Anyway, I just finished this internship in Indianapolis and I met the best people! So, in an attempt to not break HIPAA violations (none of the people I am quoting will be patients, I just wanted to mention HIPAA since I had to sit through 2(!) presentations on it) I will be describing some of the people I got to interact with while working in the hospitals. I've included life advice, work advice, and anything I found amusing. AGAIN none of them will be patients!
G- G recently switched jobs because of the pay raise. And try as they might (raises, more responsibilities, managerial positions) the original job can't get him back. G wants to go back to school because he 'doesn't want to be a chef his whole life' and his GI bill is still good for a few more years. He's also doing it to set a good example for his daughter, a senior in high school.
M- M is a foodservice worker whose job falls as the communicator between the doctors, nurses and the other food service guys. She's been doing her job for almost 4 years now and knows all the tricks of the trade. Her jobs gets very stressful at times but she loves it because she gets to make sure no patients get any 'whack ass food'.
A- A was a medical assistant. "My mom was a stripper. I made a lot of choices to avoid being like her. Hopefully my daughter doesn't have to do that. Who knows, maybe she'll make choices in an attempt to be like me. Wouldn't that be nice?"
C- C is a nurse that I was talking to during a health fair. C- "I should've gotten married", Me- "you were never married?", C- "No, the woman I was going to marry, married my brother instead"
R- "I used to be a deadhead. Now I'm all cleaned up but I'm still a hippie in here" *points at heart* "Being a hippie is not about what you look like, it's about how you treat people"
A- "I just bought a new house with my boyfriend." Me- "oh so do I hear wedding bells anytime soon?" A- "yeah, maybe, but I figure it's harder to get out of a house than a marriage so I'm not that worried."
L- L was my first clinical role model. We were sitting on the unit and I was getting nosy with the machine that tracks heart rate. Me-"do you know what any of this means?" L-"all I know is- flat line, bad!"
D- D is young, single, dietitian. "I already stopped telling people what I do for a living. I just say I'm in 'health care' to avoid having to analyze someone's diet when I'm just trying to get into their pants."
A- A is a nurse that I met while on his floor. He has no history of diabetes or seizures. He was friendly and helped me unjam the printer paper tray. The next day I was on his floor again when he went down in front of me. I was rounding the corner to the nurses station he fell out of his chair and was seizing. It was scary and the only help I provided was staying out of the way. I don't know if he is ok.
M- M was the dietitian I got along with the least, she told me "you better get thicker skin, this is health care.. nobody is going to hold your hand through it."
J- J is a transplant doctor. We were discussing patients on the transplant list at the weekly meeting. Social worker at the meeting- "this patient is 50 years old, he's got blah blah blah condition, with blah blah blah symptoms for this amount of time. He lives in Random City, IN, he enjoys photography, oh and he's a registered sex offender" J- "No way am I transplanting him." Social worker- "Well it's illegal to deny him because of that." J- "Fine, we'll accept him on the condition that he fund raises for surgery. Maybe he can open a photography studio for little kids."
A- A is a pediatric dietitian. "My whole job is making sure the babies are growing enough everyday. When they are struggling then have a really good day I like to go and tell them." Me- "tell them that they are growing?" A- "yeah, it can be tough with all the other things going on. They need to know they are doing a good job."
D- D is a restaurant health inspector. While we're standing next to a very dirty dish washing machine he tells me "life goes by pretty fast. I'm telling you in 5 years you're going to wonder where the past 5 years went."
L- L is a 50 year old dietitian with sparkles on her fingernails. When she asked where I was from she said "yeah, I've been to Vermont once, it was really scary... there were liberals there." She also told me "the country would be much better if both the coast just fell off into the oceans."
Same L- She takes pride in her work. You can tell when you watch her interact with patients, but she told me "when I talk to doctors, I've found it's better to dumb yourself down. They give me what I want more often if they continue to think they are smarter than I am."
B- B is a nurse practitioner. I was talking to her about how nurses always get blamed for everything and just generally dumped on (figuratively and physically) when she tells me "I feel like I can be mean to nurses because I am one."
D- D has worked with low income families for 16 years. Me-"what's the craziest thing you've seen here?" D-"Someone offered to sell me drugs... and to put a hit out on anyone that I wanted. I actually considered it for a second... the protection, not the drugs! Well actually... no I couldn't do that."
B- B is a lactation consultant. She works with breastfeeding mothers. "People get way to comfortable with me. I think it's because they have to, but I had someone ask me if having a lot of sex made you lose weight. It's funny and I had a hard time keeping a straight face while her breast was out, but yeah, it burns calories so I guess it could help with weight loss."
H- H is one of my fellow interns. We were discussing how dietitians perceive their worth and how that effects their job performance- "No one will value you unless you are valuable."
B- B is a colorectal surgeon. He sees patients for anything colon related, a lot of them could benefit from speaking with a dietitian. Unfortunately he has a typical surgeon ego. Me- "Hey, I got a nutrition screen on your patient in room 9" Him-"Yeah, I'm following him for a benign reason, you don't need to see him" Me chasing B down the hallway as he is walking away from me-"But, sir, he's experiencing a lot of weight loss do mind if I just peek in?" Him- "Uh clinic is backed up, you can see him next time he comes in." I understand B is a busy man but I didn't hold my breath on that one.
A- A is also a colorectal surgeon. She works in the same clinic as B and showed up in my doorway one day- "hey, I've got this lady in room 6, she's got blah blah blah condition and I really don't want to have to operate on her, I just don't know if it will go well. I think you could help her, she's experiencing these symptoms, and has this attitude about surgery... and medicine... and nutrition... and PLEASE fix her."
B- Different B. "When everyone works with blinders on and forgets to communicate with each other... that's when the patient suffers. And who wants to work in a hospital where all your patients do is suffer?"
S- "I used to eat like crap, then I started doing diet histories on people with chronic illnesses and was seeing similarities. Is their diet the reason they got the illness? Maybe not. Is it one of the reasons they have a lower quality of life than another patient? Maybe."
S- S is a medical assistant at the clinic. She is the first face the patient sees when they get there and the final one before they leave. "I like getting to know my patients. It helps for when they have questions about what the doctor has said to them. I had to explain to someone about why you can't eat before surgery. You think I'm trained and educated for that? Hell no! And I know the doctor talked to them about it. Sometimes they're so freaked out while talking to the doctor they forget to comprehend what is being said to them. Once they realize that they have no idea what was just said, someone has to answer their questions."
N- N worked with me for a long time to tear down a lot of my demons and insecurities in the field. I was working on a difficult and complicated patient and was a nervous wreck about missing something important when she said "don't ever let what you don't know get in the way of what you do know."
