I'm baaack

Spent the day today getting oriented to a hospital I worked at briefly when I was a resident. At the time, I was assigned to a dorm room in what they lovingly called the kennels across the street from the hospital, handed a call schedule (7 days followed by 7 nights, a day off and repeat), sent to L&D, handed a chart and delivered a baby, all within an hour of reporting for duty. Now, thanks to eletronicity, I spent an entire day, with a gazillion different people, getting assigned a bazillion user codes and passwords. Yep that ole electronic health record sure has improved health care and made it more efficient.

I met some really interesting people today. When I was here before it seemed like a lot, if not most, of the docs I met were here because they were paying back public health commitments or couldn't get a job anywhere else. All of the docs I met today seemed to be here because they felt a commitment to the people here. Went to a noontime conference regarding palliative care in this culture and realized I knew nothing about the various tribes' beliefs about death, afterlife, where death should occur, etc. I now have a 175 page "booklet" to read on the subject that one of the docs I met helped write. She is Navajo herself.

Poor Otis isn't quite sure what to do about all these people coming and going all the time. He has decided the entire apt complex needs his protection and barks whenever someone opens a door, or, even worse, drives up in a noisy truck. Which someone did last night at midnight and then there were more, and then there was screaming and shouting and get the f---outta here or I'm calling the cops. I was really wondering what kind of place I got stuck in and then this am saw that 2 other units are occupied by docs and tonight I met my next door neighbor who is an orthopedic surgeon also here for  a temporary placement. So I guess I'm not alone and now I know some folks in the complex.

Tomorrow I head to Tohatchi. I think. Actually there was one little snafu today. I showed up as instructed to meet Dr. Mock at 8, but he never showed up and no one seemed to know I was coming. But they did a good job of working it out. But no one knows where I am supposed to go in the morning. Ah well, they will figure it out. See, I am learning already!!