Some people are just plain sour or mean! Last Friday on my way from the Rad lab I happened to have had my scrubs on and stopped by at Walmart to grab some laminated binders for my notes. This particular Walmart is close to my house and I debated weather to go change from scrubs or just pass by it.
I was about to check out when I noticed a middle aged lady looking at me. We locked eyes for a moment and I never took anything of it. As usual, whenever one goes to do shopping for one thing,without a shopping list, we inevitable remember something else we needed. So there I was rushing back to grab some pens.
I got back on the line in time and guess who was standing in the line before me? Nobody but the lady again. She stood out because of the way she had her hair colored. Without as much as hello she turned to me and asked "Great Lakes Institute?" I replied with a smile and told her no. She pressed on "CNA?" Again I assumed she was asking all this because of my scrubs and I politely told her no.
To let her get me off the awkward interview I told her Fortis Institute. I thought that wou;ld do it,but boy! Was I wrong.
She went ahead to make assumption of what I study and announced it almost loudly to everyone. "Oh, so you are doing nursing? " That was enough to attract the attention of almost all the elderly shoppers who you mostly find shopping at that time of the day. At this point my patience was running out with this lady at an alarming rate. I told her an emphatic NO. I'm in Dental hygiene School followed by that look that says 'STOP ASKING ME ALL THESE STUPID QUESTIONS PAY FOR YOUR STUFF AND GET GOING'. I thought of maybe going and self checking out but I decided to wait and see her next card.
"Why would you waste your money on that?" Blurted the woman who now turned back to me with new enthusiasm as if she had just seen a real life unicorn. At this point I was almost pissed. "Because its what i like and its the best one could ever be in this life".
"You know that's not like a real dentist,right?" This woman was not about to give up.
I decided to go down to her level and piss the heck out of her at this point.
"No, it's not like a real dentist. Hygienist are in charge of dentists and we tell them what to do when they can't solve anything we are there for them"
At this point she had already paid and was now standing at the end of the queue . " My friend used to be an hygienist assistant and she left it for nursing because she wasn't getting a job and when she did she earned so little. If that what they lied to you at Fortis you better think twice. Its not a good career and is for people who cant get into things like nursing. I'm thinking of going back to school myself...."
I have no idea what she said past that for the moment she said Hygiene is for people who can't get into other programs I was on my way out and no further audience for her.
Why would anyone think like this, Ignorance? Jealousy? or just plain dump!
Are these the kind of patients waiting on us out there. In other world, she might turn out to be a very good patient. Have you had an incidence of someone with total ignorance on what hygienists do?! Let me know in the comments below.
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
TAKING RADIOGRAPHS AND WORKING IN THE CLINIC.
Lately a lot has been going on academically and also very fast. Take for example this week; from Monday we have had exams or skills evaluation every single day and this will go on till Friday and this all amidst a lot of homework too. This is because Dental hygienists are supposed to be knowledgeable in a variety of things in order to be competent dental clinicians and also educators to their patients. The program is accelerated so a lot of work is covered in such a short time. One of our instructors actually told us that she feel that the work we cover in those two years is enough to have us awarded a bachelors degree.
So for the first time we are learning how to take dental radio-graphs (We have to avoid calling them dental X-rays ) for professionalism sake. That is in radiology 1. We had a chance to take a radio graph of anything we wanted and my specimen was so huge couldn't fit on the film( I had a rounded stone from a river) and our instructor Mrs Snyder was kind enough to let me use her ring as a specimen. I got a clear image as this time was careful enough in the darkroom to prevent any light leak which damages the film during processing. I leaned this the first time we practiced with films with no image in the dark room. and got mine messed up. Hard to believe that by end of Radiography 2 which is next semester we will be bringing in a real patient and take full mouth radiographs of them.
In pre-clinic, its been a roller-coaster with all the little fine details one has to master. Thankfully our instructors have been more than patient with everything we are doing for it takes just one small thing to mess up the whole process. Take for example the steps you have to carefully follow while donning PPE in the right format. The fun of opening the new instruments dwindled as soon as we realized they are not held the same way we hold our pens or spoon! However. the more practice we do with the instruments and mastering their names the more the fun resumes back. Well, the Gracey,Columbia,jacket and Bernhert are not names of places,things, or even people but the various instruments we are going to be using for the rest of our....not semester,lifes actually.
We have learned to set up units, tear them down and even take vitals and even conduct extra-oral examinations on each other. It's so much fun working in the clinic and learning everything new everyday as no day is exactly like the other one.
Im going to do a more detailed posts on the instruments and the radiography machines soon as they deserve a full post. The second years are already preparing for their board exams as they graduate this summer, hard to believe that next summer is going to be our turn.
PS: One of the faithful followers of this blog is a dental hygiene student from Jamaica and she will probably be writing as a guest author soon to tell us of her experiences over there. Thanks Stephanie and good luck!
So for the first time we are learning how to take dental radio-graphs (We have to avoid calling them dental X-rays ) for professionalism sake. That is in radiology 1. We had a chance to take a radio graph of anything we wanted and my specimen was so huge couldn't fit on the film( I had a rounded stone from a river) and our instructor Mrs Snyder was kind enough to let me use her ring as a specimen. I got a clear image as this time was careful enough in the darkroom to prevent any light leak which damages the film during processing. I leaned this the first time we practiced with films with no image in the dark room. and got mine messed up. Hard to believe that by end of Radiography 2 which is next semester we will be bringing in a real patient and take full mouth radiographs of them.
In pre-clinic, its been a roller-coaster with all the little fine details one has to master. Thankfully our instructors have been more than patient with everything we are doing for it takes just one small thing to mess up the whole process. Take for example the steps you have to carefully follow while donning PPE in the right format. The fun of opening the new instruments dwindled as soon as we realized they are not held the same way we hold our pens or spoon! However. the more practice we do with the instruments and mastering their names the more the fun resumes back. Well, the Gracey,Columbia,jacket and Bernhert are not names of places,things, or even people but the various instruments we are going to be using for the rest of our....not semester,lifes actually.
We have learned to set up units, tear them down and even take vitals and even conduct extra-oral examinations on each other. It's so much fun working in the clinic and learning everything new everyday as no day is exactly like the other one.
Im going to do a more detailed posts on the instruments and the radiography machines soon as they deserve a full post. The second years are already preparing for their board exams as they graduate this summer, hard to believe that next summer is going to be our turn.
PS: One of the faithful followers of this blog is a dental hygiene student from Jamaica and she will probably be writing as a guest author soon to tell us of her experiences over there. Thanks Stephanie and good luck!
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