Today was my first day at the hospital. It’s very close to where I live. Busy, but well-organised and I was well-looked after! Also, I think I have figured out the metro, and can use it well now! 🙂
First impressions of the hospital
- There are many. Je faire mon stage a l’hospital Huriez a ce moment.
- Ne personne parlent l’anglais 😛 No one speaks English there but I thought I did quite well today anyway. I probably understand about 75% of what’s being said. The 6th yr student was very nice and took the time to explain to me what was going on as we saw patients together. I did a history and examination of one patient with some help from the patient and the 6th yr as I tried to find the right words in French, and I did ECGs on a couple of patients. I mostly understood what was going on though (why the patient was there, what the plan of management was etc.) so I think I’m doing alright!
- Everyone was wearing long white coats! I had a giant one 😛 I explained that back in Adelaide, the only people who really wear those coats in our hospital are those working in orthopedics, and that we say the longer the coat, the more senior the doctor. They all had really long coats and found this rather amusing 😛
- People are wearing jeans, boots, sneakers to work. Looks like I didn’t need to bring separate clothes for the hospital.
- I explained that in Adelaide, I would usually bring a sandwich to the hospital for lunch and this was met with a look of great surprise from a couple of them 😛 Everyone has a card/chip on their student or hospital IDs and for lunch, they all go to this cafeteria together. It was there that I received the largest serving of cauliflower bake I’ve ever had (there were lots of other things too). Apparently this happens everyday in the hospital for lunch. I didn’t explain that back in Adelaide, 12noon was not always lunchtime and in fact, I’ve definitely seen people forget to eat lunch 😛
Anyway, c’est tout pour maintenant. I’ve been learning about the spiritual atmosphere here in France, but that’s for another day 🙂
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