Well, I've done it again! Let a few months go by without updating, I mean. I imagine that 99.99999(and so on)% of the people in the world are not too upset about this, so it's ok :) Still though, I would like to update this blog more from now on. I actually update my old blog from Amherst quite frequently, and more than one some brilliant soul has suggested linking that blog to this one (vis RSS feeds, I think), but I have much on the laziness side and not enough on the tech-savvy side to do this, so it may be a while before that is accomplished. I guess for now I'll cut and paste ;-)

(By the way, interesting tidbit from my health management information systems class - the term "cut and paste" originated from the days of typewriters, where you would have to literally and physically cut out your typos and paste in the correct version. I guess as technology advanced, the term stuck :)

So here is my most recent post from my Amherst blog:

Posted on 4-18-2008:

I had a really good day today. It started off early, with a morning tour of the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. It is the nation's first and only hospital devoted exclusively to treating trauma (critical injury and illness) cases (not to be confused with emergency departments/emergency rooms as part of a hospital's services), and an integral part of the state of Maryland's emergency response system. We met with two of the administrators and started off our tour with a trip to the hospital's helipad.

This was cool for me because it brought back memories of my beautiful Philly view from my window at I-House, where I had a clear view of the helipad and its lights at HUP and could see quite frequently the helicopters making their landing. I would think of my friend John who was an emergency medicine resident and wonder if he would be treating that particular patient. During my late nights at HUP I'd pass through this one corridor where the helipad lights would sweep across, and I remember I would just stop for a few moments and enjoy the connection of that far off view and being very close to the source of those lights.

And there I was standing on top of a helipad in bright daylight :) Felt like coming full circle, in a way.

Then we got to tour one of the critical care floors. It was odd, I hadn't been in a hospital for a while, and stepping inside the CCU felt like going back home in a way. We gathered around an empty unit to hear how the doc and nurse teams would work together to take care of their patients, and I just drank up the view of the beautiful clutter of supply bins, glove boxes, IV drips, the assorted plugs and pipings coming out of the wall and ceiling for gases, etc...I know, I just called it beautiful. It really was to me, I've always found it all fascinating and remember taking pride in knowing, instantaneously, exactly what to get and where to go for it, for the anesthesia folks when their IV placement went slightly awry or when they needed another vial of sedatives.

I really miss that kind of life.


I felt like I was actually doing something, being so close to the patient and their care providers.

Walking around the trauma center with my fellow first and second years, dressed in FULL BUSINESS ATTIRE (which honestly felt kind of silly to me given the kind of place we were in), I felt out of place (almost like, I was peering out of someone else's body) passing by the patients' families and the nurses in their stations staring curiously at our well-heeled bunch. Put me in a pair of scrubs and tell me that my job is to talk to them and help them, and I think I'd feel much more at ease.

But then I remember how curious I was to see things from management's broader level, what I can do in that capacity to help many people at once, and how I'm getting closer to that part of my dream. I think I'm starting to get an idea of just how difficult it will be to wear those two hats, those of the hospital administrator and the clinician. So I hope my experiences from before will help to inform me as I go on in this field. And I really hope I can do a hospital rotation next year :)


Got back home around noon, and spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the lazy, warm day. Tried to do some work (ok, I made a list of what I have to do, studied a bit for my health IT midterm, took a brief nap, and had fun laughing with Denise and a childhood friend of hers who was visiting for the afternoon. How fun is that?), and then went to the finance/management alumni dinner.

I had a nice time, even though I don't really like to schmooze. So far I haven't had much luck in finding my modus operandi for management/finance people. I think a large part of it is that I get tired of shooting the breeze pretty quickly. I'm not good at it because it requires me to become this person that I end up not respecting at the end of the day. There's something about the aggressive sociability of some business folks that I never quite trusted, so it's the last thing I want to emulate just to fit in. I end up just amusing myself (in my head) by tearing down some of the inconsistent things that they say. Yes, there's a lot you can learn by talking to people, but cocktail hour is not one of those times (unless you are with the nerdiest of nerds, bless them - physicians from academic medical centers!! hehe). I guess I have to work on making those times work for me :)

Still though, the food was great (I had the most DELICIOUS chargrilled salmon and then the famous Charm City cupcakes), and I did enjoy seeing some people I like and respect very much. And I have to say, getting to spend more time with my ladies - Elizabeth and Dorothy, both from my program - always makes my day.

And now I'm back, happily satiated and looking forward to lunch with a Philly friend tomorrow (we're getting THAI FOOD!!)..and getting down to business and working, of course. We do still have midterms and papers and things to hand in :)