Completely burned out on internship

[sean wilson]

Three weeks of floors and an elective left and then I'm done with being the lowly intern. I am doing mine in medicine, going to anesthesiology in another state, and literally counting the days until this crap is over. I was on call last night and I hit the wall at three in the AM when the pager went off with yet another ridiculous call from the nursing staff. Apparently a patient had pulled her NGT out, and since it was due to come out at 6 this AM, the nurse wanted to just give me the heads up so I wouldn't bother pulling it later. Had it not been for the fact that we round on the patients regardless, and that we'd certainly notice the missing NGT, I guess I'd appreciate the wakeup call. As it stood, it only added to the disgust I have for having been made to put up with this **** all year long. How little does this do to prepare a person for the OR...

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[Gut Shot]

Pathology, anyone?

 

[southerndoc]

Thank God intern year is almost over. I have 5 weeks until I'm officially a PGY-2.

 

[timtye78]

No more internal medicine EVER again after June 30...I cannot even comprehend not doing another H&P/dictation, etc. Doing the transitional year only confirms my happiness in not going into IM/ER/FP/GS/OB. See, the whole idea is for us to realize why we chose anesthesiology!!

 

[Lonestar]

yeah me too. My transitional year is front and back loaded. I am in my MICU month and its busy. Damn all the departments dump on medicine. And the medicine upper levels dump on us. So it makes perfect sense. Off-service intern in medicine rotation = driving through a mine field in car with no steering. Sooner or later you're gonna blow. But it will be all over soon. Then, its off to Anesthesia.

 

[roygbasch]

Just always remember: they can't stop the clock.

 

[timtye78]

Intern: Good morning Mrs. X. How are you feeling today?
Pt: ......gurgle, gurgle.....
Intern: Wow I am sorry to hear about that...
Beeper goes off: hey yeah, can you call in these five consults I have, and then send a,b,c,d, and e home..call social servcies for....blah blah blah...
don't forget your evaluations from the er nurses will be discussed with you at noon...

you get the idea

 

[DrBloodmoney]

PGY-1 pathology= me taking a nap at home everyday in the afternoon(except during surgical pathology).

Thank god for pathology. Also thank god for everyone else working so hard to make all docs look good

 

[Teufelhunden]

My entire (upcoming) internship contains only 2 months of internal med (well, 3 if you count CCU) and ZERO months of surgery!

Hopefully I'll come out of this a little less burned out (fingers crossed).

 

[LADoc00]

PGY-1 pathology= me taking a nap at home everyday in the afternoon(except during surgical pathology).

Thank god for pathology. Also thank god for everyone else working so hard to make all docs look good

STFU we are full up over here, no more room, please move along...nothing to see here..radiology rules

 

[Justin4563]

Three weeks of floors and an elective left and then I'm done with being the lowly intern. I am doing mine in medicine, going to anesthesiology in another state, and literally counting the days until this crap is over. I was on call last night and I hit the wall at three in the AM when the pager went off with yet another ridiculous call from the nursing staff. Apparently a patient had pulled her NGT out, and since it was due to come out at 6 this AM, the nurse wanted to just give me the heads up so I wouldn't bother pulling it later. Had it not been for the fact that we round on the patients regardless, and that we'd certainly notice the missing NGT, I guess I'd appreciate the wakeup call. As it stood, it only added to the disgust I have for having been made to put up with this **** all year long. How little does this do to prepare a person for the OR...

LOL sounds like my internship sean 5 years ago.. I found myself going into the hospital Pissed off. And even worse.. I used to be pissed off at the nurses after like the 27th page within a 2 hour period of time and get cranky with them. which is a pretty good sign you shouldnt be doing what you doing.. yeah and they couldnt stop the clock... I am an attending grunting it out as an anesthesiologist.. the system needs the change in a big way/

 

[mamadoc]

8 more days in the MICU, then a month of wards.... OMG it has been a long painful year. You know it has gone on too long when you go into the Unit in the morning, look at the list, note a missing name and think "Oh good Mrs. so-and-so must've died."

And the third-year resident allegedly "leading" the team is totally AWOL, I dunno if she used to be a better leader and is now just sick of it or if she's been this piss-poor all along... just one more thing to be bitter about, though.

Finally, why do medicine people have to TALK SO MUCH. There are days (okay, all the time) when I just want to tell them to shut the F*** up and let me get my work done. Aforementioned resident tried to pimp me about fluid status in ARDS at 4am the other day - give me a break!

I think I was a nicer person, less prone to being enraged, at the beginning of intern year. I hope that I can regain that personality once this is over.

 

[Justin4563]

I doubt it mamadoc

 

[mamadoc]

I doubt it mamadoc

LOL thanks a lot Justin! Fortunately for me I do actually like most of my colleagues, most of the nurses, and most of my patients. But the built-in imbalance of intern year makes the exceptions - this month's supremely annoying and stupid intern, the nurse manager riding everyone's butt about next month's JCAHO visit, the patient's family who insisted on Full Code while the patient exsanguinated.... all of them are SO much more irritating when you're overworked, stressed-out and sleep-deprived. I'm hoping that recovery from sleep deprivation will restore my usual optimism....

 

[Neuronix]

Do any interns not get completely burned out? I had a dicussion about this with some higher ups in the med school today and they were telling me that very few get burned out and that I must have a skewed sample. Somehow I don't believe it. In any case, they didn't care for my analogy of intern = indentured servant.

 

[timtye78]

Do any interns not get completely burned out? I had a dicussion about this with some higher ups in the med school today and they were telling me that very few get burned out and that I must have a skewed sample. Somehow I don't believe it. In any case, they didn't care for my analogy of intern = indentured servant.

It is true. Is being an intern what you envisioned for yourself after all the education and debt accumulated? Oh well..the clock is ticking for this year..

 

[Vince]

Internship starts in a few weeks....I am going in with the attitude that I can put up with anything for a year since I know that I'll be a radiologist....

and that I'm thankful that I decided NOT to do IM, EM, or Surgery.

I am also hoping that I enjoy internship a little bit more because I'll be with about 10 classmates from medical school whom I'll likely work well with, and I am familar with the hospital since I did lots of rotations there during medical school......

Although I'm sure I'll be cursing up a storm from time to time.

 

[AznTrojan]

i seriously hope there's some eye candy to keep me going through those long arduous call nights..

 

[DrQuinn]

Do any interns not get completely burned out? I had a dicussion about this with some higher ups in the med school today and they were telling me that very few get burned out and that I must have a skewed sample. Somehow I don't believe it. In any case, they didn't care for my analogy of intern = indentured servant.

I never got "burned out." I did wish to be back in the ED instead of on MICU or CCU or Trauma Surgery or Anesthesia, etc. I did hit a low in the wintertime because I didn't feel I was learning enough, that I would never learn as much as the upper levels, etc etc. Got through that in about spring. I tend to be a more positive-thinking resident than most, though, (my colleagues have called me "sweden" becasue I'm so neutral and dont' lose my cool). Fear not. Your internship is what you make of it. Just try to remember its not the patient's fault, and they forgot to read the textbook.

Q