Leaving PN Hospital
During the final few hours of my job… Aww.
So I have spent my first year as a doctor here in this hospital.
It has been a fun year of embarrassing mistakes and heroic decisions!
It was very nostalgic meeting up with the fresh new-graduates during their hospital orientation a few weeks ago. I could almost see the slight glint of insecurity in their eyes – it only felt like yesterday that I was in their shoes, transitioning from a medical student to a real doctor!
But the company of colleagues throughout the year was amazing. I’ve come to be friends too with the nurses from the different wards at various shifts, and the ward clerks who invariably always save a House Surgeon’s day knowing where things are kept!
With these things in heart, three farewell parties and several goodbye hugs, I’m ending my tale here in this hospital…
“So what are your thoughts?” asked the doctor beside me during one of the end-of-year parties. The music in the background was loud, but the clatter of conversations was louder.
“More bittersweet than I expected,” I said. She laughed. Even though I have planned, all the while, to move on to a new city and hospital next year, it honestly still feels surprisingly difficult.
But as another colleague so wisely remarked, I probably would also have regretted if I stayed! Such is often the contradiction of man (of me, anyway).
So I’m moving on. Looking forward to 2009 – a new place and a new social circle, once again. Thanks for taking care of me here in Palmerston North, everyone.
Have a blessed Christmas and New Year.
– Some photo highlights –
We are proud winners of the Doppleganger Award (for being the most easily confused by nurses, testified by plentiful real-life experiences!). The prize were these huge green “Hello my name is…” cards, lol.
Basketball after work was something to look forward to when on-calls haven’t sapped our souls!
You can tell that we are complete noobs with our feet on the basketball.
Farewell get-together for the first-year House Surgeons at Caroline’s.
I broke poor Caroline’s window (and she had only moved into the house a few days ago!!) while setting up the camera for this group shoot. Fortunately she was a wise girl to have bought insurance beforehand that covered glass with no excess… phew!
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oming to you
from a junior doctor who is color-blind, cleft-lipped and left-handed — this is where
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You always move around, like the wind. Haha! The year ahead must be very busy for you. Good luck!
hey jureez, thanks for commenting. yea, i really always move around, a little too much i think sometimes haha.
i hope you had a good Christmas. best wishes for the new year too!
Seems like you’ll have some lovely memories of your first year. :)
Hope the coming years are just as memorable and wonderful for you! (Hopefully with less punching? ;P)
thanks a lot! you can tell what sort of doctor i am by the fact that i got punched haha. I’ll see what God has in store for me in the years to come :)
all the best for you too!! when are you becoming a full-fledged speech-language pathologist??
Ah, no, but it may say something about your patients, hehe. :)
Unfortunately, I still have two years for my doctorate or masters (I haven’t decided) and then a year of fellowship yet and then the big national exam.
I have so far been in school five years, and have three years left. I will apparently never leave. :P
Were you in school very long?
was in university for 6 years in total – could have made it longer by doing another related degree like some did (no thanks). seems like you’ll be in school for longer than i was haha.
i didn’t mind being a student that long – it was fun and all – but i *was* getting quite annoyed and tired by the exams one after another!!
I forgot I did take a year off in between, after I got my two-year degree (yeah, related degree, no thanks indeed, but it’s done :P). So four years, plus the two I’ll be getting and my fellowship. That’s really not that much longer. It’s just felt like forever.
I don’t mind being a student, but I am tired of the constant stress and pressure and the time restraint. I like to travel and wander a bit and being stuck to a school schedule isn’t fun anymore. But oh well. It’ll be over soon enough and then I’ll probably miss it, haha.
So are you moving to a place very far or just another hospital in the area…?
I miss the time we hang around in the ward. Seriously, it’s hang around. Only with you I feel so relax in the hospital. Thanks for the company.
Can you send me the photo taken in Basketball court please… I like the photo of your pager. Chen
hey chen, so finally i have the honour of being graced by your presence here, thanks! yea, i enjoyed hanging around the wards with you too, esp in ward28 haha. will send the photos to you!
One year already!!!
Reading your journals is like watching you grow from a medical school student to a doctor.
Where are you leaving for? Tauranga?
Wish you all the best in 2009! Happy New Year!
hi jie! thanks for your comment!
yup i’ll be moving to Tauranga next year – it’s a small town about 5 hours drive north from where i have been this year.
all the best for 2009 to you too! how have you been? how has teaching been?
whats that green thing?
what does that green thing do? wow
-Hyemin
Hi Hyemin!! Thanks for dropping by and reading! The green thing’s my pager. Doctors carry pagers around – and get bleeped when someone wants to find them, ranging from the emergency events to the moooost mundane of all!