Choose Medicine
A “trainee-spotting” poem by manick
Choose medicine.
Choose nights,
choose PRs and scrotal exams,
choose being bleeped when you’re taking a shit,
choose bare below the elbows,
choose a book,
choose being so hungry you enjoy hospital food,
choose never seeing your friends again,
choose not washing your hands for a change,
choose dehydration, a f***ing big cannula, Quality Street over Roses, MRSA.Choose scrubs (watching it or wearing them).
Choose cyclizine the morning after the mess party,
choose Adele the Australian physio.Choose sitting in the mess watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing junk food into your mouth praying that you’re bleep won’t go off.
Choose MI over PE because someone’s got to make a diagnosis.
Choose bd, tds, qds, those f***ing T’s with the dots on them.Don’t choose life, choose medicine.
Chris is an Intensivist and ECMO specialist at The Alfred ICU, where he is Deputy Director (Education). He is a Clinical Adjunct Associate Professor at Monash University, the Lead for the Clinician Educator Incubator programme, and a CICM First Part Examiner.
He is an internationally recognised Clinician Educator with a passion for helping clinicians learn and for improving the clinical performance of individuals and collectives. He was one of the founders of the FOAM movement (Free Open-Access Medical education) has been recognised for his contributions to education with awards from ANZICS, ANZAHPE, and ACEM.
His one great achievement is being the father of three amazing children.
On Bluesky, he is @precordialthump.bsky.social and on the site that Elon has screwed up, he is @precordialthump.
| INTENSIVE | RAGE | Resuscitology | SMACC