Chapter 140
The first day of March.
The weather was marked by the faint warmth of spring seeping through the cold air, and it's also famously known as the season of beginnings, isn't it?
In Korea, the new school term starts in March.
Likewise, hospitals also welcome a new start in March.
“Here’s your iced Americano to go.”
“Ah, thank you.”
I inserted the straw and took a light sip of coffee.
Oh, right.
I’m on an empty stomach today.
Fuck.
It already felt like my stomach was starting to burn, but I decided not to care.
It’s not like I’m going to die.
So I shoved one hand into my pocket and walked toward the hospital entrance with the most peaceful expression in the world.
‘Yeah, it’s finally the first day of my third year.’
Even after two years, I still hate the commute to work.
For reference, the chief resident role had gone to Nam Juhyeon, who was now a fourth-year.
“Fuck.”
Just thinking about it made curses spill out of me.
Nam Juhyeon.
His nickname was hysteria itself.
If Choi Soo-min was an angel, Nam Juhyeon was like a security guard with a nervous breakdown.
He wasn’t the type to raise his voice often, but he was the type to mercilessly needle people until their minds crumbled to pieces.
“Hyeonjae, where exactly is the evidence for this? Are you sure? Can you take responsibility for it? Why did you think that? I’ve never done that.”
It was like that.
I had a feeling this year was going to be rough.
The remaining fourth-year senior was a guy named Kim Jinung, but honestly, he wasn’t around much.
He was so invisible that I couldn’t even tell whether he was in the department or not, and our work hardly overlapped in the first place.
He was the sort who quietly did his work and vanished.
It would’ve been better if Kim Jinung had been the chief instead of Nam Juhyeon.
Things in this world never go the way you want.
Sigh.
I sighed and, as usual, brought up a blue window in midair.
[Dead Doctors Gallery]
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Third-year resident's first day at work
Author : HellJoseonSlave1
Now that I'm a senior resident, the air feels refreshingly cool.
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[Comments]
ㅇㅇ (182.215) : HellSlave, that’s a cold draft. Don’t breathe it in.
God of Scalpels: Ready to haze the first-years? The newbies are coming in.
ㄴ BackInMyDay : Of course. The virtue of a third-year is to toughen up the first-years.
ㄴ HellJoseonSlave1 : They’re my first-years, you bastards.
ㄴ BoneNerd88 : If they’re HellSlave’s first-years, they’re all of our first-years too.
ㄴ HellJoseonSlave1 : What the hell are you talking about? You guys are always splitting into internal medicine and surgery and fighting like crazy, so why the sudden grand unity today?
ㄴ RheumatismGranny : It’s all for your sake. If you want an easy life, your subordinates need to be smart. We’ll design a curriculum from hell for you.
I casually closed the gallery screen full of nonsense.
It seemed tormenting rookies even after death was their only source of joy.
My poor first-years.
Already being targeted by invisible enemies.
With that, I passed through the automatic doors of the emergency medical center.
Bzzzt.
The familiar smell of disinfectant rushed over me.
Mm, hospital smell.
The nurse sitting at the triage desk looked up at me.
“Dr. Han, are you coming in for work?”
“Yep~ Good morning. Thanks for your hard work.”
I waved casually and breezed past the triage desk.
This is the kind of vibe you get from seniority.
Very cool.
Oh, for reference, Fellow Park Se-young had been appointed as a clinical assistant professor as of March and at the same time transferred to Geoje Hospital, a branch of our hospital.
It’d be easier to think of it as exile to an island… no, a promotion.
‘Whether that’s good or bad.’
Should I say it’s good because he got the professor title, or sad because he left the main hospital and went all the way to Geoje?
But I’d heard the emergency medical center facilities there were amazing since it had just been newly built.
Anyway, from my perspective, one superior had disappeared, so it was a cause for celebration.
When I entered the station, my fellow resident Choi Min-jun was looking at the monitor.
“Oh, Hyeonjae, you’re here?”
“Yeah. I’m in. Nothing going on, right?”
