These first couple days have been a bit strange. It feels like no one has really known what to do with us. The clerkship director I guess has just been getting back from some time off and the inpatient attending who we have been working with just doesn’t seem familiar with having students work with her at this hospital. We made it work as best we can and the other student and I were able to do some learning today. Today I got collateral (supporting second-hand account of patient’s condition) from someone I had been curious to talk to. This person basically confirmed a lot of the story of patient himself, some of which sounded almost unreal, but the fact that they are real very much supports his diagnosis. We interviewed a lot of patients as a group today. I realize that I may not make a good psychiatrist because every time the patient talked about pain or a weird heart thing my instinct was to OPQRST them and break out my stethoscope.
Later we did get to speak with the director and get out schedules and kinda have some structure brought into the tumult that has been our lives the past 48 hours.
Also it’s burrito week in SB, and my classmate and I got the Super Cucas burrito. It was good. I still prefer their Cali burrito though. We also went to the farmer’s market which they hold INSIDE THE HOSPITAL COURTYARD. I got a pie.
After I got out the hospital I went to volunteer with my old street medicine org. It was really nice to be back. Sitting in the park talking to folks just made me think about how much I miss this work. In this setting and even in the hospital and in the clinic, I love talking to patients, whether its about medicine, their health, or just about how their birthday is coming up and they reserved a stage to play music and invited all their musical friends and they want everyone in the community to be there.
Then after that I got another burrito.
nANIMOv 