Similarly in residency, some of the specialities I rotate through have in-house call, while others have home call or no call at all. There are two benefits to being on 24-hour in-house call: getting to wear scrubs and having a post-call day :)
So far I've been on call for CCU and general internal medicine. As both of those are busy services, I've unfortunately had little to no opportunity to sleep during my call shifts. On CCU we carried a code pager for the hospital so even if I did get a break from doing consults, I found it pretty hard to sleep with the prospect that it might go off. On GIM between being responsible for about fifty inpatients and doing admissions from emergency, there's little down time during the night.
Here's what a typical call shift looks like:
protein powder oats to start the day |
0620 - 1700 h: The usual rounding, teaching, etc.
prophylactic eating at Grand Rounds |
1700 - 1800 h: I finish up my work on the ward and answer my first couple of pages.
lots of walking! |
it's always worth taking these stairs instead of the elevator |
I always bring lots of food :) |
I was on the right ward at the right time to catch an awesome sunset |
I try to remember to drink water when I pass dispensers on the wards! Also: chocolate :) |
bustling by day...armchairs filled with sleeping staff by night |
admissions mean lots of paperwork |
comfortable enough |
0630 - 0730 h: I round on the patients whom I regularly follow, writing my daily progress notes in their charts.
0730 h: I touch base with the other residents whose patients I was covering to let them know of anything that happened overnight.
0800 - 0900 h: I meet in the conference room with the team of physicians who will take over the new admits (we don't necessarily follow the patients we admitted overnight; they are distributed amongst the various staff). I present the patients whom I admitted.
0900 - 0930 h: My team has already started rounding; I join them briefly (they'll prioritize seeing my patients, so that I can leave). After I've done any outstanding dictations from overnight, I'm free to leave -- usually by 9:30 am, but occasionally 10:30 am on a busy shift. I find that the staff are good here at getting residents out early post-call. Where I did medical school though...not so much.
Time to leave! Sunny call days and rainy post-call days have been happening too often. |
At least the time goes by quickly when you're keeping busy! Today's another one for me...let's hope for good call karma :)
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