Another Anniversary (mine)

I just had a phone call from my placement agent in the US...she was calling to congratulate me on my 6-month anniversary today. I hadn't really thought about it, other than that when this rotation ends at the end of September, it would be about 7 months. But I started work on February 22, so she's right, today is the day.

And speaking of the end of the rotation, I've had some pretty good news today. The girl who was to definitely get the stroke unit has apparently handed in her resignation. And I'm so envious, because she has resigned to go traveling in Australia with some friends. I had my end of rotation meeting with Barbara (Head OT) today, which was fine (no backlash about my taking a holiday, thank goodness). She took one look at my list which had stroke unit in capital letters in the number one spot, and said, yes, well obviously that's your absolute first choice. And I said, "Yes it is, so I had to put it there even though I know Lizzie will get it" -- which is when she told me on the DL that Lizzie had already turned in her resignation for end of September. However, she went on to say that stroke is a popular rotation, and there is already one other person who has asked for it (I've mentioned this person before, she's not very reliable, but she's been here longer than me), plus other people may ask for it as well who have not yet had their meeting with Barbara. But she said she's pretty sure I'll get a rehab post since most of the acute posts are already filled. Apparently if you've just finished a rehab post, you're theoretically supposed to get an acute one next, in Barbara's "I've got to be fair to all the Basic Grades" scheme. And it's too bad, she said if she'd finished with all the meetings, she would have told me before I left what my next post will be, but she's got the last meeting on Thursday, which is my travel day. That's okay though, I've assigned Nicole to text me with the news. Therefore, I am crossing my fingers and everything else for the next few days that as Barbara works things through, I get the stroke unit...she was very careful to warn me about it being a popular choice though, so I'm only cautiously optimistic.

I do think I managed to convince her of how quiet it is at the Day Hospital, and got her thinking that maybe this should be a split post. For whoever gets the very next rotation here, it will still be full time. But after that, she may have a Basic Grade split their time between the Day Hospital and the main department, as I have been doing anyway. I know Ann and Annette would appreciate that too, since with me around, they quite often don't have enough to do either.