The sudden knock on the door drew the attention of all three people. Shiller paused, only then rembering as he said, "Find a seat first, I'll look at your file later. We're supposed to have a group eting today, and it will also serve as a welco event."
Charles glanced down at his watch. It was now 10 p.m. Who in their right mind holds a group eting at 10 at night?
Many people entered, with those at the front looking like interns led by Shiller, while the ones at the back appeared to be the teaching physicians of the departnt.
"Please take a seat," Shiller said as he moved a chair to the front of his desk. The two senior apprentices and one senior sister at the front brought stools for everyone. The teaching physicians were either removing their coats, looking for pens, or heading to the water cooler to fill their cups.
Charles noticed soone who seed out of place in the room, a blond older man with rough skin that looked weathered from the sun and wind, hardly resembling an office-bound doctor.
"Thank you all for coming," Shiller blew on the hot water in his mug and said, "Today's group eting is primarily to introduce a new mber to our departnt."
"I know it's sowhat late, but a few of the teachers and I have a lecture early tomorrow. You all can take a good rest. Just hand your internship records before 11 a.m," he added.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief; they could finally sleep in tomorrow, although most would still awaken around 6 a.m. due to their internal clocks, lying wide-eyed in bed before trudging to the library to study.
"Let's start by introducing our new teacher. You can address him as la," Charles saw Shiller's gaze resting on the sowhat out-of-place middle-aged man.
Several senior apprentices stood up to greet and shake hands. The mont Charles shook hands, he subconsciously peered into la's mories, causing la to furrow his brow deeply.
"Please, don't be rude," Shiller's voice ca close to Charles's ear, who said, "Charles, the world is much broader than you imagine, and you're not as unique as you think."
Charles understood Shiller was subtly reminding him that la might also be a psychic ability user.
My god, he'd lived for 16 years without encountering another mind-reader besides himself, and now in one day in this cosmos, he had t several.
"I'm very sorry, it's a habit," Charles apologized to la.
He noticed the senior apprentices behind him whispering to each other, but la showed him a simple, honest smile, shaking his head as if to say it was nothing, without speaking a word.
"Dr. la cos from the Himalayan Monastery. He was once a monk and only ca here to offer dical support to our team because he heard the situation in New York was dire, at the invitation of Dr. Stephen Strange."
That sounded really bizarre, because usually it's they who go to provide dical support to the Himalayas, but when it cos to ntal health, it's hard to say who might assist whom. Monks capable of training near the Himalayan Mountains are tough characters.
"Hello, I haven't been a professional psychiatrist for long, and there's still much to learn. However, if you're interested in the Himalayas, feel free to reach out to ," la said.
la nodded and sat down. Next, Shiller introduced to everyone, "This is Charles, our new intern. He just graduated from Harvard University this year at the tender age of 16. I have read many of his papers and see significant research potential."
The group eyed Charles, who modestly nodded and said, "I still have a lot to learn."
"This is David, specializing in clinical psychology as well. He recently transferred from Paris, so he might need so ti to adjust. I hope everyone will help him settle in."
After all the introductions, Shiller said, "Since we have newcors, I will repeat that our departnt combines clinical dicine with scientific research, focusing on ergency care and psychological intervention for special situations. Of course, there is also psychological counseling for critically ill patients. Wayan is working on this research topic, as is Delice."
A male and a female intern, both bespectacled and looking studious, stood up to nod to the group. The female intern pushed up her glasses and said, "If you receive a call from a critically ill patient seeking help, please contact us. We're always available."
"And today, we have a new research topic," Shiller looked at Charles and said, "Charles and David will be researching the unification of brain science, psychology, and psychiatry."
Gasp filled the room, a significant research topic indeed. Even if they couldn't uncover sothing concrete, publishing just one or two aningful papers on the subject would qualify them as experts in psychology.
Considering Charles was a prodigy who graduated from Harvard University at 16, having such an ambitious goal was hardly surprising.
"I'm not strict about attendance. If you have an excellent opportunity for study and exchange, let know, and I'll grant you leave. Several of your senior apprentices are out on academic exchanges now, and I'll introduce them when they return."
"For certain reasons, our departnt has the most funding. You can keep any manuscript fees you earn. Naturally, if you need funds for certain experints, just send a funding approval email. Barring the unexpected, it will be cleared."
"That's it for now. Tomorrow everyone should study in the office, and no calls until I'm back from the lecture," Shiller concluded.
The next morning, Charles arrived at the office early, as Shiller had given him the keys the day before, and he needed to unlock the door.
Arriving around the sa ti as him was David, and upon seeing each other, David remained silent. Charles, too, seed a bit embarrassed about the conflict from the day before, so he silently drank his coffee and ate breakfast.
