Now that I’ve finished my first month as an intern, I can admit I was afraid that the first time a nurse asked me a question, I would freeze, burst into tears, and run away. So far, so good.
Perhaps the most awkward experience this month was not, in fact, showing first-time mothers how to breast feed an infant, but when my attending insisted that I introduce myself as “Doctor” Castello. It felt immediately pretentious and I shied away from it like a horse from a particularly imposing shrub. I quickly realized there was a practical element to this proscription: When I introduced myself as a doctor I stopped getting dirty looks from moms who apparently thought I was about to steal their newborn. Still, it’s weird. I don’t feel like I know anything.