On the Office Boy

Domestic hostility in the ward is so common for us medical students, as claimed by a colleague in another hospital. Can't agree more. In the hospital, we're the lowest in the hierarchy. We're lower than the senior medical officer (acceptable), lower than the senior sisters (acceptable), but to be as low as the "office-boy"?

Once during an on-call in the labor ward, and when it was very empty we have nothing to do, the nurses at the counter were chatting away, I walked out from the chart room just to stretch my legs. One of the older sisters at the counter called out, "MS (i.e. medical student), can you go to the last cubicle and take the stand fan and put it here? We're very hot lah."

I stared back at her. Expressionless.

"Stand fan. At the last cubicle. You're a guy right?"

What the?

It was stated in the labor room management guide that, "medical students should not be treated as an extra hand" by one of the professors in the department. And now I'm supposed to take a fan for the nurses?

I can accept if you're asking me to take the syringe or the suture set or even the bed-pan for the pregnant mommies to pee or poo into, but to order me to take a stand fan? Isn't that a bit too... Nevertheless, I obeyed, unwillingly. After all, we had nothing to do.

But, medical student as the lowest rank in a hospital hierarchy. That's a fact I have to swallow for now. But just a few more months now... A few more months... Finals in March/April...