When she arrived at the hospital she just sauntered in, confident. She knew she belonged here, in the medical world, bursting at the opportunity to show her superiors just what she was capable of. Walking through reception, she made her way to the information desk where she saw a woman in medical scrubs manning the phones and looking through patient records.
"Dr Julia Epstein, reporting for duty" she said.
"Dr...Epstein?" said the woman on the desk. "Do you work here?"
"As of today, yes. Did you not see my file?"
"I haven't but I'm sure the Duty Doctor has. Let's just look through my records here....Epcott, Ephraim, ah here we go...Epstein. I see you're a first year intern."
"That's me!" replied Julia, positively.
"I'm Francesca Griffith, admin assistant. Glad to have you on board, Doctor. I'll page Dr Murakami and she'll show you the ropes."
Francesca picked up a phone receiver and put out a message over the hospital loudspeaker system. "Paging Dr Murakami...paging Dr Murakami...please report to reception please.
After a few minutes wait a Japanese-American woman with short hair and wearing a lab coat arrived in the reception area and walked over to Julia. "Ah, Dr Epstein...good of you to join us. I see you've met Mrs Griffith...now, I haven't got time to give you a guided tour of the whole hospital but it's well signposted, there's maps in every corridor and I'm sure you'll pick things up quickly."
"Now, for your first task I want you to take some food for the patient in room 2" said Dr Murakami.
"Erm, you want me to take some food to a patient?" asked an incredulous Julia. "Surely I should be studying some case notes, maybe working in the lab..."
"Oh no, I want you to take food to the patient" said Dr Murakami, matter of factly. "I have a policy where new interns learn the ropes and layout of the hospital by doing simple tasks. I don't like those fresh out of medical school...particularly ones who show keen medical knowledge but little in the way of life skills...to learn from the bottom up. Now, this meal, room 2 and pronto...Dr Epstein." she said, pointing to a trolley with a covered metal dish on it.
Julia, without saying a word, trudged over to the trolley and began to push it. Reaching the double doors to the wards, she turned to Francesca looking puzzled.
"Through those double doors and just ahead to the left...you can't miss it" said Francesca.
Julia followed the directions and found room 2. Inside was a teenage girl who appeared to be covered in spots "Early stage psoriasis or perhaps an allergic form of eczema" thought Julia to herself.
"Nurse?" said the girl, quizzicly.
"Doctor, actually. Dr Epstein. I've brought you some food."
"Oh I'm so hungry...I had an examination early this morning and missed breakfast time...I guess this is a late breakfast, maybe brunch"
"Are my results back yet?" asked the girl.
Julia walked to the end of the bed and checked her notes...name, Yuki Behr, age 17. The usual medical history...nothing out of the ordinary.
"No, not yet it appears" said Judith. "But my guess is that it's an allergic reaction to something that contacted your skin. Do you by any chance frequent outdoor places much?"
"Well...no, not usually, but recently I've found a shortcut through Newcrest to my home that takes me through a lot of old heath land that has a lot of long grasses and wild bushes."
"Ah, that's probably it. If it is then there's plenty of ointments we can prescribe."
"Thank you, Dr Epstein...you're the first person here to tell me what might be wrong"
At that point there was a knock on the door. Julia said "enter" and Francesca did just that.
"Dr Epstein....Dr Murakami has got your next task for you." she said.
"Already? What is it? Does she want me to sit in on surgery? Does she want me to take some tissue samples from this patient?" asked an eager Julia.
"No, she wants you to change the IV drip of the patient in room 4."
Julia let out a "harumph", put Yuki's chart back in its holder and left the room. Popping along to room 4, she was met by a VERY talkative old lady.
"Well you took your time...do you know how long I've been waiting for an operation? Do you? Well it's not good enough, do you hear? Not good enough...good grief, look at the state of you? Are you a nurse? In my day nurses looked like nurses...white uniforms and hats...now look at you!"
"I'm a doctor, madam" replied Julia, when the old lady paused to intake a breath of air.
