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Second year call

I just finished my second night of second-year call. It's not so bad really. The first night - about 5 days ago - I got about 3 hours of sleep. But last night, I got about 7 hours. Can't complain about that, I guess.

My office

How important is having your own work space?

I suspect that for most people, it's fairly important. For me, I feel like I need a place to call my own. Without it, I think I would feel somewhat displaced.

When I visited a residency program not far from here during my interview process a year and a half ago, I was shocked to see that their resident's office had only 3 cubicles. All first year residents shared one desk, all second years shared a desk, and all third years shared a desk. That was it! It may have been a good program otherwise, but it smacked of being cheap. I figured if they didn't respect their residents enough to give them their own desk, etc., then how much did they really respect them? I marked this program off my list.

Maybe it's a petty concern, but I wonder how many other potential residents this program scared away because they didn't seem to care enough about their residents to spend the little bit of extra money required to give them their own dedicated work space.

The amount of paperwork required from doctors and residents today is staggering. I spend at least 2-3 hours a day doing paperwork. The thought of not having my own workspace makes me cringe.

I had hoped to show you my cubicle/desk today but it looks as if blogger is not accepting pictures uploads from me just now. I'll try to add it later.

Newbies

So, the new interns seem to be settling in nicely. (Picture above is NOT of them.) They started as a group this past weekend and have begun to experience their "first nights on call". As I think back on my own first week as an intern, it seems almost impossible that it was only a very short year ago. It seems as if a lifetime has passed. (Of course, it may be due to working about 3 lifetimes this past year, but I'll leave that for smarter minds than me to figure out.)

It's really fun watching them - in more ways that one. On one hand, their energy and excitement is almost contagious; on the other hand, it's nice to know that I'm no longer the one who has to stay up all night answering page after page.

I may be speaking too soon, of course. My first night on call as a 2nd year is tomorrow. In addition to covering the hospital across town, I'll also be backup for the intern; meaning that I have to review all of their admissions before the orders can be submitted and meaning that I'll be there to help them if they get too busy and overwhelmed. Also, I'll be answering all the after-hours OB telephone calls. So, it can be very busy for the 2nd years too. It's just that most of the time, it's not. We'll see.

Oh, by the way. Thanks for clicking on the ads for my sponsors. They pay good money to be listed here and I - and they - appreciate it when you make it worth their while by clicking on their links and checking out their websites. Every click chips away just a little more at my almost $200,000 medical school debt! Thanks again! :-)

Free at Last!

I knew the day would come, but it sure seemed like a long time getting here. Now, it's come and gone!

I'm speaking, of course, of my last call as an intern. Monday was it. And boy did I earn my keep! (At least from my perspective, anyway.) I was busy all day and all night. I finally got to lie down to catch some shut eye at about 5:30 yesterday morning. I prefer to use the recliner in the resident office for that purpose. By 6:30, the other doctors were starting to show up and that pretty much ended my nap.

But, now, I'm mostly recovered and I'm looking forward to the opportunities this new year will offer to me.

As a second year resident, I'll continue my rotations with other doctors to learn from them. But when I'm on call, I'll be responsible for helping the interns when they need it - providing "back-up" when they get busy and writing a "second year" note on new admissions. Also, I'll be working at a different hospital across town. That's the primary location for my call this year. The one part about this year that's a little bit scary is that as a second year, I'll no longer be "post-call" the day following a night on call. I'll be expected to perform my regular duties every day. That's not a problem when you have a good night on call. But when you get a bad night . . . that will be a whole different story.

So, I suspect that I'll have a host of new experiences to share this year. Maybe I'll be a little less harried. We'll have to wait and see about that one, I guess.