Residency
It looks like I'm going to be posting in here even more sporadically than I have been. There's just not enough time in the week.
Work has been good. Really tiring, but good. I get in a little before 5 AM, and I'm usually out between 6 and 7. But the day flies by. There's so much to do that I have no time to sit around and be bored. When I have free time, I go in and just say hello to my patients. I've been told by many a person that I have excellent bedside manner. I'm sure that's hard for most of you to believe, but it's true. There are a lot of aspects to this job that I'm not good at yet, but my relationship with my patient's is not one of them. I've even gotten a few little gifts from some of them to show their appreciation.
And because of that, I love my job. Not the gifts, the getting along with my patients part. Part of the reason my hours are so long is because after we are done for the day, I go back and see how all my patients are doing before I go home. The nurses have told me that I would stop doing that after the first week, but I haven't. It has also helped me to get along well with the nurses, because they see that I'm a genuinely nice resident who cares about his patients.
The downside to getting close to my patients is that when someone dies, I take it hard. And since I've been in the ICU for my first months, I have seen a few of them die. I started tearing up when I had to tell a gentleman's wife and daughter that wanted to send him to hospice care because we didn't think there was anything more we could do with him. And I after I saw a 2 year old kid die in the ED, I was almost in tears. That one will probably stay with me forever, and I cant see anything else being worse than that was.
I work a lot. I have to be in the hospital Monday to Friday, so I can't take call during the week. All my call when I'm in the ICU is on the weekend. I get one full weekend off a month, and then usually 2 Friday and 2 Saturday calls. There's nothing else to say about it except it sucks. I just have to suck it up and deal with it, because it's the same for everyone who rotates through the ICU. At least I get my two hardest months out of the way first, and my schedule should be a little easier starting in September.
I just have one more week in the ICU, then I move to General Surgery, where I should get a chance to get into the OR, which I'm also looking forward to. I get my first vacation week in September, which I'm also looking forward to.
The residents are pretty cool. That also makes the day more enjoyable, working with people who are cool. There are a couple bad seeds, but for the most part everyone gets along. I spend most of the day in the ICU, and the nurses are good. They have taken to calling me the Greek God, so you can tell they're very perceptive. The residents went to a minor league baseball game this past week, which was fun. Obviously much different than a Yankees game, but it was baseball, so what do I care?
It's an adjustment, but I'm getting used to it. Better days are on the way.
Work has been good. Really tiring, but good. I get in a little before 5 AM, and I'm usually out between 6 and 7. But the day flies by. There's so much to do that I have no time to sit around and be bored. When I have free time, I go in and just say hello to my patients. I've been told by many a person that I have excellent bedside manner. I'm sure that's hard for most of you to believe, but it's true. There are a lot of aspects to this job that I'm not good at yet, but my relationship with my patient's is not one of them. I've even gotten a few little gifts from some of them to show their appreciation.
And because of that, I love my job. Not the gifts, the getting along with my patients part. Part of the reason my hours are so long is because after we are done for the day, I go back and see how all my patients are doing before I go home. The nurses have told me that I would stop doing that after the first week, but I haven't. It has also helped me to get along well with the nurses, because they see that I'm a genuinely nice resident who cares about his patients.
The downside to getting close to my patients is that when someone dies, I take it hard. And since I've been in the ICU for my first months, I have seen a few of them die. I started tearing up when I had to tell a gentleman's wife and daughter that wanted to send him to hospice care because we didn't think there was anything more we could do with him. And I after I saw a 2 year old kid die in the ED, I was almost in tears. That one will probably stay with me forever, and I cant see anything else being worse than that was.
I work a lot. I have to be in the hospital Monday to Friday, so I can't take call during the week. All my call when I'm in the ICU is on the weekend. I get one full weekend off a month, and then usually 2 Friday and 2 Saturday calls. There's nothing else to say about it except it sucks. I just have to suck it up and deal with it, because it's the same for everyone who rotates through the ICU. At least I get my two hardest months out of the way first, and my schedule should be a little easier starting in September.
I just have one more week in the ICU, then I move to General Surgery, where I should get a chance to get into the OR, which I'm also looking forward to. I get my first vacation week in September, which I'm also looking forward to.
The residents are pretty cool. That also makes the day more enjoyable, working with people who are cool. There are a couple bad seeds, but for the most part everyone gets along. I spend most of the day in the ICU, and the nurses are good. They have taken to calling me the Greek God, so you can tell they're very perceptive. The residents went to a minor league baseball game this past week, which was fun. Obviously much different than a Yankees game, but it was baseball, so what do I care?
It's an adjustment, but I'm getting used to it. Better days are on the way.
posted by Chris at 2:10 PM
3 Comments:
Please elaborate on the "bad seeds." And can you describe your encounters with them like you are the character on a television show about hospital residents?
Also, I am not surprised that you have good bedside manner. You haven't had to tell anyone that their loved one was dead yet have you?
I'm not at all surprised that Chris has good bedside manner either. He can turn on the charm when he wants to.
I do however have a hard time believing the nurses call him Greek God... because that's just awkward.
I believe they use the term "Adonis."
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