residency
Last call
09/05/08 04:48 Filed in: Medical
I've only been able to post photos on this site
lately - it's just been so hard to find the time to
write anything. It is, however, my last weekend call
(for this rotation), as I have a golden weekend for
my last weekend next week. I've got lots of stuff to
catch up on at home, but will try to finish up the
whole "choosing
my medical specialty" story soon. Enjoy the
weekend guys!
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Only 30 more hours until a day off
08/29/08 05:21 Filed in: Medical
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.
Need a day off
08/22/08 04:36 Filed in: Medical
Finally
07/19/08 21:33 Filed in: Medical
Okay, so I am post-call on my very last day of my
critical care rotation and wow, was that a crazy
month. I was just telling one of my good friends the
other day that I don't even think I could describe
how busy I have been (both at work and at home)
because I don't think anyone would believe me. I know
most medical students and residents have had days
where you are so busy you forget to do essential
things like eat lunch or even go to the bathroom, but
I have to say that on this month, that was the norm.
I think I was in fluid homeostasis, neither drinking
any water nor needing to pee either, which is crazy.
I'm trying to hydrate myself now.
I don't know how many of you have experience with buying a property (we don't) but slap that on top of everything that is happening this month, and it's beyond chaos. I started intern year, my husband finished his fellowship (he took three days off - we really needed the money) and started a new job. We're about to close escrow and I haven't even started packing yet. I had to sneak away to the call room for five minutes before evening sign-out so I could call the movers and book a date.
For those of you who are wondering how we could even afford to buy a place, we did the physician home loan program from Bank of America (no/low down, no mortgage insurance fees (at the cost of higher interest), student loans not included in your debt-to-loan ratio). Considering we have a negative net worth of several hundreds of thousands of dollars, it's a miracle that anyone would give us a home loan in this economy.
Anyhow, I'll be starting a much less intense rotation on Monday, although we will be starting what I hope will be the last move we undergo in a long while. Hopefully we can be settled before my next block at the end of August, which will be another chaotic month. Intern count: four weeks down, only 48 more to go.
I'll be back soon to finish writing about choosing my medical specialty. I have to dictate my off-service summaries.
I don't know how many of you have experience with buying a property (we don't) but slap that on top of everything that is happening this month, and it's beyond chaos. I started intern year, my husband finished his fellowship (he took three days off - we really needed the money) and started a new job. We're about to close escrow and I haven't even started packing yet. I had to sneak away to the call room for five minutes before evening sign-out so I could call the movers and book a date.
For those of you who are wondering how we could even afford to buy a place, we did the physician home loan program from Bank of America (no/low down, no mortgage insurance fees (at the cost of higher interest), student loans not included in your debt-to-loan ratio). Considering we have a negative net worth of several hundreds of thousands of dollars, it's a miracle that anyone would give us a home loan in this economy.
Anyhow, I'll be starting a much less intense rotation on Monday, although we will be starting what I hope will be the last move we undergo in a long while. Hopefully we can be settled before my next block at the end of August, which will be another chaotic month. Intern count: four weeks down, only 48 more to go.
I'll be back soon to finish writing about choosing my medical specialty. I have to dictate my off-service summaries.
New call record
07/16/08 04:01 Filed in: Medical
More breaking news: call is brutal
07/07/08 22:47 Filed in: Medical
Today I left my call only about three to four hours
earlier than when I would have normally left for the
day on a regular workday. Funny how when you really
think about it, post-call days don't really give you
that much time to catch up on sleep compared to just
working through through the whole day. I'll take what
I can get, but it's pretty rough to say the least. Of
course, people have been doing this for many years in
medicine (why?), so I've really got nothing
to complain about, right? It still amazes me that the
medical field is such a hypocritical one in that it
basically doesn't practice what it preaches. Take
care of your health, but don't model after me.
If I can contribute anything to the field of medicine
as a whole when I am done with this whole process, I
hope it will be to be the best physician I can to my
patients, AND to change the practice in such a way
that it allows for physicians to be human as well.
And I won't even go into what I'd like to contribute
in terms of my personal life. What a crazy
profession.
