A conversion I once had with a resident during lunch:
Resident: "I don't have any calls for the next, like, two weeks."
Me: "Who's on call tonight, by the way?"
Resident: "I don't know."
Me: (checks schedule) "Hey, YOU are!"
Resident: "I am???"
Me: "Uh, yeah. Good thing I looked it up, huh?"
An R4 at the table: "Well, it's not like it's important to know when you're on call. You'd probably figure it out eventually."
My Internal medicine year was spent at Big Hospital 1, which had a rivalry with the internal medicine program at Big Hospital 2. BH2 was known for a much harder lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteThe joke was that at my program we'd be pissed if we had to stay until 5:00. At BH2 they were thrilled to be out by 6:00.
That's awesome.
ReplyDeleteHahaha, yeah, speaks volumes.
ReplyDeleteBeing on call would kill me. Haha. I don't know how you docs do it.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently doing one of my M3 L&D calls. Either that or I didn't survive that car accident. Either way, I'm not leaving this place for a long long time.
ReplyDeleteGrumpy: In my internship, we often left at like 2-3PM on non-call days. I still hated it with every fiber of my being.
ReplyDeleteWe have an PM and R resident on medicine with us at the moment. He's a hard worker, and never shirks his responsibility, but at the end of every call shift, he makes a point of announcing the number of call shifts he has left in his career.
ReplyDeleteWhy would anyone ever need a PM & R on call? Unless you have an admitted patient for some reason, I can't imagine much in the way of calls after 5pm.
ReplyDeleteWell, I correct that, maybe on weekends but I am sure they are all during daylight.
I knew right away I was not cut for for a 9-5 doctor job - I get bored silly if some fire is not needing to be put out somewhere.
ERP: Despite the above entry, we did have some hellish calls. Rehab has its own inpatient units and a guy who had a stroke two weeks ago can still have chest pain in the middle of the night. And we used to get tons of late admissions from other facilities. They weren't urgent, but if someone doesn't leave Hospital B till 5PM and that hospital B is several hours away, you've got yourself a late admission. And it's not like you can say no.
ReplyDeleteOur P,M and R doc's don't admit anyone. They do consults in the house but that's extent of their inpatient work.
ReplyDeleteI guess if you run a whole inpatient rehab ward, the call would be basically an internal medicine call with people maybe a little less sick.