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OT: Moar Phast, Moar Phurious
Started by Campbell123
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I REALLY wanted peds at local children's hospital since it has a PICU, NICU, and transplant floor. Our awesome preceptor left for another city, and the site's unavailable while they resolve other issues.
Sorry to hear that🙁.
Is your administration open to a create-your-own-rotation type elective?
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Nah, unfortunately they're playing it pretty conservative. Big stuff (babies, weddings, making babies?) they'll consider for schedule changes, but otherwise, they're trying to lock it in ASAP. We only get to choose from the electives that are available.
It's understandable. Their job is to maintain contact with hundreds of preceptors, get these contracts arranged, and then make sure they remain viable between now and graduation. And that's just for my class. The current P4s and P2s also go through the same office and have their own issues.
I don't envy these people. 😉
That said, my electives ended up being ID and Cardio, so it should be a worthwhile series of rotations. And thankfully, no CVS/Wags. I got an independent run by a really good manager for my mando community rotation.
When you guys consider moving for jobs, how far do you look from where you live?
Let's say that the person is not married and does not have kids. Would people look all the way across the country, like from Seattle to Miami? I know I'm exaggerating, but I'm just wondering what most people do.
Let's say that the person is not married and does not have kids. Would people look all the way across the country, like from Seattle to Miami? I know I'm exaggerating, but I'm just wondering what most people do.
I only looked locally. By locally I mean "in my hometown". I know some people are moving for residencies but I don't personally know anyone moving far away just for a regular job.
Having been in the Navy, I would say if I had no responsibilities (single, no kids), I would happily pick up and move across the country for a cool job in a cool city.
So, to BFE, Kansas... nah. Sweet job in the Pacific NW or a big city in the NE? Heck yeah. Most Navy tours are like 4-5 years long, so I would picture it like a duty station. If you don't like it, stick it out for a bit until you've found a good job elsewhere and then bounce.
Staying in one place can be boring. 😉
I looked at residencies in Alaska, but I figured it'd be too much of an uprooting and adjustment for the family, so those choices are now off the plate.
So, to BFE, Kansas... nah. Sweet job in the Pacific NW or a big city in the NE? Heck yeah. Most Navy tours are like 4-5 years long, so I would picture it like a duty station. If you don't like it, stick it out for a bit until you've found a good job elsewhere and then bounce.
Staying in one place can be boring. 😉
I looked at residencies in Alaska, but I figured it'd be too much of an uprooting and adjustment for the family, so those choices are now off the plate.
Why did you pick Missouri?
I fit the single with no kids demographic and I applied country wide (although to very few programs out west) for residency. I ended up interviewing mostly closer to home (9/10 in Midwest and one mountain state) largely due to better program quality in the Midwest (both where I got offers and the strange fact that good 3 year EM programs are clustered in the middle of the country and south-east). My main concern was honestly getting back to a bigger city, the last 4 years in a smaller city have pretty much killed me.
I think it's worth being kind of adventurous in location picking if you don't have anything tying you down. Especially if it's guaranteed to be a short stint like residency is.
Because the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City is recruiting on campus for analyst positions. Not my first choice in locations, but working for the Dept. of the Treasury would be awesome.👍
^Nice UNM. gov jobs are often good in's to sweet private sector gigs. At least per my brother and other finance friends.
For the pharmacy people: Do you guys do "the match" or do something sane like the rest of the world?
Yep. The match.
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Ya we will see what I end up doing. I am supposed to have an interview for a finance position in Phoenix this next month. Still crossing my fingers for Disney though.😎
It's been snowing all day in Tucson. First time driving in blowing snow for years....it is ridonk! The streets are getting kinda flooded though and I suspect the bridges will be icy come morning. I think I'll take the bus to school instead of drive...
Is that the white stuff that Christmas movies always have falling from the sky?
I miss snow! We had about three weeks of "cold" (sub-50F) weather here. We're already on our quick rise through Spring back to Summer temps.
Can't wait to move a little north of here. Hoping a residency is the impetus for it. 😉
Can't wait to move a little north of here. Hoping a residency is the impetus for it. 😉
Post residency I moved from Chicago to LA for a job.
For residency #1 I moved from Albuquerque to Appalachia.
If I want to go to one of the top 10 cities in the US (by population), would I have better chance at one of those annual meetings so people there will tell me about openings?
I have some contacts that could help me with chains, but some only want to talk about job offers after I've been licensed in a state. With them, I'm just not sure about getting licensed in a state that I might not end up going to. I'd have look at other companies, right?
This post starts slow, but gets better.
