Looking In The Mirror

“Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.”

Margaret J. Wheatley

This week, I started my career exploration rotation, which consists of two weeks dedicated to professional development and four weeks of exploring specialties of our choosing. Coming off of OBGYN, it is nice to have some time to breathe, reflect and think about the future. It’s difficult to believe that, in a few short weeks, we will be halfway done with third year and have to start thinking about residency programs and away rotations. It’s exciting and frightening at the same time. On one hand, I’ve narrowed down that I don’t want to go into a surgical field. On the other, I’ve been saying for so long that I want to go into pediatrics, but when I think about it, I honestly don’t know how I will feel caring for adults. I’ve met some amazing Med-Peds trained physicians who I get along with well. I think I would honestly fit in with them too. I also value the opportunity to follow patients from childhood into adulthood. As a patient, that is something that I would have absolutely loved. It can be such a headache meeting new doctors and not knowing whether you can trust them at first because you don’t have the same history you did with the pediatric team that’s known you since you were three. I don’t have my internal medicine rotation until the spring, so I don’t want to make any decisions until then. In the meantime, I’m grateful to have friends currently applying to Med-Peds programs and can’t wait to catch up with them and hear about their experiences on the interview trail. It’s inspiring seeing the big things they’re doing!

During the interprofessional experience portion of our professional development block, we’ve had the opportunity to meet many members of the healthcare team who are often behind the scenes and who we don’t always have an opportunity to interact with. My time with the radiology technician team was both fun and enlightening. The ladies I shadowed were clearly passionate about their work and experts in their fields. They had a breadth of knowledge of the anatomy they were imaging, were incredibly caring toward their patients and one another, and functioned as a cohesive team. One of the main takeaways I had from this experience is that it is important to give one another grace. It can be easy to become frustrated when it takes hours for a patient to be taken for imaging, but what we don’t know is that there may have been strokes or traumas that came into the ER that needed imaging and took precedence over our ambulatory patient. We don’t know that the team is down 10 people and everyone is working at full capacity. Whatever field I go into, I foresee myself using imaging regularly. Whether they be chest x-rays or echocardiograms, I will be working with radiology technicians on a regular basis and it is helpful to know their roles and needs. If we take the time, for example, to ask the appropriate way to order images we need, we can save everyone time and avoid additional pages later. They know the intricacies behind obtaining these images much better than we do. They’ve gone through two years of schooling for this and have set protocols for a reason. We all are on the same team working toward the same goal of quality patient care, so let’s give one another grace and communicate. It will not only make everyone’s lives easier, but help our patients as well.

One way I’ve seen fostering this spirit of dialogue done well is through multidisciplinary rounds. Different specialties structure their rounds in different ways. Some prefer more traditionally walking from room to room with a large, integrated team of physicians, trainees, nurses, care coordinators, etc. Others choose a format somewhat like speed dating with people moving from group to group, updating the team about shared patients and discussing next steps. Others even include the patient’s family in the conversation, which I think is such a great idea. It’s such a simple concept, yet unsurprisingly not universally practiced. It helps to have many of the parties caring for the patient in the same place at the same time, allowing for exchange of information and ideas, while also promoting a team atmosphere that values the contributions of all members. When I was a scribe in family practice, though I was only there a few months, the way the entire team functioned seamlessly together and supported one another was something that still stands out to me. Wherever I end up, I hope I am able to foster a collaborative environment where everyone is working toward the same goals and feels like an important member of the team. While I’m figuring out the details, I will enjoy the chance to explore new fields and reflect on who I want to become as a physician. I don’t think that process will ever be truly complete, but you can’t grow without feedback or reflection. If all else fails, I’ll remember Robert Frost and know that everything will be okay. The path I choose will be the right one because it will lead to where I’m supposed to be.