1-7-13

1-7-13 2111

Good day today. I'm getting more comfortable at work, though I am still not particularly confident that I will remember all of the various forms and processes. Tomorrow we dock at Grand Turks and I will be 2nd call. That means that I am the primary backup if the main nurse needs help. I have been spending the hours in the clinic as though I was first call since I got here. I needed all of the repitition that I can get. So, the hours have been 0800 to 1800 daily with a two hour break in the middle for lunch or whatever. On my day as first call I will take a break from 1400-1600 and probably take a nap in case I get a call during the night.

I always hate to need to ask how to do things. I don't like it when I don't know everything. Heck of a thing for a traveler, I guess. You would think I would be used to be clueless by now, but it never gets easy. So today, while emailing home, I noticed a very large binder labled 'Lead Medical Officer Manual'. I started reading it figuring that I will need to know that stuff some day and it just might clue me in to some of the things deemed important by the higher ups. I think I am going to try to read a bit of it every night.

In my room there is a small fridge and a small TV. It is so tempting to just come in and veg in front of the tube, but I am trying to resisit the impulse. I need to be writing, working out, learning about my job, something productive. The TV thing is just wasted time. Still tempting.

So instead, I checked out the book Freakonomics from the library and am reading that for leisure.

OK, we are in Grand Turks tomorrow and I am 2nd call, so I can't get off. The next day we are in San Juan, PR and I am 1st call, so I can't get off. I had been attrubuting this to being the junior guy and they scheduled me that way because I was the FNG. Then, I read the LMO manual and found out that all new orientee's are schedule a certain way on their first cruise to maximize the time between embarkation and being first call. It turns out that the port days just randomly hit on the days I would be 2nd and 1st. So, no picking on the new guy, it just seems that way if you are the clueless new guy. The more you know...