From Sitting to Running

Tomorrow is the last day of clinical seminar week, thus concluding our didactic year of PA school (didactic can be loosely translated to the act of sitting on one's duff, being annihilated by 238 slide PowerPoint presentations, then going home to read obscure medical texts until you wake up in a pool of drool). In summary of this year, I feel like I have learned a ton, met some great people, and pushed myself to do things I thought previously impossible.

The true clinical year starts on Monday morning when I report for duty at the Emergency Department on Whidbey Island. This will be the start of 15 months of a whole different story. I expect no sitting, and no PowerPoints.

I have recently found out several new rotations on my schedule. Listed on the right of this blog, you will find the dates and locations. They have been left generic for a reason. Places, names, and specific information will be left general, generic, and at times completely made up . HIPAA (privacy laws) as well as common sense dictate this. I would like to be candid about how my rotations are going so that the reader gets a feel for how life on rotations actually is. If I listed doctor's names or specific clinic names I would put my anonymity in jeopardy. You can help by not using any known/specific names in of your comments.

So here is a quick rundown of my newly scheduled rotations:
#4 in La Jolla, CA....hopefully a mix of surfing, spanish, and internal medicine, not likely in that order. The hospital is a few miles from this point.

#6-#7 in Hood River, OR.....I will likely be living in Portland for this one, making the wintertime commute through the Columbia River Gorge each day. Will be worth every mile to sleep in my own bed, while still having a great rotation in a cool town that has been on our list of "potentials" for a while.


#8 in Portland doing my clinical project. This will be a nice reprieve. I picture myself hanging out in a coffee shop drinking espresso and surfing the InterVebb. It may actually be more work than that.

#9 Trauma. 12 hours+ a day x 6 days, switching between day shift and night shift. As this rotation is in Portland, I will technically be sleeping at home, but essentially living at the hospital.

#10 Ecuador. Can't Wait.

Disclaimer: Any and All of these rotations can and will change, at a moments notice. The more I get excited about any particular city, clinic, afterwork activity, or housing situation the more likely it is to change.



Stay tuned....thanks for reading, thanks for your support!!