Trying to make it to the weekend
08/25/08 04:32 Filed in: Medical
| Family &
Friends
I logged 79 work hours last week (from Sunday through
Saturday) and I can't remember if I logged all my
hours doing dictations at home. I haven't had a day
off since I started this rotation last Monday and
won't get one until Sunday. I generally get to work
by 6am and leave somewhere between 6 and 6:30 at
night. And call is from 6am until about noon the
following day (which is what I did this weekend).
Logistically, this means I leave before anyone get up up in the morning (while it is still pitch black outside), and get home in time to (hopefully) have dinner with the family, play with the kids for a bit and then help put them to bed. Fortunately, they have been going to bed a little bit later during the summer (closer to 9pm) which leaves me a little bit more time with them in the evenings. Of course, this makes it harder on my husband who has to get them up for school in the morning so that he can make it to work on time (It'd be great to have a nanny and daycare, wouldn't it?). So this means after 9pm, we've got dinnertime clean up, and then whatever dictations I need to do, and then try to get to bed at a reasonable hour so i can be up early in the morning to do it all again. What usually happens though is that I am so exhausted at 9pm, that I fall asleep in the kids room (sometimes I lay on a mat in there when they go to bed) and get up at 2 or 3am, freak out about all the work I have to finish and then stay up until it's time to go back to work.
It's weird how there is this "rule" of working a maximum of 80 hours a week, and then seeing how everyone really has to try hard to stay under these limits (I've definitely gone over before). Overworking is certainly not limited to the field of medicine but I have to say it is much too common for my taste. The other thing I think people don't always recognize is that when I am at work, I am pretty much working the whole time I am there. There really aren't many breaks or periods of downtime unless I consciously remember and force myself to a) eat something or b) sit down and take a break. And that is assuming there is enough lull in the workload to dare try it. My pager always seems to go off the second I walk into a restroom.
Logistically, this means I leave before anyone get up up in the morning (while it is still pitch black outside), and get home in time to (hopefully) have dinner with the family, play with the kids for a bit and then help put them to bed. Fortunately, they have been going to bed a little bit later during the summer (closer to 9pm) which leaves me a little bit more time with them in the evenings. Of course, this makes it harder on my husband who has to get them up for school in the morning so that he can make it to work on time (It'd be great to have a nanny and daycare, wouldn't it?). So this means after 9pm, we've got dinnertime clean up, and then whatever dictations I need to do, and then try to get to bed at a reasonable hour so i can be up early in the morning to do it all again. What usually happens though is that I am so exhausted at 9pm, that I fall asleep in the kids room (sometimes I lay on a mat in there when they go to bed) and get up at 2 or 3am, freak out about all the work I have to finish and then stay up until it's time to go back to work.
It's weird how there is this "rule" of working a maximum of 80 hours a week, and then seeing how everyone really has to try hard to stay under these limits (I've definitely gone over before). Overworking is certainly not limited to the field of medicine but I have to say it is much too common for my taste. The other thing I think people don't always recognize is that when I am at work, I am pretty much working the whole time I am there. There really aren't many breaks or periods of downtime unless I consciously remember and force myself to a) eat something or b) sit down and take a break. And that is assuming there is enough lull in the workload to dare try it. My pager always seems to go off the second I walk into a restroom.
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