Gap

Sorry for the big unexpected gap in blogs. The end of June is always an interesting time. In academic hospitals around the country, senior residents are graduating and new interns are orienting. Soon, new teams of residents, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, will start on the wards. Clinic patient panels will be handed off to the next practitioner. My wife starts a new job. My brother begins an orthopedics internship. Even at the community hospital where I work, where there are no residents, we feel the change. The summer is when new hires, fresh out of residency or fellowship, begin their first jobs. We see new faces among the hospitalists, surgeons, consultants, and even the nurses and technicians. With this, I hope there comes a since of renewal, of emergence, of new goals and resolutions. Oddly enough, my calendar has always been organized this way; I count my first work anniversary soon. I reflect on what I have done this past year and what I hope to accomplish in the year coming up. Starting in private practice has been challenging in its own ways. I learned how to be flexible, how to adapt to changing circumstances, how to walk into call prepared for anything. My anesthetic techniques changed to accommodate the speed and efficiency of private practice. I honed my skills and my judgment, integrated myself into a system, got to know a wonderful cohort of partners, surgeons, nurses, and staff. I tackled problems, surgeries, and intensive care patients that I had never seen before. I started acquainting myself with billing. It was a really busy year; many of my mentors told me the first year of practice is one of the hardest, and I am glad I made it.