Pharm Exam/Clinical Week 7

The Pharm exam went well enough. It takes a couple weeks to get the scores, but I'm not at all worried about it, I finished quickly and easily enough, but this week of memorization was no punk.

This was the first week of my new clinical assignment. The commute was about 30 minutes on the way there, but only 15 on the way back (traffice differences). It sucks to be holed up in the car with folks you don't really know. That, and the interstate we have to take is notoriously bad and so the whole time my eyes are closed. It was an interesting first day. We got lost (as required) which ticked me off because people would not listen to me. We just drove around in circles for 30 minutes before they finally listened to what the hell I had to say. My suggestion was to start from our school since the only directions we had started from the school. But, no, they decided they "knew" of another way to get on the interstate, so we drove around looking for it. After 30 minutes, we were right back at my house, and after I pointed this out, someone *else* had the "bright idea" that we should just go back to school and start from there. Did I mention the school is probably all of two miles from my house? Arrgh. Then, when we arrived at the hospital I informed the group that my friend had told me that we needed to get our parking ticket validated as soon as we walked into the hospital so we could pay the flat rate; otherwise, we would have to pay the hourly rate because the desk closes at 7 and we aren't done until 10. Do you think they listend to me? No. For whatever reason, they thought that it wasn't really important. And she told me "oh, don't worry about it" as we walked right pass the desk where we could have done it. Ok. Whatever.

In the mean time, we go through our first day of clinical, which does not involve taking care of a patient. We do scavenger hunt type activities to locate where everything on the floor is, we go over hospital procedures and regulations (ie How to call a CODE) and we get to know eachother. We found out that we will be doing concept maps instead of careplans for this rotation. Our preceptor is also a teacher at a diploma program. A concept map is basically a visual careplan that you can draw, color, or whatever. Fine with me. The nurses on the new floor are nice and they were excited to meet us. The patients on the floor are very sick. Many of the rooms double as hospice rooms and it has a very sad feeling to it. The exception is the outpatient room which is actually on the floor. I dont' know why they would want to have an outpatient area (where patients get chemo) on the same unit as hospice - that seems really eerie and inappropriate to me??!! There is also a notable difference in presence of clergy on this floor. I never saw any on our last floor; I saw two on this floor within the first hour.

So, to continue the previous rant, clinical ended and we started to leave when the driver realized that not only should we have gotten the ticket validated, but we needed to at least bring it IN the hospital because you actually pay for parking before you leave the building. She went to get the ticket and brought it in. We put it into the automated machine. It cost more than three times the daily rate. So everyone is forking over the cash, but I forked over less. I refused to pay the difference between how much it *should* have cost us and how much it actually cost us. Not to be the difficult one, but I don't have money to waste, and when she decided (on her own) that we didn't need to pay the daily rate, as far as I'm concerned she took responsibility for the difference in cost. Then, we got back to the car and started giving her the gas money. Earlier this week I said we should meet for second and figure out how much we should pay to whoever was driving. Again, no one thought we needed to do that. So last night when it's time to fork over the money, everyone is paying five or ten bucks. Now, this is not a problem, but I at least need to know if this is just for today, or for tomorrow, too? Why is this so hard to discuss? People probably want me to just roll with the flow. I hear that all the time. But that's not the kind of budget I'm on. You can tell me how much you expect per week, or I can make the decision for you and you will just get what I give you, but I must know how much to plan for.

In essence, I hate group dynamics. Also, as I get to know folks, I think a lot of people are here because they didn't want to work yet. For example, people are getting their THIRD master's degrees in succession. Hmmm. You're 30+ and you've yet to have a real job? Or people who have an undergrad in one thing, a master's in something else, did the peace corps for two years, taught for one year, and now they're doing this and they aren't even 30 yet??!! What's really going on? And when I hear them talking about their undergrad and grad loans from previous programs, and I remember what schools they're coming from (all Ivies), I can't help but add that up...and I realize that they are adding yet another $100,000 in loans to the loans they already racked up in undergrad and previous grad school...we're talking $200,000 easily. That's a lot of money. But it ain't my business.