So my thoughts today are spawned from a little awkward situation I'd like to call "Do I exit the car with my white coat on while on the way to the hospital?" Because no one wants to be that girl (or guy) who sports their white coat around town to look like they carry some sort of importance. Especially if you're not actually an M.D. yet and could do nothing more than call 911 on your Blackberry in the case of an actual medical emergency. Well for those of us with about 5 pounds of baggage on, in, or around that coat, once the white coat is on, that baby is on all day...because the simple act of taking it off in the car is bound to send a penlight or stethoscope flying.
This morning I woke up with a lack of clean professional clothing and decided to make it a casual scrub Friday. That also meant that I pretty much had to wear my white coat or I could very well look like I was trying to play surgeon (even though I left my Fisher Price doctor kit at home). I make my usual run to Starbucks but because my scrubs are about 2 sizes too big and I don't have time to re-tuck my goodies, I flip a coin and decide to just leave on the white coat...I mean it was supposed to be an in-and-out operation. Well as I'm walking up I run into Dr. Savedra (who is amazing) and she tells me that "I look cute," just before I greet my lovely neighborhood Starbucks baristas who basically make fun of me until my Venti Non-Fat Skinny Vanilla Latte is ready. Granted, I know these guys pretty well now since about half of my loan money goes to the Starbucks franchise but still, I laughed...but could not think of a single decent comeback at 7:45 a.m. Not one.
So then I got to thinking about how the doctors pull it off. How they manage to walk into any restaurant, grocery store, or laundry cleaners with the attitude that they're ready to kick some ass in their white coat. And the answer is clear: it's all about flare. The drug rep pens (the bigger, the better), the pager, the other pager, the Blackberry/Treo that is constantly vibrating...it serves exactly one purpose and the purpose is street cred. How are you going to make fun of someone who makes residents pee on themselves and, more noticeably, has a different color pair of Crocs for every day of the week? You just can't. So next up on my list is a pair of Crocs. And a medical degree. You have to start somewhere, right?
At least I got some free scrubs today. Thank God for the little things.
1 comment:
HA! I love this post. You should definitely get Crocs. My mom is a mammo-tech and she has about 5 pair ... at least! I think it's a med. thing even though they have been shown to not really have the proper arch support. Whatev.
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