From the Hospital Call Room

I finished my ob/gyn month and am now onto a month of inpatient medicine at Fairfax hospital. Basically, it is my job to act like the intern. I have my own patients and cover for other doctors when they are not here. The hours are absurdly long. It is q4 call in medical speak which means I work 30 hrs every 4th night. This is my black weekend which means I am working 12 days straight without one day off 3 days of which will be 30hr shifts. Rough! Last time I was on call I didn't even see the inside of my call room. Today I have managed to have a couple of hours of down time. Too bad they are in the middle of the afternoon because I bet any money that come 3 am I will be no where near my call room bed. As much as this month is going to be exhausting both mentally and physically this is my last chance do be a doctor as a student. Come July I will no longer be a member of the JV doctor squad as Doug Monforton would put it. It will be me and only me making decisions for the most part. Sure there will always be someone to ask a question but it will be my name signing the orders. As much as I hate this right now, I am sure that come next summer I will be pretty darn glad I am not trying to help with a code for the first time.

Next year there will be new hour limitations put into place so it will be good bye to the 30 hr shifts for a while at least and also good bye to weekends off.  Interns will be limited to16hr shifts so that means that the same number of people now have to cover more shifts making for fewer days off but shorter shifts every day. I guess there are goods and bads to every system. Right now we get one weekend off a month, four days off total. Next year I am pretty sure we will not have a weekend off each month. I am not sure what is more exhausting months without a weekend off or months of 30hr call. Bottom line I think we need more residents.

I am so thankful that I have such a sweet boyfriend. He offered to drive all the way out to the hospital to bring me dinner. I told him not to waste his precious day off coming to yet another hospital but I really appreciated the offer. Hospital food is gross!

As the sound of my pager pierces the air, I am back at it. So long call room. I sure do hope I see you again today.