Dumbest Page Ever #2

(Seeing how I established a Dumbest Page Ever, it is natural that another page would try to steal that title.)

I was woken up to receive this page at 5am:

"Doctor, doctor, patient is very sleepy. He is arousable but then falls asleep again."

My ideal response: "I see. Now how about I wake you up at 5am and see how awake you are."

My actual response: "OK, thanks for the update."

Outside Hospital

I just came across this hilarious YouTube clip depicting an advertisement that touts the infamous "outside hospital". "Outside hospital" simply refers to any hospital that is not your own -- the hospital you work at, that is.

While it strictly just refers to a hospital, this term actually has much richer connotations. A patient being transferred from an outside hospital usually has had many unnecessary procedures, countless tests, and, most irritating of all, is transferred over with a surprising shortage of records and documentation describing what happened there ... and the very few that are sent are of no help at all. Unfortunately you probably cannot fully appreciate this video unless you have worked or trained at a large -- and probably university-based -- hospital.

The best part is the series of back-and-forth comments at the bottom of the page that viewers have posted, particularly by some very defensive people.

But ... the bestest part? "We'll send the nursing notes".

Grand Rounds 4:30

The latest Grand Rounds is up at Women's Health News, where yours truly is among the featured posts. Take a look, as she did a great job putting it together.

Job Benefits

There are some definite benefits to being a doctor that I have noticed in the less than one year I have been working in this field -- other than the “main” benefit of helping people. Here is a short list I compiled.

Fewer Clothes
Dressing half the time in shirt and tie and the other half the time in scrubs makes my shopping bills and cleaning bills much lighter. Luckily, men are not expected to have as much variety in their shirts and ties as they are for their casual and going-out clothes; just observe any guy and within a week you will start seeing his attire cycle. As such, I rarely need to go shopping or do laundry. (Don’t worry, you will always see me clean and presentable).

Weekdays Off
Granted having no/few weekend days off is miserable, since having a set and regular week is a great way to make it through said week. However, if forced, having weekdays off is not so bad since places are usually much less crowded during the day. A little less hassle in grocery stories, shopping malls, and restaurants is a small, yet helpful, perk.

Job Security
Not by any means a new observation, but I am starting to appreciate this better. Now that I am (more than) several years out of college, I have unfortunately watched more than one friend get laid off or leave because of dissatisfaction and then unable to find a new job. Luckily I doubt I will ever be in this position. Barring any sort of unethical, unprofessional, or incompetent behavior on my part, it is safe to say physicians of almost any specialty will always be greeted by open positions in nearly any part of the country. So while I struggle with an inflexible schedule and low, low pay now compared to my friends, I like to think that in the end this will all pay off.

Cheaper Bills
One benefit of living in the hospital and having no personal or social life is that there is much less time to spend at home or in a social scene to spend money. As a result I have fewer food bills (since the hospital provides lunch), fewer electricity bills (spending one out of four nights away from home), and less time and money to spend in bars (well...).

Credibility
Speaking of money, being a doctor gives you immediate and great credibility with financial institutions. I had to interact with several lately, each of which asked for my profession. Upon stating “physician” whatever algorithm their systems used boosted up my reliability. I just received a huge increase in credit limit and nice low interest rates. I realize one’s profession doesn’t make or break financial transactions, but it definitely appears to help. (The above is also true -- to a point -- if you substitute “financial institution” with “the ladies”. But not really.)

Sponsored Links

You might have noticed a new "Sponsored Links" section of this website's sidebar, which was in fact newly added. A friend informed me about Google's AdSense program, which allows website publishers to host targeted advertisements on their website. If enough people visit the site and/or click on the links, the website publishes gets a few sense. While I haven't had time to examine the details of how things are calculated, I will give it a shot for awhile.

If anyone has any overwhelming objections to this let me know, but for the time being I am curious to see how it works.