Advice to New Interns

When in the office, be sure to ask the medical assistants for assignments; they are congenial and often have things to do when you're at loose ends.

In this internship, when the doctors and nurses are working, most of them think students are to be seen and not heard. Regardless of whether you're chatting with the patients to get their mind off of their pending operation/actual operation in the minor room under a local anesthetic, or if you're asking the doctor, "Why would you do that?" or "Why would you advise this?" the doctors may become irate and complain. Even if one is passing by their office and they seem to be doing nothing, just say "Good morning," and that is all; when these doctors are at their desks they may be doing important scheduling on the computer.

If you're faint at the sight of blood or gore, you may be able to stomach this job; the OR features a bunch of visceral gore, but nobody is forcing you to go there. In the clinic, the minor operations done in the Minor Room feature little blood and if there is blood the surgeon uses a cauterizing tool to stop the bleeding. Then there's the smell... but it isn't too pungent.

When the medical assistants tell you how to set up the table for minor procedures, or how to do anything else, be sure to write it down if you think you'll forget; the medical assistants are often very busy rooming patients or calling people to set things up etc. You may have a while before you have a chance to ask them what to do again, and by then you may feel stupid for not knowing what to for hours.

My final piece of advice is to ask as much as possible to go into the Operating Room; you can have a slow day at the clinic (those often don't feel very good) but I have never been bored in the Operating Room. There, be sure to dress warmly (as it is very cold) and be sure not to touch the sterile trays. The doctors in the OR are in a much better mood than they are in the Minor Room, because in the OR the patients are knocked out and it isn't as weird to talk about stuff; I've had a doctor point out the seminiferous tubules of a man when he was getting his hernia repaired and told me that if he snipped those, the man would be sterile. "We want to watch out for that!" he joked, pincing it with his laparoscopic claw. The OR is fun fun fun 'till your doctor takes your scrubs away. (awful Beach Boys pun)