“Yeah, you came really early?”
“Just a little?”
I likewise breezed past Choi Min-jun.
We don’t need long conversations.
‘You alive?’
‘Yeah’
‘OK’
That’s enough.
I headed toward my seat in the back of the resident room.
Actually, there was one thing odd about coming in today.
I had seen this notice in the group chat yesterday.
[Senior residents working tomorrow, come in 30 minutes early. There’s something to relay.]
They said to come 30 minutes early.
For what, exactly?
Were they planning a welcome ceremony for the incoming first-years or something?
Or maybe a cake-cutting ceremony?
“What a hassle.”
I grumbled and turned on the shared computer tucked away in a corner of the resident room.
When I pressed the power button, the old monitor came to life with the sound of the fan spinning.
Ding.
[1 unread message]
What, the internal messenger?
Click.
[From: Education and Training Department]
[To: Third- and fourth-year residents of each department]
[Subject: Request for cooperation regarding orientation and delegated training for new residents (first-year)]
The subject line already felt ominous.
Delegated, huh.
I scrolled down.
[…Due to recent preparations for the hospital accreditation evaluation and an increased administrative workload, the time allotted for group education hosted by the Education and Training Department has been reduced…]
[…In order to provide customized education tailored to each department’s characteristics, we would like to delegate the following items to senior residents in each department. We ask for your cooperation.]
…
“Hah?”
I let out a hollow laugh and held my head.
What the hell is this bullshit.
Thinking I might have read it wrong, I carefully went over the contents again.
[…administrative procedures and in-hospital protocol training, hands-on training for hospital medical information systems such as EMR and PACS, QI management and infection control training…]
…
[For the above items, senior residents within each department are to serve as mentors and provide training to the new residents…]
QI and infection control too?
What are the infection control office staff doing then?
Why are they dumping that on busy residents?
The last line was even more ridiculous.
[※ Please prepare a report of the training results and submit it to the Education and Training Department by March 15. (Training photos required)]
“What the fuck, you bastards.”
I swore out loud at the monitor.
Education and training are your jobs.
If you’re called the Education and Training Department, then you should be doing the educating and training.
“Even if we let the apprenticeship-style training slide, what kind of nonsense is making us take photos and submit reports?”
It was absurd, sure, but…
“Fuck.”
Whether the Education and Training Department shirked its duties or not, if the first-years who had to start seeing patients today couldn’t even handle the EMR and stumbled around, that mess would end up splashing straight onto my face as a third-year.
I don’t care.
Let’s do it.
When the appointed time arrived, people gathered, with only a few essential staff members still tending to patients on the verge of dying in the emergency room.
Fourth-year Nam Juhyeon, who had just put on the chief resident armband.
‘Ugh.’
The moment I saw him, I furrowed my brow.
Why are you here?
I thought you were off today.
He was even in neat civilian clothes.
Jeans and a hoodie.
He wasn’t even on duty, so did he come all the way here just to do the newbie orientation?
Is this what they call the weight of the armband?
Or maybe he was just bored at home and came to discipline his juniors.
I was the only third-year.
And the second-year was… Baek Eun-seo.
Her eyes looked especially bright today.
If she had a tail, it’d have been spinning like a helicopter.
Ugh, look at those eyes.
It’s so damn burdensome.
Nam Juhyeon glanced at his wristwatch and clapped once.
Clap!
“Alright, no time. Let’s start right away?”
As if to say he’d throw the introduction to the dogs, Nam Juhyeon immediately pointed at people and rattled off words like a machine gun.
“I’m Nam Juhyeon, fourth-year chief resident. This guy’s third-year Han Hyeonjae, that one’s second-year… Baek Eun-seo. Got it memorized?”
“…Huh?”
The three first-years widened their eyes and looked stunned.
“Memorized it? Or not?”
“No. It was too fast…”
“Ha.”
Nam Juhyeon sighed as if exasperated, then once again rapidly pointed at himself and us in order.
