doc w/ Pen

Learning how to use the hospital’s electronic medical records system via a series of videos and short practice sessions is not my idea of fun. But changing my attitude about the experience helped me see it differently.

Yesterday, I spent a good hour and a half staring at my computer screen, watching modules on how to use the hospital’s electronic medical records system. I don’t think I’m even halfway done. And after the modules, I have a classroom session to attend too. This was tedious and aggravating, as you can imagine. Not to mention overwhelming — so many menu bars, buttons, and icons.

As I watched one of the early videos, I thought to myself: “I won’t learn the system by watching videos. I’ll learn it by doing it.” And then it hit me. As grating as this task is, what it represents — my transition from classroom to hospital — is something to celebrate. Soon I will be using this system to write notes and enter orders. How far I’ve come in such a short time!

That thought didn’t make the videos any more interesting, per se. But it altered my attitude. And that made a world of difference. While the short practice exercises I was doing alongside the videos wouldn’t be my definitive learning experience, I began to see them as an important first introduction to a foreign system.

Always a good reminder: attitude matters. In everything.