The Last Leg

We have almost made it! We are on our final clinical rotation of our graduate career and are inches away from graduation day. If hasn't been the most graceful journey, but we are on the final stretch and are more than ready to start our careers.

My last rotation is in Surgical Pathology at Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center in Johnstown, PA and it is a little longer than the previous rotation at 8 weeks rather than 6 weeks.  That number is a little bittersweet since I wish it was only 6, but it is just part of program.  In the end, we are almost finished and I can deal with an extra two weeks.  This particular rotation had an interesting start in that the hospital was undergoing some changes in their electronic system. They have recently switched to Epic, which is an interconnected information system that connects all aspects of the hospital from the emergency department to surgical pathology. It's meant to allow a more seamless communication system.  In addition to that, the gross room implemented Dragon speech recognition technology to replace dictaphone. Needless to say, there was a lot happening at one time during our first week, which meant some small problems here and there to work out, but I think it will work out for the best in the long run. It's beneficial to be a part of something like this in the work environment because it can happen anywhere you go. Luckily, both Emily (my classmate) and I had both worked with each of the systems at previous rotations, so that helped not only us, but the other employees as well.

As for the workload, there is a diverse array of specimens that includes a lot of biopsies, placentas, hysterectomies, breasts, and colon specimens. We have also gotten two lung lobes for mass, prostates, and amputation specimens. As a last rotation, we have seen a lot up to this point, so it has been nice to get a little bit of everything to keep us on our toes as we move forward into our new jobs. I hope to see even more in my last 5.5 weeks so that I'm ready for anything.

On an awesome note, the Chicago Cubs are WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS! If you didn't notice, I'm quite excited and it was a dream come true to finally see it happen...even though Game 7 may have stressed me out quite a bit. Not only that, but the Mountaineers are having a great football season and I look forward to see how far they will go! So GO CUBS and GO MOUNTAINEERS!