The Day I felt like a Dummy

Ever have those days...those weeks that you just feel like a dummy!?

Yeah, that would be me today!

It's July which in hospital speak means all new fellows and a new class of residents.  In RN speak that always meant "Argghhhhh!!!!!"

I haven't decided what that means in APN speak just yet...but I'm sure I will.

Anyways, along with the new PICU fellows every year comes lectures on things we should know to be successful medical professionals.

So today's lecture was: "Basic Principles and Pathophysiology of the Respiratory System"...sounds riveting doesn't it?

Unfortunately, the majority of what I understood was the words in the title.

I am pretty sure that for part of the lecture, ancient Hebrew or some little known dialect of Korean was spoken.  There were all these equations and big medical words that I had never heard of before.

So I have a lot...a LOT...of learning to do.

But what was funny was that one of my preceptors who has been in the PICU for about 10 years leaned over and said "Does that make sense?" to which I simultaneously thought "Not a chance" but said "Uh-huh!"

Nice.

Of course, right in the middle of the lecture is not probably the best time to say, "Nope, don't really understand 75% of what is coming out of her mouth...can you translate it in simple new APN terms for me?"

So "Uh-huh" it was!

At the end of the day, it all goes back to being a new APN means a whole lot of learning to do.  And sometimes that means feeling like a real dummy.

Guess I'll start with my version of "Basic" and go from there, which I'm pretty sure is miles away from the "basic" being taught today! But ya gotta start somewhere!