A much needed break
07/05/08 14:10 Filed in: Medical
Yesterday was my first day off (that wasn't a
post-call day) since I started residency, and boy was
I ready for a break. Because of the holiday, I was
fortunate enough to have two consecutive days off.
Unfortunately, I am on call again tomorrow and will
likely have at least 6 brand new critical care
patients in addition to my own to pre-round on. It's
nice to have a break, but it makes it tough to catch
up on everything that has happened when you go back
to work.
In any case, I am now halfway done with this rotation and after tomorrow's call, I will be more than halfway done with the calls for this month, thank goodness.
In any case, I am now halfway done with this rotation and after tomorrow's call, I will be more than halfway done with the calls for this month, thank goodness.
This call thing is pretty difficult
07/01/08 01:06 Filed in: Medical
So I have been on call twice now since starting
residency, and I have to say it's definitely a
challenge. In many ways, I think being totally busy
all night might actually make it easier than being
sporadically busy at times spaced out just so there
is no way you can actually get to lie down and rest
for a few minutes. I really think that this system
has to change - it's really not good for anyone to
have sleep-deprived doctors presenting information,
placing orders, and signing out critical information
to other people. But that's a project that'll have to
wait for now.
Now that there is a 30 consecutive hour rule (you technically have to go home after 30 hours), it's probably a lot easier than it could be. But still, the other day I was thinking that in one overnight call, I was putting in 75% of what is considered to be a normal workweek by traditional standards. And while I had similar calls as a medical student, it was never as busy as it is now (the pager never stops these days). It's nearly impossible to keep up, since there are so many people who need you to do something all at the same time.
It really hit me around midnight of my first call (when I had been at work for 18 hours), when I felt like I was still feeling okay, but that I still had twelve more hours to go. I've found that I really start to tire out right around pre-rounding time, when I am supposed to working fast to finish my notes and collect all the tiny bits of information needed to present on rounds. It's particularly difficult since it is often the first time I can sit down (at a computer), and then the fatigue totally hits me.
To put things in perspective, my first month is on a critical care unit. As a med student, we only carried one or two patients on our critical care months, since these patients are often very sick with lots of complicated things going on. Well, talk about abrupt transition. Somehow, between being a medical student and intern (really only a matter of days), the workload progressed from two patients to up to eight or even ten critical care patients, which is definitely a challenge to say the least. I keep going in earlier and earlier to pre-round, since it's becoming harder and harder to get everything done by the time we round in the morning.
Anyhow, I've got a few things to work on before going to bed (there is a lot of logging of patients, procedures, dictating, etc.) so I better stop now. I'll keep trying to post as much as I can (but probably not on call or post-call days).
Now that there is a 30 consecutive hour rule (you technically have to go home after 30 hours), it's probably a lot easier than it could be. But still, the other day I was thinking that in one overnight call, I was putting in 75% of what is considered to be a normal workweek by traditional standards. And while I had similar calls as a medical student, it was never as busy as it is now (the pager never stops these days). It's nearly impossible to keep up, since there are so many people who need you to do something all at the same time.
It really hit me around midnight of my first call (when I had been at work for 18 hours), when I felt like I was still feeling okay, but that I still had twelve more hours to go. I've found that I really start to tire out right around pre-rounding time, when I am supposed to working fast to finish my notes and collect all the tiny bits of information needed to present on rounds. It's particularly difficult since it is often the first time I can sit down (at a computer), and then the fatigue totally hits me.
To put things in perspective, my first month is on a critical care unit. As a med student, we only carried one or two patients on our critical care months, since these patients are often very sick with lots of complicated things going on. Well, talk about abrupt transition. Somehow, between being a medical student and intern (really only a matter of days), the workload progressed from two patients to up to eight or even ten critical care patients, which is definitely a challenge to say the least. I keep going in earlier and earlier to pre-round, since it's becoming harder and harder to get everything done by the time we round in the morning.
Anyhow, I've got a few things to work on before going to bed (there is a lot of logging of patients, procedures, dictating, etc.) so I better stop now. I'll keep trying to post as much as I can (but probably not on call or post-call days).