What can I say? I like oncology

(Yes, Cassie, I stole your title :)

I just got home from spending the day in outpt oncology. What an incredible day. I’m still trying to nail down just why it piqued my interest so much; I never anticipated enjoying this unit so much. I know it has a lot to do with the oncology R.D., Gayla. Gayla is fabulous at her job. She works in oncology 3x/wk and in the hospital working floors like the rest of the R.D.s the remaining weekdays.

To start off, oncology isn’t nearly as depressing or hopeless as I thought it would be (my dialysis unit could more accurately be described with these adjectives). Gayla has a great relationship with the nurses, doctors and radiation therapists in oncology, and they’re all --without exception as far as I could tell-- quite the positive bunch. You have to be. They joke and tease and check in on each other’s pts, and it really creates a welcoming working environment. As I was leaving this afternoon, one of the doctors called me aside and told me that the key to medicine is having a good sense of humor, and he added at the end that that was why they liked Gayla so much.
I think one of the other reasons I was attracted to the oncology unit is that the R.D. gets to follow up with pts over a longer period of time (throughout the extent of their treatment), and thus really gets to develop a longstanding relationship with these individuals. I met a few such cases today. One of Gayla’s old pts (from 3 years ago) was admitted to the hospital for pneumonia. We went in to check in on her (even though Gayla wasn’t covering the floor she was on) to see how she was doing. Over the course of yesterday and today, we checked in on the pt 3x. The woman has been on a TF for the past 3 years because she can no longer eat anything PO. For the rest of her life. Gayla says she’s never even complained about this and has handled everything really well. Anyway, we went up to her room and Gayla about sat down on the bed to talk with the pt. She involved the pt in her own care and asked her what she’d prefer, so in the end we changed her TF from bolus to continuous, and then to a formula with more fiber to help with some of her GI issues. Gayla then went as far as to talk with the Case Manager about her recs for her discharge TF and what company the pt usually went with and then with the attending to let him know about her TF change and if he could possibly put in an order for some IV Fe the pt needed since her low Fe levels had been overlooked. When rounds were over I was just impressed with how the R.D. went about everything so as to be an asset and not a nuisance to the medical team. I mean, she basically made the Case Manager and M.D.’s job a little easier by mediating on behalf of the pt.

Whew. Anyway, we met too many interesting pts that I wish I could see again. It was not a dull day. I also had the opportunity tour the E.D. and observe a PEG placement!....And tomorrow will be my first weekend day working, so we’ll see how that goes!