So I've got well water. Sometimes it gets this rotten egg odor, a sign of hydrogen sulfide in the water. It's not dangerous or anything, but I get tired of running out to the well and dumping chlorine pellets down the tube, waiting an hour for it to oxidize the h2s, then run the water for 4 hours. It's a once every other month task. So getting a permanent solution for the rotten egg smell and getting rid of some of the hardness of water has been kinda high on my "to do list."
There are a bunch of options like a unit that injects a bit of what is more or less bleach or potassium permanganate, then filters it. Or an option that uses pressurized air for oxidation, then produces sulfur precipitate, and then flushes itself daily down the sewer.
So I'm at the home show in Philly a few weekends ago. There's a dude there hawking water treatment. And he actually has what I want, a Fleck brand Air Injection oxidation system. It would work perfectly for my sulfur problem. I inquire and he says he'd need to see my home well situation to recommend the right product. So he offered me a no obligation in-home consultation. I say, sure, why not.
The dude comes to my house and, even though I told him that I chlorinated a few weeks ago, he did a water test. I have very slightly high iron (as would be expected with the H2S problem), but everything else looks good. And I'm like "...um...I just treated it...shouldn't you wait until the odor comes back to test it? If I just oxidized the well, the iron and hydrogen sulfide levels are obviously lower than usual." He, unphased by obvious logic, just told me, "It would be fine." This was just the beginning of the kookery.
So he looks at my setup and says I could "get away" with a 3-stage filtration system with a carbon filter that he manufactures himself out of coconut shells. And he'd sell it to me for the home show discounted price of the display model at the show for $1899 and $350 installation. If I wait, it would be $2299, because he had to build me a new one. I said, "That seems high." And he tells me that its actually cheap because its direct from the manufacturer...him. Then I ask him about the air injection system, which would also work (I've seen them online from between $600-$1200, shipped to my doorstep). He says I could get a small one for about $2200, but a larger one with better flow would be a bit more....and that his system would be a great value.
I could sense in the back of my head that I was being fleeced, but I let him go on. We moved to the issue of water softening. I'm expecting to hear about a normal ass ion-exchange system that I'm sure I'd have the pleasure of paying like $1000 for (plus installation). But he tells me he has this "salt free" solution that will cost me $499 with the filtration system or $599 by itself. That sounded reasonable, so I asked him how it works.
And here comes the crazy ****.
He tells me he has this device that can descale the water. It works by making the calcium take a different form and become more water soluble, but its mostly technical mumbo jumbo...bottom line is that I'll get the benefits of soft water without the "health risks" of "salt added water", nor the annoying maintenance issues of a traditional water softener. And he says, "Trust me, you don't want to lug a 40lb bag of salt down those steps, its dangerous." (Of course, I do t all the time with my cat's 40lb cat liter bags, but I digress.)
So I tell him that I don't understand how it works. And he goes "Not to get technical, but..." I interrupt him and go, "I actually have a pretty large background in chemistry and physical chemistry, please do get technical."
He stares at me for a sec with a deer in headlights look on his face.
So he says, "Ok, then, I'll get technical." He rambles on using a ton of words out of chemistry 101 that barely made sense. Per this dude, what happens is, the water flows though a solenoid and the electric current changes the calcium carbonate into the aragonite crystalline form. Because the relative solubility of aragonite is higher than the other crystalline forms of calcium carbonate, then it will descale your pipes as the magic of osmosis moves more of this buildup into solution.
Me: "Ok, so after it goes through this current, it crystallizes into aragonite? So I'll have little calcium carbonate crystals in my drinking water?"
Him: "No, it stays in solution."
Me: "How does something in solution have a crystaline form? That makes no sense. At all."
Him: "No, no...its not IN SOLUTION. Its in a sub micron space. Little crystals are formed too small to detect."
Me: "So its a microscopic SUSPENSION."
Him. "Yes."
Me: "Right. I really don't understand how this makes sense. If this aragonite is more soluble, then why does it not go back into solut..."
At this point, my wife sensing the dude is crazy, too, wants me to stop arguing and to get this nut out of our house...and tells me "Hon, I think you're just overthinking it." And smiles at him. She's smart. I let it go and he completes his spiel. After my hard inquiries, he started taking the bizarre steps of complimenting my house. He told me my front room was "breathtaking" at first glance and that my hardwood floors (bamboo, but, whatever) were incredible.
It kinda got weird.
Eventually he left.
Amused, I looked this nonsense up. This .pdf succinctly vindicated my skepticism. Thank you random professor and trade organization for setting it straight.
So I looked this magical electric crystal formation guy up. Out of the same location as his water treatment business (here...if you care), he has a used car lot, sells insurance, and runs a medical billing business.
Dude is a professional huckster.
I'm about to just buy a Fleck unit online, an old fashioned ion-exchange resin water filter from Sears or something, and hire a random plumber to install it for me. Prolly cost me about $1500 total or so.
