Sunday, September 11, 2011

Bring on the juniors!

The new juniors (I call them "new" juniors because it still seems a little weird to me that we are no longer the juniors) started their morning clinical rotations 3 weeks ago.

However, since I was on CCU overnights and Urgent Care days for the first 2 weeks of the semester (and there are no juniors on those rotations), I did not get a chance to work with any of the juniors until this past week on Oncology.

And they're so cute! It almost makes me a little nostalgic for the terror of starting junior year, the wild-eyed barely-restrained panic you can see in their faces when you ask them to do something, the mostly inaudible mumbling when they give (usually correct) answers to questions during morning rounds, the silent apology in their eyes when they know something that all of us seniors have failed to remember.

The 2 juniors we had on Oncology with us this week were very enthusiastic and willing to conquer their fears and tackle appointments -- which was quite fortunate, because they didn't really have a choice. Oncology schedules a certain number of new cases every morning based on how many seniors are on the rotation that week, so that each senior has one new appointment every morning. Somehow, the schedulers got word that there were 6 seniors last week and next week, so they scheduled 6 appointments every morning. However, there are really only 3 seniors from my vet school, plus 2 students from other vet schools who are basically the equivalent of us (so we are making them take cases) -- which leaves 1 appointment every morning for the juniors to handle!

I'm having a really good time helping them out, teaching them how to fill out forms, where to drop off prescriptions, how to navigate the medical records department. It's early enough in their semester that they really don't know much about hospital procedures, and are very grateful for assistance. And it's not like they don't know enough medicine at this point in their curriculum to be able to do a physical exam and take a history from a client (though they probably doubt their abilities) -- it's more the annoying logistical stuff they need help figuring out.

And I remember being a junior myself, when so many of the seniors would rush off to their appointments without pausing to ask if you wanted to tag along. They'd hurry through online forms and completing medical records without talking you through them, or look at you like you were an idiot if you politely informed them that you didn't know how to enter a radiology request yet. It was often frustrating to feel like you were getting in their way, or interrupting them while they were busy doing important things and you had some lowly question with an easy answer (albeit one you couldn't figure out without asking).

So I'm trying not to be one of "those" seniors. I figure that investing a little extra effort in the juniors this early in the year will help them be more confident and competent as the year progresses. It'll allow them to get more out of their own junior year since they will be able to do more things for themselves, and they will be able to help us out more and more as the year progresses. And I hope that, come this time next year, they'll remember some of the nicer seniors who didn't mind showing them around and answering questions, and they'll be prepared to pass that positive attitude along to the next class. Lord knows you need all the help you can get sometimes in this fast-paced, whirlwind adventure we call vet school.

2 comments:

  1. Good to maintain sympathy for the juniors; then maybe their "silent" apologies for the seniors' errors will remain "silent"!

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  2. If you think juniors are cute, you should see kindergarteners! But just wait until they make you cry...not so cute any more. ;)

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