Day Two: How to Stand Out

One thing’s for sure: if you’re trying to make a good impression on your first day on the wards, it’s generally wise not to have a near-fainting episode on rounds.

Of course, I had it coming. Having just suffered a bout of food poisoning the day before, I was already doomed to feeling unwell in the sweltering heat. Add to that my jetlag, the lack of air conditioning in the inpatient wards, as well as my inability to keep down huge amounts of fluids at a time— and it was the setup for a perfect storm.

We started out on our “hospital wide rounds” at 2pm. We had just made it past the 4-bed ICU patients and the ER patients when I started to feel extremely dizzy and lightheaded. I briefly debated whether it would be ruder to leave rounds all together, or if I should find a way to stay with the group at all costs. At last, desperate to avoid passing out, I walked to the back of the group and started squatting down at various intervals to get the blood back to my brain. Luckily, I managed to refrain from fainting during rounds. But later, I learned from one of the residents that squatting was considered extremely rude and offensive, especially to the attending. This, of course, was not my intent. I just hope I have a chance to find the attending and apologize for my behavior before too long…

Otherwise, the day started out innocuously enough. I showed up for my orientation session and got a nice tour of the hospital. Boasting humble yet practical facilities, the hospital has a 26-bed inpatient ward, a small surgical ward, and a 10-bed observational ward. It also has an incredibly busy outpatient clinic that sees approximately 400 patients per day.

After the tour, S, the volunteer coordinator, told me that I was essentially set free to do as I pleased. There was no other resident, and as luck would have it, my Brown Med faculty contact at the hospital was out of the country. I am truly by myself here.

So much for making a good impression on the first day, though. Let’s hope things get better from this point on…