So I've got well water. Sometimes it gets this rotten egg odor, a sign of hydrogen sulfide in the water. It's not dangerous or anything, but I get tired of running out to the well and dumping chlorine pellets down the tube, waiting an hour for it to oxidize the h2s, then run the water for 4 hours. It's a once every other month task. So getting a permanent solution for the rotten egg smell and getting rid of some of the hardness of water has been kinda high on my "to do list."
There are a bunch of options like a unit that injects a bit of what is more or less bleach or potassium permanganate, then filters it. Or an option that uses pressurized air for oxidation, then produces sulfur precipitate, and then flushes itself daily down the sewer.
So I'm at the home show in Philly a few weekends ago. There's a dude there hawking water treatment. And he actually has what I want, a Fleck brand Air Injection oxidation system. It would work perfectly for my sulfur problem. I inquire and he says he'd need to see my home well situation to recommend the right product. So he offered me a no obligation in-home consultation. I say, sure, why not.
The dude comes to my house and, even though I told him that I chlorinated a few weeks ago, he did a water test. I have very slightly high iron (as would be expected with the H2S problem), but everything else looks good. And I'm like "...um...I just treated it...shouldn't you wait until the odor comes back to test it? If I just oxidized the well, the iron and hydrogen sulfide levels are obviously lower than usual." He, unphased by obvious logic, just told me, "It would be fine." This was just the beginning of the kookery.
So he looks at my setup and says I could "get away" with a 3-stage filtration system with a carbon filter that he manufactures himself out of coconut shells. And he'd sell it to me for the home show discounted price of the display model at the show for $1899 and $350 installation. If I wait, it would be $2299, because he had to build me a new one. I said, "That seems high." And he tells me that its actually cheap because its direct from the manufacturer...him. Then I ask him about the air injection system, which would also work (I've seen them online from between $600-$1200, shipped to my doorstep). He says I could get a small one for about $2200, but a larger one with better flow would be a bit more....and that his system would be a great value.
I could sense in the back of my head that I was being fleeced, but I let him go on. We moved to the issue of water softening. I'm expecting to hear about a normal ass ion-exchange system that I'm sure I'd have the pleasure of paying like $1000 for (plus installation). But he tells me he has this "salt free" solution that will cost me $499 with the filtration system or $599 by itself. That sounded reasonable, so I asked him how it works.
And here comes the crazy ****.
He tells me he has this device that can descale the water. It works by making the calcium take a different form and become more water soluble, but its mostly technical mumbo jumbo...bottom line is that I'll get the benefits of soft water without the "health risks" of "salt added water", nor the annoying maintenance issues of a traditional water softener. And he says, "Trust me, you don't want to lug a 40lb bag of salt down those steps, its dangerous." (Of course, I do t all the time with my cat's 40lb cat liter bags, but I digress.)
So I tell him that I don't understand how it works. And he goes "Not to get technical, but..." I interrupt him and go, "I actually have a pretty large background in chemistry and physical chemistry, please do get technical."
He stares at me for a sec with a deer in headlights look on his face.
So he says, "Ok, then, I'll get technical." He rambles on using a ton of words out of chemistry 101 that barely made sense. Per this dude, what happens is, the water flows though a solenoid and the electric current changes the calcium carbonate into the aragonite crystalline form. Because the relative solubility of aragonite is higher than the other crystalline forms of calcium carbonate, then it will descale your pipes as the magic of osmosis moves more of this buildup into solution.
Me: "Ok, so after it goes through this current, it crystallizes into aragonite? So I'll have little calcium carbonate crystals in my drinking water?"
Him: "No, it stays in solution."
Me: "How does something in solution have a crystaline form? That makes no sense. At all."
Him: "No, no...its not IN SOLUTION. Its in a sub micron space. Little crystals are formed too small to detect."
Me: "So its a microscopic SUSPENSION."
Him. "Yes."
Me: "Right. I really don't understand how this makes sense. If this aragonite is more soluble, then why does it not go back into solut..."
At this point, my wife sensing the dude is crazy, too, wants me to stop arguing and to get this nut out of our house...and tells me "Hon, I think you're just overthinking it." And smiles at him. She's smart. I let it go and he completes his spiel. After my hard inquiries, he started taking the bizarre steps of complimenting my house. He told me my front room was "breathtaking" at first glance and that my hardwood floors (bamboo, but, whatever) were incredible.
It kinda got weird.
Eventually he left.
Amused, I looked this nonsense up. This .pdf succinctly vindicated my skepticism. Thank you random professor and trade organization for setting it straight.
So I looked this magical electric crystal formation guy up. Out of the same location as his water treatment business (here...if you care), he has a used car lot, sells insurance, and runs a medical billing business.
