| | Despite having a 9 day orientation, nothing could have prepared me for the stress and growing pains of my first day as a newly minted doctor. My situation was made even more stressful by the fact my first assignment was not at my home institution but a partner hospital in Manhattan. It's highly regarded as one of the premiere hospitals for the treatment of cancer patients which is not only impressive, but daunting as well. Essentially the email I got in regards to my first day was something along the lines as:
Welcome to MSKCC! On your first day report to the conference room at 7am sharp, pick up your patient list, beeper and see your patients before you round with your team at 8am. You'll receive a formal orientation at 1pm later that day.
Not only do you hit the ground running, but you have to do it before you even get an orientation to the hospital. So essentially I was given an hour to get to learn everything I could about the 6 patients under my care, go see them, come up with my plans for the days and be prepared to answer questions from my attending. A pretty daunting task considering I didn't know my way around the hospital or how to log onto the computer system. So for about the first two days my major task was simply to get by. Despite trying to streamline my processes of reviewing their notes and examining patients I would still fall one or two patients behind when it was time to meet with my attending at 8am. The worst part were the little side tasks that would get in the way of me being able to sit down and get actual work done. A nurse would page about orders I had written or I would have to shift through an entire chart to learn about a patient's cancer history since I never got to see them at admission. The first two days were pretty horrible and humbling. While our chief residents said we should be out of the hospital no later than 9pm and get in no earlier than 7am to abide by the mandated 10 hour work break there was no way that was going to happen... at least for all the interns. My first day I didn't get out of the hospital until 10:30 and the next night it wasn't until 11pm. What was funny about my second day was that I had actually thought I was on top of my work and then by the time I had sat done to actually write my notes on my patients it was already 9pm. Keep in mind I have to get up at 5am and it takes me about an hour on the train to get back home. Needless to say I was a pretty tired and cranky intern all last week. It looks like for this year I will really only be getting one day off every week which sucks! We don't get "golden weekends" where if you were on call thursday you can take Friday and the weekend off. Even on the weekends I still have to come in one day to see my patients and write my notes. Looks like I won't be doing any Vegas getaways anytime soon. That's one thing no one every really tells you about residency - the small logistical stuff.
Things aren't all that bad however. The nurses at the hospital are amazing and I feel like the medical equivalent of a country hick because I'm constantly amazed at what they can actually do. Having received most of my training at county hospitals I'm used to having to do a lot of my own orders. If I have a STAT lab that needs to be drawn I'm used to having to do it myself. This hospital the nurses do all my orders without any attitude or spite and for that I'm completely grateful. I'm also used to having to constantly tell the nurses that I've put in new orders or I'm changing something I had previously ordered and at this hospital it's never necessary. A flip side to that is they all think I'm really nice by calling to tell them my plans. Another thing that I've come to like is simply having the stamp with my name and MD on it. It's amazing how powerful my signature has become.
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| | Posted 7/6/2009 7:12 PM - 9 Views - 4 eProps - 4 comments
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