- Joined
- Apr 23, 2004
- Messages
- 135
- Reaction score
- 0
Last night I took my first CA1 call, and it was awesome! I was a little disapointed that it fell on the 4th of July, but I had schedule requests this month so it was only fair.
Let me explain the way call works here. Basically you only take call 2-3 times per month. One of those is usually a weekend. You get the rest of the weekends off. Weekday call starts at 11am. You come in and give lunch breaks for those currently in cases, go to codes on the floors, or answer airway specific pages. After all the scheduled cases are done you take any emergent cases. Your call ends the next morning at 7am and you go home. Weekend and holiday call you start at 7am and end at 7am the next day.
So last night we had two emergent lap chole's, one facial trauma, one lower extremity traumatic amputation, one crani, and one bowel perf. There were two CA1's, one CA3, and 1 attending in house. There was a CA2 on backup call. I did the two lap chole's, the traumatic amputation, and helped with the bowel perf. The other CA1 did the facial trauma, and the bowel perf. A CA2 was called in for the crani case. The CA3 came in and out juggling the rooms and helping whenever needed, as well as giving breaks for lunch, dinner, etc. The attending was there for induction and awakening in each case.
From 7am till 11:30pm I was either in the OR, working up the next patient, or taking a quik break. Just as I layed down for a nap at 12:30am, the airway pager went off and the OR front desk called about the bowel perf. The other CA1 went to answer the airway page for an emergent intubation, while I set up for the next case and saw the patient. I finally went to lay down at about 3am and woke up at 6:30 to get things ready to hand off.
This was only my fourth day as a CA1 and I was given a lot of autonomy. Since we have a categorical residency program I spent the last month in Anesthesia doing cases with a CA2 or CA3. Being alone in the OR now is quite the experience. My favorite part of the night was the traumatic amputation/femur fracture. That was a tough case, my first trauma. Pt had bilateral anticub 16g PIVs and a femoral mac cordis which made things a lot easier. The room was 80 degrees and we were all wearing lead. I was working fast and hard the entire case, but it was a great experience. The CA3 was in there for a while at the begining just sitting back and watching, giving me the chance to learn and do things on my own (he wasn't even really in the room for the other cases unless he was giving me a break). Occationally he would say something encouraging when he saw that I was vigilant and reacted appropriately to the patients labile condition. He left after he noticed that I kept having to look around him to see the monitor as I was drawing up new drugs (it was crowded in there, two C-arms and a bunch of people). I forgot to mention that since the patient was in C-spine precautions I did an intubation with a "glidescope." The attending just watched and offered verbal guidence. It was an awesome night.
So looking back, after a night of only a few hours of sleep and most of the night spent working very hard, I LOVE MY JOB! Wow, after a very intense and painful intern year (in which I must say I learned a lot), I was not sure if I would ever say that. The intern year was totally worth it. The residents I work with are great, great teachers and great people in general. The attendings are appropriately hands off, without letting you drown. And the work...what more can I say, it is Anesthesiology, of course it is awesome!
Over the last few weeks I have done 6 digital fiberoptic intubations, one glidescope, 2 intubations requring a Bougie, countless IV's, a few art lines, 3 LMAs, a few MAC cases, too many standard intubations to keep track of, etc. I have also done a large variety of cases (neuro, ENT, ortho, gyn, trauma, gen surg, plastics). I love this place.
I will tell you what, so far I love my job and I am so glad I chose to come here. Contrary to what others have said, job satisfaction here is very high. Now I am rambling so I will go and get some rest (my daughters B-day party was today so I got very little rest).
Let me explain the way call works here. Basically you only take call 2-3 times per month. One of those is usually a weekend. You get the rest of the weekends off. Weekday call starts at 11am. You come in and give lunch breaks for those currently in cases, go to codes on the floors, or answer airway specific pages. After all the scheduled cases are done you take any emergent cases. Your call ends the next morning at 7am and you go home. Weekend and holiday call you start at 7am and end at 7am the next day.
So last night we had two emergent lap chole's, one facial trauma, one lower extremity traumatic amputation, one crani, and one bowel perf. There were two CA1's, one CA3, and 1 attending in house. There was a CA2 on backup call. I did the two lap chole's, the traumatic amputation, and helped with the bowel perf. The other CA1 did the facial trauma, and the bowel perf. A CA2 was called in for the crani case. The CA3 came in and out juggling the rooms and helping whenever needed, as well as giving breaks for lunch, dinner, etc. The attending was there for induction and awakening in each case.
From 7am till 11:30pm I was either in the OR, working up the next patient, or taking a quik break. Just as I layed down for a nap at 12:30am, the airway pager went off and the OR front desk called about the bowel perf. The other CA1 went to answer the airway page for an emergent intubation, while I set up for the next case and saw the patient. I finally went to lay down at about 3am and woke up at 6:30 to get things ready to hand off.
This was only my fourth day as a CA1 and I was given a lot of autonomy. Since we have a categorical residency program I spent the last month in Anesthesia doing cases with a CA2 or CA3. Being alone in the OR now is quite the experience. My favorite part of the night was the traumatic amputation/femur fracture. That was a tough case, my first trauma. Pt had bilateral anticub 16g PIVs and a femoral mac cordis which made things a lot easier. The room was 80 degrees and we were all wearing lead. I was working fast and hard the entire case, but it was a great experience. The CA3 was in there for a while at the begining just sitting back and watching, giving me the chance to learn and do things on my own (he wasn't even really in the room for the other cases unless he was giving me a break). Occationally he would say something encouraging when he saw that I was vigilant and reacted appropriately to the patients labile condition. He left after he noticed that I kept having to look around him to see the monitor as I was drawing up new drugs (it was crowded in there, two C-arms and a bunch of people). I forgot to mention that since the patient was in C-spine precautions I did an intubation with a "glidescope." The attending just watched and offered verbal guidence. It was an awesome night.
So looking back, after a night of only a few hours of sleep and most of the night spent working very hard, I LOVE MY JOB! Wow, after a very intense and painful intern year (in which I must say I learned a lot), I was not sure if I would ever say that. The intern year was totally worth it. The residents I work with are great, great teachers and great people in general. The attendings are appropriately hands off, without letting you drown. And the work...what more can I say, it is Anesthesiology, of course it is awesome!
Over the last few weeks I have done 6 digital fiberoptic intubations, one glidescope, 2 intubations requring a Bougie, countless IV's, a few art lines, 3 LMAs, a few MAC cases, too many standard intubations to keep track of, etc. I have also done a large variety of cases (neuro, ENT, ortho, gyn, trauma, gen surg, plastics). I love this place.
I will tell you what, so far I love my job and I am so glad I chose to come here. Contrary to what others have said, job satisfaction here is very high. Now I am rambling so I will go and get some rest (my daughters B-day party was today so I got very little rest).
Last edited:
