Other EM residents run around to pick up the slack that us slower members of the herd create...they see the sick patients, the low-acuity urgent care cases and manage to keep things from grinding to a halt. When they look bedraggled, and I've chased them down to ask them how to get in touch with ultrasound for the 4th time that shift they give a look of "it's ok, it's July" before their answer.
Nurses/techs/CIMs mean that you've done something wrong to screw with their universe. Putting a chart in the wrong slot, forgetting one of the 700 boxes you have to check to discharge a patient, not filling out the discharge med rec correctly, ordering something that doesn't exist...basically not knowing how to move efficiently about the department. Usually this is said with a sigh, but sometimes it will have a note of contempt in it.
Fellow interns use it as an expression of commiseration and bonding: e.g. I only saw 4 patients last night, or I got out 2 hours after my shift or I created a new sepsis treatment protocol called delayed early goal directed therapy... the proper answer is "it's ok, it's July".
Admitting/consulting residents will fully understand the fact that you are fresh meat and the weakest member of the ED herd. They will separate you from the pack, jump on you when you show any signs of weakness in your story and disembowel you over the phone...and you have to take it because...it's July.
EM Attendings, those blessed souls, find themselves running around doing 3x the normal work to be hyper-vigilant over the us new docs who could seriously injure/kill patients and aren't credentialed to do any of our own procedures. I chase them down 100 times a night to run my patients by them with some half-baked plans and dispos and they just look at me with that slightly more tired look and say "it's ok, it's July".
August is just around the corner and looks about 100 times better for all levels of the health care profession.
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