“Nam Juhyeon. Han Hyeonjae. Baek Eun-seo. Got it? You’ve got it memorized now, right?”
“Ah, yes!”
“Next.”
Nam Juhyeon fluttered the training checklist paper he was holding.
It was a sheet listing the delegated tasks sent down from the Education and Training Department.
“Any of our first-years not know how to use the air shooter? Raise your hand.”
“….”
“None? Open the lid, put it in, close it, press the number, and send it. That’s it. If you don’t know that, you’re an idiot. Pass.”
Nam Juhyeon made a mark on one checkbox with his ballpoint pen.
“Then what… anyone need help adapting to the hospital EMR or system? Nobody here has trouble logging in, right?”
“….”
“None? You all have medical licenses and did your internship, so you know, right. Okay… check for practical training on the medical information system…”
Chk- chk-
Nam Juhyeon filled out the checklist without hesitation.
I witnessed the miracle of the training curriculum ending in just 30 seconds.
‘Wow, fuck.’
Nam Juhyeon really was something else.
The god of cutting corners. The GOAT at cutting corners.
Of course, this wasn’t a compliment.
“Then that’s it for administrative procedure training. Let’s just do brief introductions and wrap up.”
Nam Juhyeon nodded toward the man on the far left.
“You first.”
“Ah, yes!”
The first to stand was a man with a very earnest-looking face and short-cropped hair.
“I’m, uh… Kang Jeong-hun. I graduated from Cheongdae Medical School and completed my internship here. I’m lacking, but I’ll work hard to learn!”
A textbook FM type.
Clap clap clap.
“You seem very polite. I heard your reputation during internship was good.”
Nam Juhyeon gave him some lip service and pointed to the next person.
This time it was the woman sitting beside him.
“Ah, yes… I’m Kim Seoa.”
Her voice was a bit quiet.
“I… spent about two months as an EM resident at another hospital, and then—well, I had some personal circumstances, so I quit for a bit, and this year I ended up training here again. Please take care of me.”
“Is that so? Nice to meet you.”
I smiled politely and observed her.
Her expression looked a little uneasy.
Was she nervous?
Or had something bad happened at her previous hospital?
‘Two months of experience.’
Because she couldn’t handle the workload?
Or because it wasn’t a good fit?
Or because the department atmosphere was harsh?
‘I should keep an eye on her.’
And finally.
It was the turn of the rather intellectual-looking guy standing by the window.
“I’m Yoon Tae-hyun. I finished my internship here and applied to the Department of Emergency Medicine. Please take care of me.”
A clean introduction without any frills.
At that moment, Baek Eun-seo, who was sitting next to me, leaned toward me and whispered.
“Dr. Han.”
“What is it?”
“That guy Yoon Tae-hyun was top of the intern evaluations. He also graduated first in his medical school class.”
“Why?”
I blurted back without thinking.
My question carried two implications.
First.
Why a guy who looked that normal and fairly handsome was ranked first.
And second.
And this was the important part.
Why the hell the guy ranked first had stupidly chosen our department.
I couldn’t understand it.
Had he watched Dr. Romantic too deeply?
Or was he a masochist?
‘One more mutant had been added to the mix.’
I looked at Yoon Tae-hyun again.
His gaze was calm without a trace of wavering.
That was even scarier.
“Anyway! Now that introductions are done.”
Nam Juhyeon jumped to his feet.
“If you have any practical questions or anything you don’t know, ask anytime! Anytime at all!”
He pointed at me with his finger.
“You can ask Dr. Han Hyeonjae here, for example.”
And then he pointed at Baek Eun-seo.
“Or ask Dr. Baek Eun-seo. I’m a fourth-year, so I’m busy and not around the department much. The upper years will be the ones suffering.”
“Ah, yes.”
“Then I’m off. You two upper years, enjoy the suffering! Good luck!”
Nam Juhyeon shoved the checklist into my chest and left without even looking back.
Bang!
‘That son of a bitch.’
I knew it.
It was a very blood-pressure-raising start to my third year.