Observations from the wards
Aug. 30th, 2013 12:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pharming_in_koreaIt seems that gel-in-gel-out is not a strict rule here. The preceptor said it was supposed to be a rule, and all the pharmacists seem to follow the rule pretty strictly, but I've noticed most of the doctors/residents do not. This is a little alarming, considering that these are heme/onc patients, most of whom are immunocompromised to some degree! Rarely do the doctors bother gel-ing between patients or rooms. In fact, one of the rounds I was on, the attending never touched the gel the entire time! And in his example, none of the residents or medical students did either. I awkwardly had to wait for everyone to pass before I could quickly reach the gel before moving onto the next patient room - it's a habit that's been drilled in me from UCSF and SFGH. This wasn;t because the gel bottles were hard to find or in limited areas - there was at least one bottle of hand gel every 5 feet within the hallway, if not more. There is even a rule where we have to change shoes when entering one of the wards (the transplant ward) for fear of bringing in dirt, but gel-ing does not seem to be a big concern to the doctors here.
Another interesting observation is that every time someone "higher" than person X passes by, person X will stop mid-sentence to get up (if they were sitting) and do a little bow of respect as the person passes by. This could be an attending passing by as a group of residents/medical students are sitting and chatting about patient. In this case, if an attending passes by often enough, it seems it will be quite difficult for these residents/students to ever try to string three sentences together! I'm glad we don't have these strict hierarchies in the US. While we do have a system of mutual respect and the understanding of the chain of command (eg. attending over the resident over the intern over the sub-intern), you don't have to interrupt your work every time someone who might be higher than you passes you by.
-Lena
Another interesting observation is that every time someone "higher" than person X passes by, person X will stop mid-sentence to get up (if they were sitting) and do a little bow of respect as the person passes by. This could be an attending passing by as a group of residents/medical students are sitting and chatting about patient. In this case, if an attending passes by often enough, it seems it will be quite difficult for these residents/students to ever try to string three sentences together! I'm glad we don't have these strict hierarchies in the US. While we do have a system of mutual respect and the understanding of the chain of command (eg. attending over the resident over the intern over the sub-intern), you don't have to interrupt your work every time someone who might be higher than you passes you by.
-Lena
