Almost a Fourth Year

I realized today that this is the last rotation that I'll sign my patient notes with my name ending in MS III. A year and two weeks from now, I'll be graduating from medical school. Jesus Christ, I'm going to be a frigging DOCTOR.

I feel totally unprepared and think the degree-granting peeps are out of their minds, and my feeling is pretty reflective of what I'll feel like at graduation, I think, because next year will not be incredibly filled with learning. It'll more be about showing off my mad clinical skillz to get evaluations and letters of recommendations in the early months, then doing easy rotations while I apply and go on interviews, then doing easy rotations when I match and go drinking, then having vacation.

Today at Latrobe was pretty good, unlike yesterday, and I feel like I really do know what I'm doing. I can see a patient, take his history, do a physical exam, and decide what I think he might have and come up with an initial plan. I have a lot to learn, but these are the basic nuts and bolts of medicine.