Thursday, May 28, 2009

Lifelong Dream Flattened and Squashed!!

Well, my dream of working at St. Judes has been flattened and officially squashed! For those of you who don't know, my last rotation for PA school was to be at St. Judes Children Hospital in Pediatric Oncology. When I was 8 years old I told my mom that someday I would work there. So the fact that I was actually going to spend 4 weeks there on rotation was SUPER COOL!
We had memorial day off. I had been in communication with my contact there many, many times over the past few months. I was told all my paper work was in. So, I started Tuesday and followed around a Nurse practitioner in the Leukemia/Lymphoma clinic. She rocks...she was doing Lumbar punctures and Bone Marrow Aspirates the whole day. I had no idea mid levels could do those with out a physician watching you. It seriously impressed me. So, at the end of the day, I met up with my contact to go and get my ID badge.
This is where my dream began to flatten. We turned in my paper work and they said I had to go through employee health. My contact had no idea. She had just had 2 students the month before and had not had to do that. So, emails were sent to important people. Hence, it was found out at that point that I had some paper work missing. I still don't know what the initial missing paper work was. So, I was told to come Wednesday and go to the library at St. Judes and watch online lectures.
I did that. I finished my day and then went to study. About 6 last night, I checked my email to find my contact just found out that I didn't have a background check on file and did I have one. NOPE, I sure don't. Well, it takes at least ONE WEEK to get those things back. For me that means at least a week and a half of not seeing patients. Normally, I would love that, but in this case, it could be even longer than that to get the background check done. Dream of being at St. Judes—SQUASHED!
As soon as I found out, I called my wonderful clinical coordinator who said she would get to work on it first thing tomorrow. I then emailed her assistant(not sure of her real title) to let her know what was going on, because her assistant is the person that makes things happen. As of 10 am central time, this morning they already have a lead on my placement so I can start there on Monday. Keep praying that everything will go smoothly! My main focus is to spend these last weeks in school learning as much about pediatrics as possible. I know God is in control and HE is going to get me through this. Pray for safe travels to wherever I am heading. Pray for smooth transition into a possibly new clinic. Praise Him for the 2 days I spent at St. Judes which is truly an amazing place!

2 comments:

Katie said...

I am so sorry. Trust me God has a plan and one day you will look back and say, "Now I know why I didn't get to work at St. Jude's then." and you won't change a thing. I am really sorry though. I know that this is hard.

Kat said...

I am sorry! That really stinks but hopefully you will love the next place you go just as much and end up at St. Jude another time possibly. I worked there for 9 months when I was in grad school and it truly is an amazing place but I know there are tons of other places you can use your awesome skills. If you are still in Memphis, give me a call if you have any free time. I would love to get together! 901-355-003