Efficiency

Louder. Bigger. Hectic...er. These are all words I would describe my first day in Janet Nursing Home. 

To give you some perspective, the practice I was in before was all on one and one half floors, had a small number of inpatients, and the pace of seeing patients was amiable at about 20-40 patients a day tops. 

Janet, on the other hand...

Janet is on three floors, at least, and that doesn't include half floors and subfloors and ramps and wings etc. When going on rounds, Dr. Victoria (the new doctor I shadow) saw three floors worth of inpatients, all having had children one way or another within the past 5 days. It was crazy! We flew threw rounds, zig-zagging all along the hallway, and there was a different set of nurses on each floor to assist her. Janet Nursing home is very large! It even has its own Canteen where food can be bought for patients, I was astounded. 

Also, there are many more patients here. Each patient is given a token, and when your number is called, you get to see the doctor. But Dr. Victoria's office is so huge, 3-4 patients are let in at a time and wait their turn one at a time to be ultrasounded, checked over, prescribed something and sent on their way. It was all very efficient and very fast! 

Because of this fast pace, Dr. Victoria has these 4 nurses that all aid her at the same time. But even though these women are flying through their work a mile a minute, they are so funny and crack jokes and laugh at each other and managed to ask me lots of questions, such as "what did I have for breakfast?" or "age?" or "married?" I got the full monty of interviews, which I'm sure will continue into the up and coming weeks! This was very different from the sweet, quiet nurses at Ravi's office, who would answer my questions, but preferred working over entertaining an international student. 

As well, the mannerisms of the doctors are very different. Dr.Ravi, in contrast with his nurses, makes small talk with his patients, and asks them about their family life, and makes jokes and tells stories, and is more colloquial in his explanations of medical maladies. Dr. Victoria on the other hand is straight to the point, very business like, and is much more scientific in her explanations, though is still very good at consoling the patient and quelling any anxieties they may have. The nurses are the ones who provide stories and laughter in the office (though I think Dr. Victoria makes jokes as well in Tamil, I'm just not sure yet) Both do the job wonderfully, it is just interesting how different their approaches are.

As well today, I also got to see another C-section! It was super fast, I swear that baby was in and out in 12 minutes. It took longer to sew the mother up than it did to get the baby out, it was just so efficient!

I guess that is the word I have for Janet Nursing home today - efficient. They maximize efficiency in every aspect of their practice in order to help as many patients as they can. I was very impressed!

Also, little known fact. Today, I have a cartilage piercing in my left ear, but not my right. Many women have nose piercings here, as well as cartilage piercings, so I never thought to take it out. All of the nurses noticed it today, then expected to see a cartilage piercing on my right ear, only to find it unpierced. Upon this discovery they found it very funny and laughed at me, implying I was uneven, as women who have cartilage piercings here do it on both sides, if at all, and it is never as high as mine is. I explained that in the states we only pierce one side sometimes as it is "in style". They also thought that phrase was super funny and repeated it the rest of the morning. 

I think I will have some very interesting stories to write about these next two weeks. 

Well, all for now, more tomorrow!