Abbreviations and Mandates and Bills, Oh My! (Link to Government Primer)

So on Thursday it was time to get to work. I dressed in my brand new winter clothes and new coat (remember, I live in Phoenix) and took the Metro to the ACOG office so excited to start my learning experience. I was beaming and smiling at the passers-by until I realized none of them were smiling back. In fact, some of them looked at me like I was selling them crack. I realized that I am not in the midwest/southwest anymore and pondered this as I walked two blocks in the wrong direction.

When I got to the office everyone was very friendly (most of them are from Ohio- go Midwest!). I did take note at first that they are all young! At the welcome breakfast I thought, "I could seriously be the oldest person in here." They are all bright, professional, and hard-working, and are quite an impressive group. I have my own desk and computer and I share an office with Joe, who is one of the two lobbyists. Bless his heart! All day I am calling out over the partition between us and patiently he answers all my questions.

I already had a pretty fully schedule for my first full week (if anyone knows how to load a word document, I'll post it.) I was overwhelmed on Day 1. I sat in on a conference call with Joe with some other womens' organizations and he had us on mute while the call took place.... Global Gag Rule.... "Do you know about that?" He asked me.
"No" I replied. And he explained it. Prevention First...
"Are you familiar with that legislation?"
"No."
And it kept going. I didn't know about any of this stuff. My goodness! It's a whole different world. Yet this world controls my practice, my salary, my malpractice, how I treat my patients... I had a lot to learn. I went home and looked up every acronym and abbreviation I had heard during that call.

FOR ALL YOU OB/GYNS - get this primer from ACOG. (It's free!). It will give you a refresher of your high school US Government class and get you acquainted with some topics that ACOG is focused on. It's a quick read too.
http://www.acog.org//departments/govtrel/LegislativePrimerPromo.pdf