Yep, I'm officially a Resident Medical Officer! I survived my internship and now one year older and hopefully wiser, I get different rotations and a pay rise (serious WOOT on the last one, junior doctors get paid okay but not as well as people seem to think...)
My new rotation is Addiction Medicine, and I'm based in a treatment clinic NOT in the hospital! Yep, two months out of the hospital environment. It's the first time that the clinic has ever had a resident so there's a lot of me getting used to them and them figuring out what the heck to do with me.
After a year of variable and sometimes long hours... two months of a 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday job. Yes, you read correctly. No weekday overtime until 11pm, and no weekend shifts for two whole months!!! Life is going to be hard to get used to when I go back at the end of term!
So in Addiction Medicine I have clinics both morning and afternoon, reviewing people who are getting treatment for substance addictions of all types. My first morning in the methadone clinic was a real eye-opener. Seeing someone in acute opiate withdrawal is quite disturbing.
This year I have to figure out what it is I want to do with my medical career. To be honest I have no idea and will most likely do a senior resident year just so I have a little more time to decide (also I want to try out anaesthetics and I didn't get a rotation in it this year). Mr Slippers has his heart set on becoming a surgeon... that's definitely not my cup of tea!
The other extremely nice thing about my schedule this term is that Mr Slippers and I can spend more weekends together, since only one of us (him!) is doing weekend shifts. Let me tell you, two people working weekends at two separate hospitals makes coordinating time off together quite tricky sometimes!
On Friday I'm having a get together at my house. There'll be six of us from medical school, and since we haven't been able to catch up since midway through internship, I'm sure there will be lots to discuss!
... home of Dino, the Industrial Strength Moral Support Dinosaur, and his lucky owner...
Woohoo! Congratulations on the new rotation and pay rise, it sounds like the next two months is going to be really great schedule-wise though working in a methadone clinic sounds a bit scary!
ReplyDeleteHi Violet!
ReplyDeleteI do like a pay rise :)
The clinic was a little intimidating at first but I feel quite at home now...