Rural Rotation: Prep Week

We get up, have breakfast, go to this lecture and that talk, have activities, have lunch, have more activities, then go back to the dorms for dinner; after dinner we sit around a fire, make s'mores and sing "Kumbaya." The next day: repeat.

Okay, I made up the part about sitting around a fire and singing kumbaya, but the rest of it was true, and it was very much like summer camp. That made up the rural rotation prep week for about thirty of us Year 3 med students. I'm glad we're starting with such a cruisy week, because I definitely haven't gotten my brain back in medicine mode yet.

We got to learn and practice all kinds of practical skills like plastering, using a defibrillator, injection, intubation, scrubbing for surgery, cannulation, venipuncture, and my favorite, suturing. Some people came from nursing background or already knew how to do some of the things, but for most of us, it's all new. We were like kids in kindergarten learning to tie shoe laces for the first time. So it was good that we had pig limbs and mannequins to practice on. Everyone knew that next week when we start our rotation for real, we'll actually do these things to real people. Poor rural patients...

The week flew by fast. We headed our separate ways this afternoon and will be scattered throughout southern Queensland for the next six weeks. It's a long weekend with Australia Day on Friday. Better rest up, because next week is the real deal.