You have to make your life easier

I was oncall last night and one patient was noted to have hemiparesis after we off her sedation. During oncall round last night, we planned to do a CT brain for her the next morning. So as the HO oncall, after round that night I wrote up her CT brain request form and put it on her cardiac table awaiting round with Intensivist the next morning so he can sign it straight away and I can straight away request it after round.

So we had our morning round. My MO presented the case and progress. I held the form in my hands. Then as soon as boss said "for CT brain today", I handed him the form to sign.

Boss Nazri: Ni apa?
Me: CT brain.

Boss grinned so wide and my MOs gushed. "Wow. Excellent!"

Kak Ella my MO who was oncall last night grinned proud "Atiqah awak buat siap dah?"

I shrugged. I was just making my work easier.

Boss then signed: Awak nanti stay Anaes kan?
Abenik: Dia memang saya book stay Anaes dah. Saya tak tahu sape lepas dia pergi Basic Surgical Skill Course haritu.

One of the ways of being grateful for the things they have taught me is to make them feel good about themselves, but I'm not going to lie about anything.

"InshaAllah saya akan buat yang terbaik di mana saya berada."

Boss Nazri laughed some more. "Jawapan dia tuu."

Abang long kawasan

My Intensivist is a brutal but polite man and today I learned he has a sharp ear to go with. We ended our morning round and being the only HO around, he told me to tag with one of the oncall MOs while walking away.

"Atiqah nanti you duduk dengan Firdaus ye."

But I rather not and casually replied "Nak tag dengan abelong."

I wasn't even adressing boss and I didn't expect him to catch that. But he did and he laughed and told Dr. Idzham I called him abelong. I was a bit flabbergasted but never mind, that's what we're calling him anyway hahaha.

Anyway, I rather tagged with abelong because my first day in ICU I tagged with him as he was the senior most of all the seniors in ICU that day. Our Intensivist was the one who dubbed the three seniors as "abelong, kakngah, adik su" and said adik su announced that day that I was "under follow up abelong."

On a side note, adik su is the firmest with HOs. I'm waiting for the chance to call him adik su in the face but I'm sure I won't get away forgiven ahh but who cares.

If you cannot present, you are a useless sixth poster

Today I feared for my life as I realised here in the ICU, no one is going to really teach me unless I am proactive to learn. I have to ask. I have to offer myself to do things. They don't even call me to do stuffs like clerk cases or do procedures when a new case arrive because they're so independent, they don't need HOs.

I realised I have to set my own target what I want to achieve during my posting in the ICU, otherwise I'm going to float away in this life as a mere clerk. This is so adult.

But never mind, let's sleep and worry tomorrow.