The Adventures of the Future Dr Cara

From MSNBC.com, Teen Girls Charged in Nursing Home Abuse

ALBERT LEA, Minn. - Two teenage girls who worked at a nursing home have been charged with abuse, accused of taunting, spitting on and groping the breasts and genitals of residents who suffered from Alzheimer's disease and other dementia disorders.

According to the criminal complaint, filed Monday, 19-year-old Brianna Broitzman and 18-year-old Ashton Larson laughed earlier this year as they spat in residents' mouths, poked and grabbed them, and at times mocked them until they screamed.

Broitzman and Larson worked as part-time aides at the home

What. The. F#$%.? Who on earth behaves this way? And who on earth would think this is funny? I find no humor in abuse. What on earth were these kids thinking?

I might find this more offensive than most people - I was a Nursing Aide for almost five years before I went back to school. I took care of people in the local nursing home, and when on o work as a home health aide and provided care for people in their homes. My inspiration for going to medical school was my patients! They inspired and encouraged me to become a doctor. And today, I read this? It doesn't matter that I don't know any of the parties involved - my patients are the same population as these abuse victims. It is as if these girls abused my patients, and spit in my face.

And here's the kicker:

Broitzman and Larson are charged with assault, abuse of a vulnerable adult by a caregiver, abuse of a vulnerable adult with sexual contact, disorderly conduct and failing to report suspected maltreatment. All are gross misdemeanors.

If found guilty, Broitzman and Larson "most likely will face suspended jail sentences and probation, so they'd have the threat of jail hanging over them if they get in more trouble," Freeborn County Attorney Craig Nelson told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis.

WHAT?!?!?!?! PROBATION??? I don't think so!! They need to go to jail, see how funny it is when they get pushed around and beat up by the inmates when they find out these ignorant brats abused elderly people! I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what this County Attorney is thinking. A slap on the wrist for repeated abusers?

What on earth is this world coming to?

Whoa. I can't believe it's been almost a year since I updated this thing. Let's see, what have I been up to.....

	Psychiatry: Psych was excellent. Had a great preceptor who loved to teach and had a great sense of humor. Spent the mornings on the inpatient lock-down ward, and the afternoons in a private clinic. Got to go to court and watch a conservatorship hearing (at the same time Britney was having her psych melt-downs, but that wasn't the case I saw.) Interesting, and fantastic experience.
	Infectious Disease: excellent, had great preceptors who trained in third world countries and had stories that would make just about anyone want to be like "bubble boy." For my end of rotation presentation, I gave a 30 minute talk on Mycobacterium Avium Complex, and quoted the heck out of one of my personal heroes through all the research she's done. (Gwen, if you're reading, I read all your papers! I'll bring my PowerPoint for you to critique next time I am in Denver!)
	Internal Medicine: 28 days of masochism. After the first week, I figured that having a battery acid GI prep would be more fun. 30hour call every four days. Egos that rivaled the surgeons. I counted every day down until the end. On the schedule, it should have just read, "Abandon all hope, ye who rotate here."
	Pediatrics: LOVED Peds! Seriously considered doing Peds, and would have if I hadn't already arranged to do a bunch of family med "audition" rotations, and couldn't swing any for Peds. Pediatricians are about the coolest docs out there.
	OB-GYN: Luckily, I had some great preceptors, and while any rotation at a county hospital is wicked hard, I got to see a LOT of pathology, scrubbed in on some cool gyn surgery cases, and actually delivered some babies. Yep. Me, on the business end telling the patients, "You're doing great! Get ready to push!" while they yelled obscenities at their husbands and the nurses. And for the record, anyone who says that childbirth is beautiful hasn't been on the business end. I mean, seriously, nothing beautiful about it. Not a single thing. Worked with some awesome midwives that taught me some interesting things about deliveries. Became a "Pap Queen".
(Pretend there is a picture of a rash here. Really. It's ok. They all look the same anyway....)	Derm: 3 days a week, in San Diego county. 70 degrees every day I was there. The good news is that the rotation was almost all pathology, and none of that microdermabrasion/Botox/Restylane crap. The bad news was that I spent almost every minute of my patient contact time shadowing. However, I can spot an actinic keratosis at 50 yards.
	Family med x2: One site was so excellently outstanding. I worked my butt off, had my own clinic patients, got to do some outpatient surgery, was a camera operator on some endoscopies and colonoscopies, spent a day at a rural clinic. I fell in love with that site. The other was ok - had some great preceptors, and free food. The commute was hell.
	NICU: At county, had two fantastic preceptors. Had fun playing with the premies, got to see some interesting pathology, including a rare trisomy. There are reasons that those little buggers need to bake for 40 weeks. Learned the difference between "Cute" and "Precious" (hint, the latter is reserved for the "not-cute" babies.) Got to play in the newborn nursery with the fully-baked kids and thought, "my god, these 7-pounders are HUGE!"
Research: A nice, laid-back month. Recruited test subjects, gathered data, found a great bakery down the block that makes organic curry bread.	Mmmm... curry bread....
	Currently: on radiology. Have an excellent preceptor - he started medical school in his 30s as well, loves to teach, and has a crazy-busy rads practice a few miles away from home. Great hours, even better teaching. Oh, and got to spend a day with a radiation oncologist. They have cool toys.

On the horizon:

	EM. Yeah. Sounds... fun.... At least the hours are good. Otherwise, the ED is like being a sorter for the postal service - sort the patients, decide to admit and call the inpatient team to take over, or send them out the door.
	Ortho Surg. 12 hour clinic days. Only one day a week in the OR. Broken fingers, broken ribs, broken femurs and tibias. Disarticulated joints where bone is replaced with metal and screws, and the OR looks like the tool isle at Home Depot. And I'll spend all month trying to figure out why ortho guys are a bunch of moose. (Seriously. I can't figure out why the people who are attracted to ortho are over 6 feet tall, and over 200 lbs... they are GIANTS!!)
	Pain management: joint injections, pain med injections. Sticking people with needles...
	The great unknown. I haven't decided on my last rotation. I mean, it's the last month of my medical school career. Should I go out with a bang on a butt-busting whirlwind of medicine, or rest on my laurels, and take it easy? I'll have to decide soon...

Now, let me state something - surgery is very interesting... to watch. But. let's face it, I'm a clinician, and a primary care one at that. I like talking to patients, remidning them to watch their blood sugar levels, fussing over their blood pressure. I am not a surgeon. I lack the surgeon personality, and I don't like fixing a patient and never seeing them again. And, frankly, I'm quite miserable with 12 hour days and 30 hour on-calls. Thank heavens there are those who answer the call to the OR, but me? No thanks. I'm counting down the days to the end of this rotation.

In other news, we have a new addition it the family.

Introducing Miss Ailsa Lilly:

 

I forgot how nice it is to have a Scottie around the house. I also forgot how much of a pain housebreaking is. Oh well. Now I have three happy tails wagging when I come home from the OR everyday. It's worth it. And since we have the new pup, and being the high tech family we are, of course all the "kids" have their own webpages:

And for our Dearly departed girl:

Eric tagged me for a meme, I'll try and get it done tomorrow when I get home. And thanks to everyone who keeps leaving me notes. I wish I had more time to blog and blogwalk. I miss that.

(Not really a picture of Fred. Fred's much better looking, and cooler. This is probably Fred's twin, Scott. Scott's the model, but Fred's the smart one...)

May 2006

June 2007

Rank/Specialty/ Score 1 occupational med 48 2 rheumatology 46 3 nephrology 46 4 preventive med 45 5 aerospace med 44 6 thoracic surgery 44 7 radiation oncology 44 8 anesthesiology 43 9 hematology 43 10 physical med & rehabilitation 43 11 pediatrics 43 12 otolaryngology 43 13 orthopaedic surgery 42 14 pulmonology 42 15 plastic surgery 42 16 psychiatry 42 17 med oncology 42 18 general internal med 42 19 infectious disease 41 20 neurosurgery 41 21 ophthalmology 41 22 obstetrics/gynecology 40 23 dermatology 40 24 family practice 40 25 colon & rectal surgery 39 26 nuclear med 39 27 neurology 39 28 pathology 39 29 urology 39 30 radiology 38 31 gastroenterology 38 32 endocrinology 38 33 cardiology 37 34 emergency med 36 35 allergy & immunology 36 36 general surgery 36

Rank/ Specialty/ Score 1 hematology 47 2 rheumatology 46 3 pediatrics 46 4 occupational med 45 5 nephrology 45 6 med oncology 45 7 family practice 45 8 dermatology 44 9 radiation oncology 44 10 anesthesiology 43 11 psychiatry 43 12 physical med & rehabilitation 43 13 obstetrics/gynecology 42 14 orthopaedic surgery 42 15 preventive med 42 16 aerospace med 42 17 plastic surgery 42 18 general surgery 42 19 thoracic surgery 41 20 ophthalmology 41 21 pathology 41 22 nuclear med 40 23 neurosurgery 40 24 general internal med 40 25 colon & rectal surgery 40 26 emergency med 40 27 pulmonology 40 28 gastroenterology 40 29 endocrinology 40 30 cardiology 39 31 infectious disease 39 32 otolaryngology 39 33 radiology 39 34 urology 38 35 neurology 38 36 allergy & immunology 36

From the latest results, it seems that I should never even try allergy/immunology (fine by me, way too complicated). However, infectious disease has moved even further down the list (*cry*) but family practice has surged in the listing. I'd be happy in family medicine - it's cool that you get to see a little bit of everything, so each day is different. I can live with that.