Why is this guy from college, who I was friendly with but never really hung out with, sending me shirtless model-esque pictures of himself? He often likes to tell me about his work out sessions and yadda yadda. He says he trusts my opinions, but what does he want my opinion of? We speak way more on-line, post-college, than we did in person during college.
I called him out on trying to hit on me. It was funny, but I wasn't kidding. Hopefully he doesn't get too drunk next time I go up to school ;-) Kidddddddding. (not really.)
Friday, October 24, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Murse?
I'm having a career direction crisis.
Getting into PA school is looking less likely every second. The is due to a number of things. One being that I didn't get many A's in my college science classes. Evidently A's are a must, whereas I was just happy to finish the class in the B range. Another reason is that I took Vertebrate Physiology and Comparative Anatomy, as opposed to taking Anatomy and Physiology 1+2. The schools just don't care that I took the harder classes. I also got terrible grades in Organic 1+2, both C+'s. And although these classes aren't necessarily required for PA school, they hurt me nonetheless. You know for being someone obsessed with scheduling and such I really dropped the fucking ball.
Many of my patients have been telling me to go into nursing. I don't really know why. I tell them that I'm apply to PA school, and they all say "Oh, you should be a male nurse! (as opposed to a female nurse?) There is such a demand for them!!!" I'm not going to lie, when I was a stupid undergrad I totally underestimated the role of nurses and would scoff at the idea of being a nurse. I have since come to have much more respect for them.
I looked into it. I would be eligible for accelerated nursing programs, which would allow me to get a BSN in 15 months. From there I would surely find a job with ease with a salary that's pretty decent for starting, but without much upward mobility.
Something that nursing offers is international traveling. Evidently, nursing is one of the few professions that is in high demand basically everywhere. I've heard that nurses can get permanent resident visas in Australia, and can even get jobs in England which are generally impossible to get since I'm not from the EU. Since I'm a very enthusiastic traveller this would offer nice opportunities.
The other things to consider in nursing are the master's programs to become a practitioner. As an NP I would basically be the same thing as a PA, but I probably wouldn't be able to get a surgical job. I don't know how I feel about that. I think I would want to be a surgical PA, but would I really? After working in an office setting I see that I could be totally happy doing that. I've also worked with hospitalist-NPs and I think I could really enjoy doing that also. I don't think I could handle doing primary care because you just see so much routine BS. Plus the pay would suck.
So yeah, I'm in quite the conundrum. But as part of my new post-college philosophy I've decided to stop planning far into the future, because the only thing you ensure by planning for the future is that you will eventually change your plan. Assuming I don't get into a PA program I think I'm going to take Human Anatomy and Physiology this spring/summer, as well as take some psychology courses like abnormal psych and developmental, because deep down I know that since starting and finishing college I still don't know whether I like psych or bio better. Wouldn't it be funny if I became a Psychiatric NP and could prescribe meds, whereas my mom is justing finishing getting her PhD in clinical psych and she wouldn't be able to?
Getting into PA school is looking less likely every second. The is due to a number of things. One being that I didn't get many A's in my college science classes. Evidently A's are a must, whereas I was just happy to finish the class in the B range. Another reason is that I took Vertebrate Physiology and Comparative Anatomy, as opposed to taking Anatomy and Physiology 1+2. The schools just don't care that I took the harder classes. I also got terrible grades in Organic 1+2, both C+'s. And although these classes aren't necessarily required for PA school, they hurt me nonetheless. You know for being someone obsessed with scheduling and such I really dropped the fucking ball.
Many of my patients have been telling me to go into nursing. I don't really know why. I tell them that I'm apply to PA school, and they all say "Oh, you should be a male nurse! (as opposed to a female nurse?) There is such a demand for them!!!" I'm not going to lie, when I was a stupid undergrad I totally underestimated the role of nurses and would scoff at the idea of being a nurse. I have since come to have much more respect for them.
I looked into it. I would be eligible for accelerated nursing programs, which would allow me to get a BSN in 15 months. From there I would surely find a job with ease with a salary that's pretty decent for starting, but without much upward mobility.