In the morning, Shiller ca back to pick up a report and quickly left afterwards. Then, the teaching doctors also returned to fetch their things before hurriedly heading off to see their patients. The senior residents arrived quite late, just in ti, and busied themselves with their respective tasks upon their arrival.
Shiller entered with the al delivery person, but it was no surprise to anyone. One of the seniors reminded Charles, "As long as the PhD's lecture runs until noon, we'll get a feast."
Charles opened the takeout bag and saw to his delight that it was from a chain Western restaurant he liked, a far cry better than the cafeteria's sandwiches and burgers.
He saw David frowning at the onions inside, and then the young man blinked, and all the onions disappeared out of sight.
Charles said regretfully, "The onions are the essence; if you don't want them, you could have given them to ."
David gave him another look, then shifted his gaze and quietly cut his bread.
After the al, Shiller gestured to begin assigning tasks, but just as he waved his hand, the phone in front of him rang.
Shiller picked it up to a deafening roar from the other end, "Dr. Shiller!!!!!"
Shiller whooshed the phone across to the farthest corner of his desk and with a push of his legs, his office chair carried him to the corner farthest from the phone.
"Your departnt's good doctor has prescribed a patient 5000 ml of chlorpromazine for IV push!!!!! Does he want the patient to sleep to death?!!!!!"
"And!!! Stop using the operating theater computers to write your fantasy novel-like dical records!!!!! Our four nurses squatted there for half an hour and lost two forceps!!!!!!"
"Also, if anyone dares to take pens from the nursing departnt again, they can get out of the psychiatric ward!!!!!!"
"Hello? Hello? Head nurse... Head nurse... Ma'am!" Holding the phone, Shiller said to her, "I'm truly sorry, ma'am. I will remind my colleagues to prescribe properly. Would you mind asking the pharmacist to use the protocol prescription authority to make the change? Yes, he probably ant to write 50 ml and got it wrong. Yes, yes, I understand..."
"We are considering getting more computers; actually, not considering, the computers are already on their way. They should arrive by this afternoon."
Shiller frantically gestured, and an intern nad Wayan quickly picked up his cellphone to call the equipnt rchant to place an order, demanding they deliver as soon as possible regardless of the additional shipping costs.
"As for the pens, our departnt still has plenty." Shiller gestured again, and Delice began searching through the drawers. After finding none and shaking her head, she shrugged.
Charles saw David snap his fingers, and imdiately he pointed to the drawer in the farthest corner. Delice went there to look and, to their amazent, found an entire drawer full of pens, and she gave Shiller a thumbs up.
After half an explanation, Shiller finally hung up the phone and let out a long sigh. Looking helplessly at everyone, he said, "How many tis have I said not to ss with the head nurse? This lady was a high-priced acquisition from Hopkins by our dean, and whether our departnt ranks in the top three nationally this year depends entirely on her."
"It looks quite promising," Wayan said, shrinking his neck a bit.
"Alright, the rounds today will be done by another departnt, so I, along with another teacher, will lecture you. The main focus will be on the procedures for responding to ergency situations in clinical psychology, primarily the problems you might encounter in actual practice."
"Of course, I know you've all heard it before, but the main point is that we have two new juniors, and you all can't perfectly handle these issues just yet. So we're going to review them today."
Shiller moved another chair to sit in front of his desk. Their office was quite spacious; aside from Shiller's long and large desk, there was room for fifteen or sixteen desks along the three walls, as well as wraparound workstations that could easily accommodate forty or fifty people working simultaneously.
The interns now moved their stools up front, those with pens took pens, those with recorders took recorders, and Charles felt he could rember without taking anything.
Honestly, he was very interested in this course because Charles at this age hadn't yet beco a psychologist. He had just finished his studies and wasn't clear on how a regular psychiatric departnt worked.
"First, we need to distinguish between the psychology departnt and the psychiatry departnt," Shiller began, holding up the pen between his fingers. "They are two completely different departnts. If you choose to be a psychological counselor, then you go open your clinic. We are psychiatrists, and we diagnose and treat just like other internal dicine doctors."
Charles didn't quite understand and turned to look at David, noticing he seed equally puzzled, so he openly asked his question, "What's the difference between these two departnts? Don't both help patients with psychological issues?"
"Of course, they're not the sa. We are specialists, just like ophthalmologists, dentists, possessing a high degree of independence. Our relationship with other departnts is one of collaboration, not servitude, a prominent distinction from the psychology departnt."
"You might find this confusing, but soon you'll encounter these issues firsthand in your future work..."
Dingling, dingling!
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