I am on call again..... it s a strange thing that everywhere in the world you go, it could be Italy, UK, US China, Australia or India, you find the same attitude on certain things. As you arrive you are too new to do what they employed you for, but experienced enough to help them to keep the "machine " going.
I l try to be more clear:
We ve just moved from UK. We are brand new in this place and, as already written, we are the only "white" people in the hospital. This is supposed to be the biggest Paediatric Cardiac centre in the world according to number of cases perfomed per year (2500 -ish, compared to Boston: 1100 ish and GOSH 700 ish) but they haven t got enough people to cope both in theatre and with oncalls. In theatre the senior surgeons perform all type of cases assisted only by scrub nurses. I am new so they would like to see how I am before allowing me to do anything. Fair enough, it happens everywhere, and to be fair, if I were in their shoes I 'd do the same. So it s been 3 weeks so far and yesterday the boss of the unit let em close the first chest. Good, big step. He told me that of course it will take time and that he knows the I have 8 years of experience, but as he has 40 he knows that better than me (.......?!?!). No Problemo.
BUT, exactly as everywhere else, what about oncalls????? well, on day 3 I had my first oncall!!!!! I haven t got my badge yet that the boss said." yes, you know, Simone" the boss said " there is shortage of people and in this way you can help us. Is that OK?"......" yeah sure...No problemo".
So here I am, on call, because I can do oncall in a new place dealing with nurses who DO NOT speak english and laugh whenver I say anything.
Maily I am attached to the boss, but sometimes I cover other younger surgeons who let me do more things but without telling the boss..........
Luckily I spend 90 % of my time in theatre, it is fresh air for a surgeon. I scrub on average for 14-16 cases a week ( and I have done 2 cases already....but without telling the boss). And during all this time in theatre, you get in contact with the other theatre "animals": anaesthetist and nurses. As I ve already wrote, anaesthetists are blue and nurses in theatre are light blue. the scrub nurses are not trained nurses but technicians. They haven t got a nursing degree. And, as everywhere, they have a hierarchical structure, with senior nurses and junior ones. They are not very tall and the have the same height. They speak very fast with high pitch voice. They are lovely, always telling me : "is it ok, Sir?" or " can I unscrub, Sir?". if you want to imagine how they speak ....well imagine the Chipmunks!!!!!!! Alvin et Co. That s how I call them...the Chipmunks. When I told Louise she said I was rude. But then she came to theatre with me and she couldn t agree more!!!!!
The language is still a big problem, for us, but also for them because not all of them speak English. The interesting thing is that they come from different parts of India where they speak their own language. Who comes from Mumbai/Bombay speaks Marathi that is different from Kannada ( spoken in Bangalore). They SHOULD speak Hindi, but apparently they don t, so English is the way to go.
As I was telling before, no metter where you are in the world, you will find that there are thing completely different and others that are exactly the same.
Been in theatre is one of the biggest differences I have found (workwise) . Nurses are not trained well (but some of them are unexpectly bery bery good) and when you ask a suture they turn their back to you as if they are looking for the desired one......then the Chipmunks concert begins.......30 sec later ....silence. And you ask: "and the suture?" and they give you a garze. ....ehehehehe it s really comedy!!!!!!
I l try to be more clear:
We ve just moved from UK. We are brand new in this place and, as already written, we are the only "white" people in the hospital. This is supposed to be the biggest Paediatric Cardiac centre in the world according to number of cases perfomed per year (2500 -ish, compared to Boston: 1100 ish and GOSH 700 ish) but they haven t got enough people to cope both in theatre and with oncalls. In theatre the senior surgeons perform all type of cases assisted only by scrub nurses. I am new so they would like to see how I am before allowing me to do anything. Fair enough, it happens everywhere, and to be fair, if I were in their shoes I 'd do the same. So it s been 3 weeks so far and yesterday the boss of the unit let em close the first chest. Good, big step. He told me that of course it will take time and that he knows the I have 8 years of experience, but as he has 40 he knows that better than me (.......?!?!). No Problemo.
BUT, exactly as everywhere else, what about oncalls????? well, on day 3 I had my first oncall!!!!! I haven t got my badge yet that the boss said." yes, you know, Simone" the boss said " there is shortage of people and in this way you can help us. Is that OK?"......" yeah sure...No problemo".
So here I am, on call, because I can do oncall in a new place dealing with nurses who DO NOT speak english and laugh whenver I say anything.
Maily I am attached to the boss, but sometimes I cover other younger surgeons who let me do more things but without telling the boss..........
Luckily I spend 90 % of my time in theatre, it is fresh air for a surgeon. I scrub on average for 14-16 cases a week ( and I have done 2 cases already....but without telling the boss). And during all this time in theatre, you get in contact with the other theatre "animals": anaesthetist and nurses. As I ve already wrote, anaesthetists are blue and nurses in theatre are light blue. the scrub nurses are not trained nurses but technicians. They haven t got a nursing degree. And, as everywhere, they have a hierarchical structure, with senior nurses and junior ones. They are not very tall and the have the same height. They speak very fast with high pitch voice. They are lovely, always telling me : "is it ok, Sir?" or " can I unscrub, Sir?". if you want to imagine how they speak ....well imagine the Chipmunks!!!!!!! Alvin et Co. That s how I call them...the Chipmunks. When I told Louise she said I was rude. But then she came to theatre with me and she couldn t agree more!!!!!
The language is still a big problem, for us, but also for them because not all of them speak English. The interesting thing is that they come from different parts of India where they speak their own language. Who comes from Mumbai/Bombay speaks Marathi that is different from Kannada ( spoken in Bangalore). They SHOULD speak Hindi, but apparently they don t, so English is the way to go.
As I was telling before, no metter where you are in the world, you will find that there are thing completely different and others that are exactly the same.
Been in theatre is one of the biggest differences I have found (workwise) . Nurses are not trained well (but some of them are unexpectly bery bery good) and when you ask a suture they turn their back to you as if they are looking for the desired one......then the Chipmunks concert begins.......30 sec later ....silence. And you ask: "and the suture?" and they give you a garze. ....ehehehehe it s really comedy!!!!!!
Going out on Saturday night in a big city as Bangalore makes you feel like you have never left London.
We went at the Hard Rock Cafe....ok ok the idea of globalisation!!!.....anyway if it wasn t for the indian accent of 90 % of the people in there it d have seemed to be in London or NYC or Bangkok. Same music, same amount of people having great time wearing jeans rather than sari.etc etc.
Now I leave because I have nothing else to say
We went at the Hard Rock Cafe....ok ok the idea of globalisation!!!.....anyway if it wasn t for the indian accent of 90 % of the people in there it d have seemed to be in London or NYC or Bangkok. Same music, same amount of people having great time wearing jeans rather than sari.etc etc.
Now I leave because I have nothing else to say
simoneeeee.... non demoralizzarti!!! intanto chiamami che ti faccio fare 2 risate!! ok? Claudia
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