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| Every journey is a venture - Central Otago from a plane |
Every journey is a venture. Two months ago I started at Thames Hospital, as a Rural Hospital Medicine registrar. A registrar is something between a SHO (Assistenzarzt) and a consultant (Oberarzt, Facharzt). Coming from my still rather German GP background, slotting into this position which is usually filled by younger doctors bred in a New Zealand hospital environment proved to be even more of a challenge than I thought it would be.
My role consists in work on the rehabilitation ward in a responsible position, above me the consultant and under me the SHO (in reality and practice the SHO is more experienced than me in many regards), and seeing patients in the Emergency Department (together with very experienced colleagues). Apart from that I am encouraged to sit in at outpatients department with specialists, for learning purposes (this as time allows).
A hospital, basicly the whole health system is like a big machine with all the policies, pathways, flowcharts and standard procedures and one is just a cogwheel within it, and if you don't fit well the whole system gets slowed down.
I have never been a big fan of medical guidelines and more of an "eyeballer" (über-den-Daumen-Peiler) cooking my own recipes with and for every individual. This is not always well-seen here, particulary in the hospital. Thus, there is so much to catch up with. And I am not used to obeying these narrow standard rules. Not only in what I do I have to blend in, but also my documentation has to be in a certain format which I am learning. And, in a hospital, as a cogwheel, you can't just work at your own speed, because others continually depend on you.
I think it was a surprise to most people here how alien this system was to me. Still, most of them have been very accommodating, and understanding at the end. There is a price to pay for my upskilling, and at present I am not the only one paying it.
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| Sometimes old vessels do a very good job - a more than 100 year old steamboat on Lake Wakatipu |
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| Every ship has its history - waterfront of Queenstown; the ship in the foreground was build in England and served most of the time on lake Rotorua, North Island |
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| Jump into the cold water and swim! The water of lake Wakatipu is allegedly so cold that the survival time would be 20 minutes. |
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| Good to have a life belt if you go far out |
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| Achievement - great views from here |
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| A simple pole can turn into a home for many: these islands are home to a kind of waterbirds - they have their origin in orientation poles that have sprouted. Can you find the bird on the water? |
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| Would you like to spend the autumn of your life at quiet waters? A dream hotel at Lake Wakatipu |
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| Friends are the salt of life - (guess who is on the other end of the phone connection). |
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| Sometimes it is good to climb up from the depth of everyday life to get an overview |
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| On the way. |
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| Looking back. |
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| Getting spoiled (Dunstan House, Clyde). |
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| Modesty. |
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| My room (at Dunstan House, Clyde, Central Otago) |
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| Envy is always a silly feeling: Someone else's room (Dunstan House, Clyde) |
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| Sometimes it is good to do something really different: General Store now turned into a bicycle rental, in Clyde |
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| Good friends are the world - drinking at a Pub in Clyde, with colleagues and teachers of an ultrasound course |
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| A good teacher makes a huge difference - at the ultrasound course at Dunstan Hospital in Clyde |
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| It is important to rest and think from time to time - near Cromwell. |
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| Das Leben ist ein langer ruhiger Fluss (manchmal). |
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| I have dared enough - an did not jump here - Bungy jump site in Central Otago (note the ropes on the right). |
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| Sometimes life seems dry as a desert - but this is often transient - Shotover River. |
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| Would you enjoy being a celebrity? Not me. Prince Williams and Kate sit in the silver BMW, the third silver car in the row. |
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| Waiting to fly home - which is Thames now. |
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| Above the clouds - for a short while. |
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| The Firth of Thames in the very background. |
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| Coming home to Our Waikato - Estuary of the Waikato river. |
Every journey is a venture. But if I don't explore, I don't feel alive. And Kiwis make it easy (and take it easy, too).
