Day Three and Counting

I've now officially worked for three days as a 'doctor.' I'm getting better. And worse. I feel more confident, and completely out of my league. I guess these are all good things...!

In the past three days, I've logged about 33 hours of work. Which really isn't saying that much - 12 hour shifts are common these days, especially in medicine. What is impressive, is that the week isn't even half over for me! I'm 'scheduled' to work 52 more hours before Sunday. I have Sunday off. Thank. Goodness.

A little about how our ward service works:
- There are two teams, each with one attending physician, one upper level resident (a second or third year) and two interns.
- There is also a Night Float team - one upper level and one intern.
- The physician work room is called the 'doc box.' I don't know why. Except, you know, we're doctors... and the room is kind of box-shaped. But most rooms are, aren't they?
- Every day one intern and one upper level are on 'late call.' Every one else is on 'short call.'
- At 4, the short call people 'check out' to the long call team. That means we tell them a bit about our patients and let them know if there are any active issues (like... if the patient gets a fever, give Tylenol, or order blood cultures, or what have you). The short call people are supposed to leave by 5.
- At 6:30 pm, the Night Float team comes on.
- When the Night team arrives, the late call people check out the whole service (all of the patients from both teams) to them. The late call people are supposed to leave by 8.
- The Night Float team stays through morning report the next morning - they leave between 8 and 9 am.

I was on late call last night - I got home around 8:30. I ate a small dinner, watched some Little House on the Prairie , read a little, then went to sleep at 9:45. I think I stayed up too late though! I was having a hard time with little things today - like writing my name. And walking...

There was a study done on medical interns not too long ago (I heard about it, I don't have the reference). They put EEG monitors on interns as they went about their daily activities. The results showed that the interns were walking around asleep. Literally.

I've only had three days!! I'm still running on adrenaline, so I'm good. But ask me again after three weeks.

I apologize for rambling. Be glad you don't have to read my patient notes!!