Lately I find work very frustrating. It’s especially so because I’m doing a rotation that I really enjoyed during medical school. There are many things contributing to this, but sadly, I think it’s best that I don’t post them online since you never know who’s reading this. I think part of it is just the fact that I’m an intern, which means it’s my job to do all the work that no one else wants to do. Usually I don’t mind this because I realize that I can learn a lot from scut work and because it’s usually appreciated by others. But on this rotation, being an intern leaves me feeling lonely and excluded, and I don’t know how to remedy this. Thankfully, I really enjoy the families I’m working with. I’ve begun to realize that I just need to do the best I can and look for the positive things in the rotation rather than dwelling on what makes me unhappy.
On a positive note, I’ve been amazingly consistent about my running for the past 2 months. I’ve run between 15 and 20 miles a week for the past 9 weeks straight. Not bad for someone frequently working 11-12 hours day with a 30 hour shift every 4th night. Of course, the past few weeks have been closer to 15 miles a week than 20, but I’ll take what I can get.
Another exciting thing is that I’ve become involved with an advocacy group. This is very unusual for me since I’m usually amazingly apolitical. But as a pediatrician, I figure it’s time I learn a little more about the legislative process and what I can do to help protect kids. So, the main goal of this group is to organize a day at the state house for pediatric residents. The day includes speeches on key issues for pediatricians as well as workshops on how to approach legislators and lobby effectively. It’s great to feel like I’m learning about a process that will be important to me as a physician, but it’s also a lot of fun having an excuse to hang out with fellow residents and complain about our various hardships.