"A doctor! What are you, 12? Tsch! And a mere slip of a girl as well!"
"I'll just change your drip" said Julia, who had faced plenty of prejudice during her medical training from older male doctors who thought that she was too young and slight to cut it as a doctor.
"I tell you what Mrs...." and she checked the patient's notes "...Kearney. I'll follow up with the surgeons on your time of operation" and with that she quickly made her way out of the room.
Lunchtime came and Julia grabbed a light snack from the cafeteria. She ate alone; not knowing any of the other staff apart from Francesca, who was still working on the front desk. To be frank, she didn't mind the solitude here and appreciated the break from all the mundane tasks she'd been assigned. It certainly wasn't what she expected on her first day as a qualified doctor.
Heading back to the reception, Julia asked Francesca what her next "arduous" medical task would be.
"Well...there is something the higher ups wanted you to do" said Francesca. "Something that will familiarise you with every part of the hospital, be more hands on and is part of the very wellbeing of the place."
"Ooh, sounds interesting...what is it?" asked an expectant Julia.
At the end of her shift Julia trudged out of the hospital...she was disappointed that all her cases could have been handled by nurses, janitors or candy stripers but a job's a job and she would give it more of a go to prove to the "higher ups" that she deserved better. Francesca stopped her on the way out.
"Don't sweat it; all new interns go through this process" she said, sympathetically.
"Sigh...I guess. I'm still frustrated though; I want to prove what I can do!" said Julia.
"That'll come...in time. Meanwhile do you fancy hanging out for a bit after work? My husband's taking our daughter to ballet class this evening so I've got a workout session booked at Skye Fitness...and I'm allowed to bring a guest."
"Sounds good...I don't exercise much but I'm keen to give it a try. Sure." replied Julia.
"OK, see you there at 7pm"
Julia went home, had dinner and grabbed her exercise clothes. Catching the bus into San Myshuno she arrived....as she liked to do...promptly. Francesca had also just arrived and ran over to her.
"Phew! They couldn't find some x-ray at the hospital so yours truly had to locate it for them! Doctors! Anyway, I rushed straight from there to here; I didn't even have time to change out of my scrubs!"
"Hey, this is a pretty swanky place here" said Julia, impressed by the modern state of the art gynmasium.
She and Francesca entered the gym. "Yes, this place can be expensive but my husband's a member" said Francesca.
"Maybe one day I'll earn enough to get membership here as well" commented Julia, taking in the expensive furnishings and equipment.
They went into the ladies' changing room where Julia changed into her exercise leotard. She'd never been the sporty type and wondered how she would get on here but how difficult could keep fit be, she wondered. Francesca showed her to the treadmills and showed her how to operate one.
"So, do you think you'll stick with the hospital?" asked Francesca.
"I'm determined to. It's what I've always wanted to do all my life" replied Julia. "So what's the key to winning over Murakami?"
"Hard work and a can-do attitude" said Francesca. "But I think you did all the right things today, even if they didn't seem like much"
Julia kept running on the treadmill but noticed that two of her neighbours, John Action and Jeremy Saint, had entered the gym.
"Hey, Julia, what are you doing here?" said Jeremy.
"I might ask you the same question...this place is pretty expensive" she replied.
"I know. But my boss gave me a one off pass as a promotion present. John here got a pass from one of his contacts"
Action turned and smiled. "It was more of a personal contact...if you get my drift. I've been seeing this lady who has friends on the council. It pays to be connected"
Julia got off the treadmill, feeling exhausted. Jeremy turned to her and said "I almost forgot! Today was your first day at the hospital. How did it go?"
Julia paused for a moment. Francesca had gone to the other end of the gym to lift weights and was out of earshot and she didn't want to tell Jeremy about her day of delivering food, mopping floors and getting harangued by old ladies.
"Oh it was VERY challenging" she said. "I hit the ground running, so to speak. Never off my feet for a moment with all these tricky cases."
Action stroked his chin. "Really? You made a big impression on your bosses? Normally you have to mop the floors when you're at the bottom rung."
No comments:
Post a Comment