...Well, I guess that wasn't so bad...

Actually, today could have been a lot worse. The day started off with an orientation by the course director and course coordinator, which was fairly routine. During one of the breaks, the course director asked me to hang around and chat for a minute. He told me that my beliefs would be respected completely during the rotation, but warned that there might be a few "hiccups" along the way. These, he told me, he wants to know about so that he can take appropriate action to prevent recurrences in the future. That was promising, if slightly ominous. After lunch, we began the clinical part of the rotation. I'm starting with labor and delivery (L&D), so two classmates and I reported to the central control area in the L&D suite. There we met our residents, who began to orient us to our surroundings. They seemed genuinely interested in teaching and began doing so immediately. One of the things that came up was post-partum rounds in the morning. The PGY-2 we're working with had compiled a one-page summary of key questions to ask, facts to include and abbreviations to know for progress notes. One of the questions specified that the patient was to be asked what kind of birth control she would be interested in going forward. A few moments later, I had an opportunity to go see a patient with the intern. On the way over, I took a deep breath and explained that I wouldn't be able to recommend or counsel patients about birth control. I frankly expected her to be annoyed, but she just nodded and basically said "Ok, just remind me that you haven't discussed that with the patients." She kept teaching, too, and didn't seem to treat me any differently. She even let me use the ultrasound (highlight of the day, definitely!). She and the PGY-2 also taught us how to read the fetal monitors, which promises to be a useful skill for the rest of the week. All in all, I was pretty happy with the residents and had a fairly good clinical experience today. The day finished with a lecture on peripartum care and the delivery process which was OK but pretty scattershot; the lecturer often went off on tangents before completing full thoughts. Oh well, given that the rest of the day mercifully went pretty well, I can deal with a disorganized lecture.

Anyway, that was day #1 on Ob-Gyn. All in all, I have to say it was a pretty decent day. If all my residents and attendings are like the ones I met today, maybe this won't be such a nightmare after all. We'll see how it goes...day #2 starts at 5:30 tomorrow morning. Back with more tomorrow evening; till then, peace and God bless!