hierarchical bullshit

It would be so great in life if people could concentrate on doing their jobs and avoid getting into ego-politics. For the most part, internship has been great. I feel like a fairly autonomous professional (which is good because people will be calling me Doctor in 6 months and I will be expected to operate independently). However, every once in a while, I am reminded that there is a political feature to every environment.

I should note, that I am not very good with politics and bullshit. I would prefer for us all to just do our jobs and focus on good quality of care, being professional equals. I don't care for this "I have an MD and therefore I am superior" crap. So, I am not particularly in-tune to these dynamics much of the time, because I don't operate in this way. I thought my inpatient rotation was fairly free of the drama as well...but oh, how it is not.

Basically, I was in an admission screening with a treatment team and the patient. I was not running the interview, but I did ask a few questions later because I didn't feel like this patient's anxiety was adequately assessed. And I was right. Turns out, she met for a very significant disorder that impacts her daily functioning. The psychiatrist in the room did not say anything to me at the time, but later, I found out that she felt I "overstepped my position," which I interpreted as more along the lines of making her feel stupid because she did not adequately assess the patient. So, it turns out this is not really about me, and more about her, as this has happened with other psychologists as well. The psychiatrist in question feels threatened by anybody who knows more than she does. I hate to break it to her, but I know quite a bit more than she does when it comes to research, therapy, and efficacy/outcome studies, because that is my training and my role in the world of mental illness. This should make for better quality of care on a multidisciplinary team, but instead, I am advised to "dumb it down," when dealing with this psychiatrist.

Bullshit.

There is my rant and rave of the day.

In other news, the wife is starting to show more and more...not to others, but to me. But it is exciting. Junior just keeps on growing as planned...and the wife is less nauseous (by report anyway) these days. She is falling asleep a little later in the evening and able to make it to 10pm most nights...looks like we will make a nice smooth transition into the second trimester in two weeks. I can't wait.

My parents bought me a flip hd camcorder for my birthday. I'm super excited about beginning my videography of the pregnancy and early life of the kiddo. It should make it much easier to involve our families (who are all long distance) as well. And the baby projects at the moment are: figuring out second parent adoption (which we will do as we don't know if we will be staying in massachusetts for good) regulations and process, creating wills, and I started a baby blanket. I'm crocheting with boucle, in patches. So far I have 3 1/2 patches of 35 done. My personal deadline is the end of February (which means it will probably be done by Valentines day)! After this project, I have to modify the highchair that both my wife and my wife's dad used when they were babies (it needs to be a little safer and more comfortable), create a master inventory of all that we currently have for the baby and all that we will need, begin a registry, and do research on good cloth diaper options, among other projects.

I love my new hobby.