"A Very Caring Doctor"

Recently at work, due to a few reasons that would take a blogpost of their own, I have been feeling a bit disenchanted with Foundation Training. In fact the other day I found myself sitting in my car after a meeting sobbing because I just didn't want to do it anymore. I felt as if I had spent every day of the last 18 months giving not only 100% of my working self to my job, but a whole lot more than that. I had given a lot of my love and my soul to what I was doing. Not only did I take on extra things but I'd spend time I could have been having a break with my patients holding their hands, having cups of tea and generally trying to make things a bit better for them.

I guess it boils down to feeling a bit unappreciated. Now I'm not trying to say that I need my ego to constantly be fed with compliments, but being told that I'm in danger of not being signed off for FY2 by a doctor I have never met before really didn't go down well. I felt like I had given my heart to work and that they had taken it outside and stamped on it.

The lovely ward clerk at work has been going out of her way to make me feel better. She points out all the compliment letters we get at work that mention my name and photocopies them for me. Today she went a step further. 

Today is the last day I was working with her, as she is on annual leave until I go to ortho in a fortnight. I got to work to find this in my diary...

It had my name on it too so it wasn't for some other caring doctor. It just meant so much to me that someone who see's me at work every day can see that I do actually care.

She also bought me a lovely bunch of tulips. I was a bit worried about them wilting on the way home so with the help of a patient I created a portable vase...

I think the hand-painted floral detail really makes it stick out. Properly marketed I could have a business idea right here. 

It was such a lovely gesture that I don't think I'll be able to stop smiling at least until I start my new rotation (on nights!!).