So far I've been in the hospital for 75 hours this week, and I still need to toss in another 18 this Sunday for a total of 93.
I have dreams about doing scut. I wake up ready to go do the scut, but then I realize that I'm in my room and go back to bed.
I have no life outside of the hospital except for consulting Dr. Google on my patients and ten minutes of talking to either mom and/or girlfriend before bed.
I still have about 5 people pulling me 5 different ways and I've reached the point where writing notes is no longer educational, just routine.
What have I learned thus far?
There is a hierarchy of surgery that revolves around the black hole of time known as the surgical floor.
Attendings: spend about an occasional hour rounding on their patients with a train of people paying attention to everything they say.
Chief Residents: Tell the senior residents to work their asses off and send everyone home or to another service, then go to surgery.
Senior Residents: Try to act like chiefs and spend as little time on the floor as possible
Middle Residents: Still occasionally help out and write notes.
Interns: Spend life on the floor taking care of everyone on the service 18-20 hours a day. Take care of everyone else when on call in addition.
Medical students: Stay out of the way, help where you can on your assigned patients, go to the OR when you finish, don't piss anyone off, make the chief look good during attending rounds and in the OR.
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Ok so maybe it seems like I'm completely ruling out surgery from my life because it sucks. While it does suck, I have a deep respect for anyone that would sacrifice their life to that enterprise. But there is something about surgery that is appealing to me. You get to do something other than waiting for your patient to get better...you can intervene, change their course with a direct correction of the pathology. Anyway, Trauma/Critical Care/Burn has gone on my short list because of what I have seen in the residents/attendings. It's pretty far down the list because of life style/length of training. We'll see though
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Anyway just wanted to toss up a post in my spare time because I haven't vented in a while. Peace out
5 comments:
Writing "mom/girlfriend" is a little creepy, kind of implying that the are one and the same. Maybe "mom and/or girlfriend" would have been a better choice?
-M
hahahah M--I had the same thought but figured it was just my twisted brain.
:)
Good to know there are other freaks out there.
YEAH!!! SURGERY!!!
Ahem. Surgery was never supposed to be easy and I can only dream of the day when I'm in your shoes. If anything, your work ethic is an impenetrable steel wall. Which is, you know, awesome.
Keep on trucking.
To the concerned readers:
Oedipal insinuations clarified to reflect the fact that my mother and girlfriend are two separate entities within my life.
Please let the record reflect that they do currently provide about 40% of the nagging in my life, while my chief residents provide about 59% and my female friends/nurses provide the rest. Also note that since I have started working in the hospital total nagging has increased about 150%.
Looks like you're just going to "have to give 150%"
I love sports interviews.
I've been watching too much Olympics coverage I think. Er I mean studying.
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