Something that nursing offers is international traveling. Evidently, nursing is one of the few professions that is in high demand basically everywhere. I've heard that nurses can get permanent resident visas in Australia, and can even get jobs in England which are generally impossible to get since I'm not from the EU. Since I'm a very enthusiastic traveller this would offer nice opportunities.
The other things to consider in nursing are the master's programs to become a practitioner. As an NP I would basically be the same thing as a PA, but I probably wouldn't be able to get a surgical job. I don't know how I feel about that. I think I would want to be a surgical PA, but would I really? After working in an office setting I see that I could be totally happy doing that. I've also worked with hospitalist-NPs and I think I could really enjoy doing that also. I don't think I could handle doing primary care because you just see so much routine BS. Plus the pay would suck.
So yeah, I'm in quite the conundrum. But as part of my new post-college philosophy I've decided to stop planning far into the future, because the only thing you ensure by planning for the future is that you will eventually change your plan. Assuming I don't get into a PA program I think I'm going to take Human Anatomy and Physiology this spring/summer, as well as take some psychology courses like abnormal psych and developmental, because deep down I know that since starting and finishing college I still don't know whether I like psych or bio better. Wouldn't it be funny if I became a Psychiatric NP and could prescribe meds, whereas my mom is justing finishing getting her PhD in clinical psych and she wouldn't be able to?
Friday, October 10, 2008
One or the Other
The General Election is coming up. I'm supporting McCain, but I'm not in love with him. I'm less in love with Obama. I know that my vote will matter even less because of the state I live in. There is another vote that I'm more interested in that I don't even have a say in and results will not even directly affect me. That would be Proposition 8. Do I even need to explain it?
Oh wait, some of you are from out of country. Long story short - Proposition 8 is a vote coming up in California that would ban same sex marriage. Obviously, I support its downfall. The question I pose to some people is which would you rather: Proposition 8 fail, or your choice of President succeed?
Personally I would rather Prop8 fail. Why? How could I possibly care more about that than my President? Maybe I'm selfish. But I honestly think this country is going to go through some very hard, very unavoidable times regardless of who's President. I also think it's much more important who is in control of Congress. But I also don't know who I want to be in control of Congress. I'm conservative when it comes to economics, government influence, social programs, but I'm liberal when it comes to civil rights, and believing in evolution. Even when it comes to abortion I'm totally split. I'm not pro-life or pro-choice. I honestly don't think it has (or should) anything to do with women's rights. I think when "personhood" begins is much more relevant to the discussion. (Which I believe starts with brain activity. So bascially you've got 2 months to undo your mistake.)
I hate politics. This is mainly because of parties. No one can actually support their own views. They need to compromise in order to get the support of one of the parties. Are you going to tell me there isn't one person that thinks taxes stunt economies, big business should be regulated, Steve and Drew should be able to get married, and Global Warming is total bullshit?
Oh wait, some of you are from out of country. Long story short - Proposition 8 is a vote coming up in California that would ban same sex marriage. Obviously, I support its downfall. The question I pose to some people is which would you rather: Proposition 8 fail, or your choice of President succeed?
Personally I would rather Prop8 fail. Why? How could I possibly care more about that than my President? Maybe I'm selfish. But I honestly think this country is going to go through some very hard, very unavoidable times regardless of who's President. I also think it's much more important who is in control of Congress. But I also don't know who I want to be in control of Congress. I'm conservative when it comes to economics, government influence, social programs, but I'm liberal when it comes to civil rights, and believing in evolution. Even when it comes to abortion I'm totally split. I'm not pro-life or pro-choice. I honestly don't think it has (or should) anything to do with women's rights. I think when "personhood" begins is much more relevant to the discussion. (Which I believe starts with brain activity. So bascially you've got 2 months to undo your mistake.)
I hate politics. This is mainly because of parties. No one can actually support their own views. They need to compromise in order to get the support of one of the parties. Are you going to tell me there isn't one person that thinks taxes stunt economies, big business should be regulated, Steve and Drew should be able to get married, and Global Warming is total bullshit?
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
The Characters
Work is going well. The doctor I work for is kind of harsh, but I honestly don't care. He'll say things to me like "If you can't shake the cortisone vial before filling the syringe then what am I paying you for?" And in my head I say, "If you wanted someone skilled in preparing injections then you probably should have hired a pre-trained person. And PS - you really call that meager wage 'payment?'" That's how I get through the day, and it works. I like my job a lot and I don't let anything like that get me down.
