Up Next... Staff Relief

Note written by the hospital chaplain in a patient’s chart: “Lively lady… everything is okay with her soul.” That’s all it said, but I guess that’s all it needed to say. I thought it was kind of sweet so I wrote it down.

I had one day of staff relief on Friday, since Monday is a holiday. It wasn’t much different from what I’ve been doing up until now. I’ve had my own list of patients now for a couple of weeks and a good amount of independence with someone to help me or back me up when I needed it. It’s funny… at the beginning of this internship, staff relief seemed like the most stressful thing I would do in the internship. I was terrified that I wouldn’t be adequately prepared by now to help with a patient’s medical care.

Now that I’m here, I realize I’ve already made it through the hardest parts – the changes in schedule every couple of weeks, constantly meeting new people who are potential future employers or coworkers, the changing demands at each rotation, the public speaking (good God, there was a lot of that!), the constant trickle of projects to complete and deadlines to meet. I’m not saying I’m not being challenged by staff relief, but it’s a challenge I do feel adequately prepared for, and I’m glad that it came at the end of my internship instead of earlier, as I know it did for some other internships.

Following staff relief, I have one week of wrap-up with my intern class, including presenting our case studies to each other, taking an exit exam, and getting our evaluations, and then we’re done! After that, it’s a matter of waiting to hear that I can sit for the exam, taking the exam, and then I’ll really and truly be an RD. Can’t wait!