Monday, March 31, 2008

Rural doctors have it all

Today my class got up at the ungodly hour of ...something. I'm not sure, because it was so early that it was dark and I couldn't see my watch, but believe me it was really early. Did I mention it was still dark? Maybe even before 7 a.m. We got up, jumped on a bus and fell right back asleep again, and didn't wake up until the bus had arrived in an enchanted fairyland. In this enchanted fairyland, we were all rural doctors.

Rural doctors have it all! They get "light refreshments" of unlimited choc-chip cookies and coffee and tea, they get morning tea and afternoon tea, they get lunch for free, and then another lunch after that because there was extra food and there are starving children in Parramatta so don't let it go to waste, and they get really cushy work.

The work that rural doctors do is lots of fun. For example, if you ever come across a severed pig's trotter which has an unsightly gash in it, you whip out your suture kit and sew that laceration right up!


And if you slip on a choc-chip cookie while suturing, and you fall and break your wrist, you can put a plaster cast on it.


And if, like many rural doctors, you live in a community of fake plastic people, you can provide them with medical care too. Today we learned to insert intravenous cannulas (or is that cannulae) in fake plastic arms that squirted fake blood at us when we poked them with (real) needles, and we learned to resuscitate fake plastic people that may have drowned in the surf or been struck down by heart attacks.

Overall, I had a great day today. Sure, it was basic stuff, but apparently the next three and three-quarter years are all about learning to apply these skills not just to fake plastic people and stray pig limbs but to real people who really need our help, so I'm pretty revved up about it! Plus I got to eat six sandwiches, an apple, four cookies, a mars bar, some dried apricots and several man-sized blocks of cheddar, AND have two sleeps in the daytime. Shame about the Imperial Roast coffee, but you can't have it all.

No comments: