Missing the hospital

Last night I went out with my girlfriend and a few of her friends, Sarah, Steph, and Len for another belated birthday celebration for Lindy (girl has more birthday celebrations than anyone I've met...she's got some great friends).  We had a really great time out at Dimitri's, good company, good food, a healthy amount of wine, all in all a great Thursday night.  Steph, Sarah and Len are all practicing nurses, so, naturally much of the conversation was hospital-centric.  I haven't noticed it much when hanging out with my med school friends lately, but during dinner I really found myself missing the hospital. 

I haven't noticed it when hanging out with my medical school friends because they're mostly either doing research or interviewing for residency programs, or taking classes (Frontiers), but hearing Len talk about his encephalopathic patient in the ICU, or Sarah talk about her 91 year old patient who tried to escape the hospital very slowly using his walker, or hearing Steph talk about the Labor and Delivery floor made me really miss being in the hospital and taking part in patient care.  I miss the challenges of using what the patient tells you, their exam, the lab results and imaging to come up with a diagnosis.  I miss that intellectual challenge.  I miss getting to help people.  I miss the camaraderie of the other students, interns, and residents on the team. 

While I'm definitely learning a ton during this year, enjoying the change in the type of thinking that I have to do for my GSE classes, I also know I made the right choice for me as far as my profession.  While I know I want to teach medical students and residents, part of that stems from my love of teaching, but part of it also stems from my passion for medicine.