Saturday, March 17, 2007

and the paperwork begins!

this morning, i was thinking that maybe i should have delayed the start of this blog until internship since i only have two more weeks of patient interaction scheduled before graduation. the rest of the time is vacation and research. what could i blog about between now and mid-june?

the answer came in my mailbox today in the form of 2 lbs of paperwork (not an exaggeration) from my future residency program. they certainly didn't waste any time. the cover letter went something like the following:
Congratulations! We're so excited that you'll be joining our program. Make sure you get your butt back in the country in time to attend Advanced Cardiac Life Support training!!!

i only had enough energy to fill out the first third, which included a conditional offer of appointment form, application for a limited medical license, affirmative action statement, permission for a credit and criminal background check, and medical information release forms.

things i don't know what to do with yet:
  • lab coat and nametag request form. what is my numerical lab coat size? how do i want my name written on the side--middle initial or no middle initial? i almost never use my middle initial, but as my husband says, the initial adds certain authoritativeness. do i want to seem authoritative? as long as it says "MD" after my name, it's fine with me.

  • continuity clinic request form. where do i want to have my outpatient clinic for the next three years? there is a page description on each site included, but somehow they mostly end up sounding similar. they also give us phone numbers to contact preceptors and residents, so i guess i have some research ahead of me. however, i'm not sure what i would ask except "is this the clinic site i should avoid like the plague?"

  • vacation request form. i haven't bought plane tickets for places i hope to go to this spring yet, so it's hard to think about which weeks i want to take off between july 2007 and june 2008. christmas? pretty unlikely i'll get that request, but what are my nine other top choices for time off?


i know residency involves a lot of paperwork. i just didn't expect it to start so soon.

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