there will be plenty stories to follow.