People tell me that he's been "yelling" at my a lot. But most of the time I think of it as him just telling me the right way to do something. It's really all about how you interpret his tone of voice, and I just choose to interpret differently.
One thing that kind of sucks about my job is there is like no sense of camaraderie. People seem to be very worried about just themselves and their job, which makes it very hard to get trained. New PA, as I'll call her, is super helpful and patient with me. She's the only one who really takes the time to teach me and show me how to do things. I feel bad for her cause she's really learning too, since she hasn't even worked in Derm for a year, so I feel like a burden.
Senior PA kind of gives me an attitude when I ask questions, or that she's above that since she's a PA and not a Medical Assistant. For instance, I can't ask her how to fill out a Lab Requisition because she doesn't do that. She also doesn't seem to ask me to do that much when I'm seeing a patient with her, or expect me to write much, which is bad and good. Bad because I don't get use to writing things down or getting use to preparing procedures, good because it's less work for me. I generally like her. I just have to beware her bad side cause I know it's a beast.
Nurse, is the only actual nurse in the office. She was somewhat helpful teaching me for like the first couple days. But she's one of those people who likes to do everything and must always be doing a million things at once since the office can't go on without her. She's not that patient and basically doesn't like to be slowed down by training me. In her defense though, she does do everything and really does keep the office running smoothly.
I have become much better though recently. I think Doctor might be starting to like me. Today, Nurse was complaining about all this work she was going to have to do tomorrow and Doctor said, "Hey why don't you have Guy help you?" The task he said was obviously something that was a little advanced for me and Nurse said, "No, no, Guy has enough to get use to." Doctor then said, "Well Guy is pretty useful." It was probably one of the nicer things he's said, assuming it was sincere. He's very hard to read. He can be very sarcastic, which I generally can read well. But no one in the office can actually tell when he's serious. I often assume he's being sarcastic and will play it off that way, but people claim that little things he says here and there are actually great praise from him. Who knows. Like I said, I don't care all that much what he thinks about me.
People tell me that he's been "yelling" at my a lot. But most of the time I think of it as him just telling me the right way to do something. It's really all about how you interpret his tone of voice, and I just choose to interpret differently.
One thing that kind of sucks about my job is there is like no sense of camaraderie. People seem to be very worried about just themselves and their job, which makes it very hard to get trained. New PA, as I'll call her, is super helpful and patient with me. She's the only one who really takes the time to teach me and show me how to do things. I feel bad for her cause she's really learning too, since she hasn't even worked in Derm for a year, so I feel like a burden.
Senior PA kind of gives me an attitude when I ask questions, or that she's above that since she's a PA and not a Medical Assistant. For instance, I can't ask her how to fill out a Lab Requisition because she doesn't do that. She also doesn't seem to ask me to do that much when I'm seeing a patient with her, or expect me to write much, which is bad and good. Bad because I don't get use to writing things down or getting use to preparing procedures, good because it's less work for me. I generally like her. I just have to beware her bad side cause I know it's a beast.
Nurse, is the only actual nurse in the office. She was somewhat helpful teaching me for like the first couple days. But she's one of those people who likes to do everything and must always be doing a million things at once since the office can't go on without her. She's not that patient and basically doesn't like to be slowed down by training me. In her defense though, she does do everything and really does keep the office running smoothly.
I have become much better though recently. I think Doctor might be starting to like me. Today, Nurse was complaining about all this work she was going to have to do tomorrow and Doctor said, "Hey why don't you have Guy help you?" The task he said was obviously something that was a little advanced for me and Nurse said, "No, no, Guy has enough to get use to." Doctor then said, "Well Guy is pretty useful." It was probably one of the nicer things he's said, assuming it was sincere. He's very hard to read. He can be very sarcastic, which I generally can read well. But no one in the office can actually tell when he's serious. I often assume he's being sarcastic and will play it off that way, but people claim that little things he says here and there are actually great praise from him. Who knows. Like I said, I don't care all that much what he thinks about me.
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