Saturday, February 09, 2013

life as a locum...

Sometimes during life as a locum very awkward things happen. For example, you walk into an exam room and there is a patient there for a pap test who you went to university with... You're not sure if she remembers you. You have to then examine her intimately. AWKWARD. So you say "oh hi" at the beginning and then go about the physical choosing not to mention who you are because she of course knows your name (I'm Doctor ***) but does she recognize you? Sometimes it's better to meet patients with their pants on so these moments can be avoided. But then the whole changing interval ruins your schedule's flow. This is the life of a locum...

2 comments:

XE said...

LOL, yes. Hope you don't get too many "surprise" patients like that :) I definitely have had this issue, particularly when I would go back to my home town for electives. On rural I admitted people to hospital who I knew from my pre-medicine days, and delivered babies of people I worked with. (The admitting to internal med was ok, but the Ob/Gyn stuff was a bit strange).

Anonymous said...

Hey, just wanted to say I really enjoy your blog. I'm a medical student who is currently rotating through internal. I'm deciding between internal, pediatrics, and family medicine. I was wondering if you could ever do a post commenting on the pros/cons of family med? I love the continuity of care in family, but find the complexity of internal med so interesting. I'm curious if you think every career becomes not as academically stimulating, in which case that should be less of a deciding factor. Thanks! : ).