Dude is a professional huckster.
I'm about to just buy a Fleck unit online, an old fashioned ion-exchange resin water filter from Sears or something, and hire a random plumber to install it for me. Prolly cost me about $1500 total or so.
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dude tried to sell me a magical electric calcium crystal altering machine. that **** is hilarious.
Everyones a Lobo!!!
Yes
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I enjoyed the wall of text, but I'm guessing most people that don't get weak knees when they see chemistry in application wouldn't find it as interesting...
I couldn't ignore something like that no matter how attractive she was.
Well, as long as you come to terms with it, someone like that may offer a long life of laughter.
Totally irrelevant post but the MD interviewed on the SDN featured article looks like Jason Statham. just throwing this out there.
So, we have a certain tech at my store.
Let me stress that she is a decent tech. Capable of getting work done.
With that said, JESUS EFFIN POGOSTICK she is annoying.
Alternates between jabbering away about completely random, silly topics when she's in a good mood, and becoming incredibly snappy and bossy when we get busy and she's stressed.
I'd really like the freedom to tell her off when she gets all snarky, but I'm not her boss - and since the rest of our crew seems to be able to grit their teeth and tolerate her, I sort of hate to be the one to lance that boil.
/rant
Suggestions?
Let me stress that she is a decent tech. Capable of getting work done.
With that said, JESUS EFFIN POGOSTICK she is annoying.
Alternates between jabbering away about completely random, silly topics when she's in a good mood, and becoming incredibly snappy and bossy when we get busy and she's stressed.
I'd really like the freedom to tell her off when she gets all snarky, but I'm not her boss - and since the rest of our crew seems to be able to grit their teeth and tolerate her, I sort of hate to be the one to lance that boil.
/rant
Suggestions?
Benzos in her coffee?
Do you guys feel more or less nervous around patients who are attractive? I know most people don't really spend time thinking about how the patient looks unless you're doing assessments, but do you guys ever notice a difference?
Inb4
Hey, I don't know, I was pretty nervous when I asked a 60-something year old if there was any chance she was pregnant. To be fair, it was a practice interview (she was an "actor") and I did it to make sure I got the points. But I guess she was a hot grandma..
Probably best to try and ignore her and hope someone more senior will tell her to stfu soon.
Do you guys feel more or less nervous around patients who are attractive? I know most people don't really spend time thinking about how the patient looks unless you're doing assessments, but do you guys ever notice a difference?
Inb4
I don't think there's a difference for me. Of course, patients that are notably attractive are rare, so my n is really low.
I guess I should finish cleaning my apartment before I get shipped back to the ICU for March.
No easy way to handle this IMO. You are basically going to have to be the bad guy if you want someone to address it rather than just let it slide all the time. Take her aside and tell her to chill out. You can't be the only one that gets annoyed. Or I guess you could take it up with the pharmacy manager?
This might not sound like it's related to pharmacy, but it is. I think I'm having trouble trying to be happy with what I have. I always want something more, something better, and I dream about things that are often unrealistic 🙁
Oh wait, people hate it when you stay on any topic in an off-topic thread 🙂
Oh wait, people hate it when you stay on any topic in an off-topic thread 🙂
Got my financial aid snapshot. Looking at ~120K overall. Not bad.
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That would be outstanding at my school. Practically unheard of I might say.
Pretty common in my state, Bob.
Around here pretty much everyone has a 20min or less commute. The most I've done is 45min twice a week for a rural site. Locally, I can get to all the local hospitals in 5-15minutes.
How's the parking? I haven't considered that yet. So my 20-25 min commute there might take me a little longer (30-35 min) if I count the time it takes between leaving my apartment and getting to the front door of the hospital.
If I had worked at a hospital, I'd have a better idea.
At my hospital rotation, they had a separate parking lot where they told students to park, so it was usually not full and I could always find a place quickly since it was a fairly small parking lot.
Before 8am you can park in the front row and it's a short walk to the entrance. After that all the preclinical students, and other grad/professional students begin to show up and by 9 you are either super far back or even in an auxiliary lot (maybe a 5 min walk). This is for the university hospital student lot.
This has varied big time by hospital for me though. One hospital in my hometown (much bigger city and hospital) is all shuttle lots so what lot you're in doesn't really matter and you can expect a 10-15min wait. Our more downtown site, no matter what time of day I managed to park in about the same spot (parking deck, which are better than lots since there's no nosebleed parking), which was like a 1 min walk to the ER. For Smaller community hospitals it doesn't really matter the lots are so small, but they tended to let me park in the physician parking.
The academic center my mom works at (so this is per her, I haven't rotated here) has lots within waking distance and shuttle lots, and if you get stuck in a shuttle lot it tacks a 10-15min wait onto your walk.
