bored on call?

[TheLesPaul]

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What do you guys do (other than sleep or study) if you have downtime on call? It's fine if you have other med students with you, but if you're by yourself and you're all "studied out" but also don't want to go to bed, how do you occupy yourself?

I imagine this is extrapolatable to downtime as an intern/resident/fellow, etc.

 

[group_theory]

What do you guys do (other than sleep or study) if you have downtime on call? It's fine if you have other med students with you, but if you're by yourself and you're all "studied out" but also don't want to go to bed, how do you occupy yourself?

I imagine this is extrapolatable to downtime as an intern/resident/fellow, etc.

🤣 😆 (sorry, postcall)

 

[Dirt]

Angry birds

Words with friends

Solitaire

 

[peppy]

Enjoy it while you can. As an intern, I use the free moments for either going to the bathroom, eating, or (if I'm really lucky) napping.

 

[McGillGrad]

Writing angry letters, never meant to be sent.

 

[cpants]

addictinggames.com (Sorry to anyone who is studying right now)

Seriously, just get some sleep or at least rest. I never had a problem sleeping on overnight call. Those are usually the rotations where you are severely sleep deprived.

 

[DrBowtie]

ESPN in the lounge.

 

[Dedikated2liftn]

Take a dump.

 

[Jamers]

Take a dump.

There are no free moments on call as an intern. Somewhere, some stupid nurse has some *****ic question to ask and is just waiting to pick up the phone the minute you aren't busy.

 

[ShyRem]

If any one of y'all actually have TIME to sleep while on-call, please come help some of us out. I have briefly been in my call room for about 30 minutes so far. Total. After 5 months of call. So really, if y'all have time to watch TV, see your call room, sleep, etc. then you need to come help us out.

You are more than welcome to come do one of my ICU calls with 30+ patients and do the 5-7 admits overnight in addition to caring for the patients. Or a ward call where the pager fills up well over 4 times on your 12 hour call night. Thanks.

Now, OTOH, if you are a medical student then you won't have a feel for call because starting next year hours will be limited to 16 for interns, thereby necessitating a shift work schedule. You won't get the joys of call until second year when you can do up to 28 hours at a stretch.

 

[TheLesPaul]

Ha, thanks for the responses. We took real call on surgery (30+ hrs), but on peds the "med student call" is just waiting to do 1 H&P and then leaving. I just happened to be bored that day 😛.

 

[Perrotfish]

If any one of y'all actually have TIME to sleep while on-call, please come help some of us out. I have briefly been in my call room for about 30 minutes so far. Total. After 5 months of call. So really, if y'all have time to watch TV, see your call room, sleep, etc. then you need to come help us out. .

Out of curiosity, help how? I've been through medicine and surgery and while I've had quite a few nights where they kept me quite busy I never felt like I was ever 'helping' in any meaningful sense.

This isn't sarcasm, BTW, I'm legitimately curious. Other than fetching food, what exactly can a medical student do that's more helpful than staying out of the way?

 

[coldweatherblue]

Out of curiosity, help how? I've been through medicine and surgery and while I've had quite a few nights where they kept me quite busy I never felt like I was ever 'helping' in any meaningful sense.

for real? pretty much every call i take there's at least 1-2 times where we're on like the 8th floor, the resident gets paged to the ED with a soft admit and says, "med student, go see this patient, write the note, and present him to me, i'll come see him later."

this is definitely helpful for residents and the best way to learn as an MS3 imo.

and yes today I did spend a good amount of time making copies and running around dropping notes in charts all around the hospital, but generally you get to do some pretty cool stuff too..

 

[Perrotfish]

for real? pretty much every call i take there's at least 1-2 times where we're on like the 8th floor, the resident gets paged to the ED with a soft admit and says, "med student, go see this patient, write the note, and present him to me, i'll come see him later."

this is definitely helpful for residents and the best way to learn as an MS3 imo.

and yes today I did spend a good amount of time making copies and running around dropping notes in charts all around the hospital, but generally you get to do some pretty cool stuff too..

See, I've seen consults plenty of times, but I don't see how that helps the resident unless it's a really bad resident. I've never seen a compentent intern trust my (or any other medical student's) history or physical, let alone my assessment and plan. I agree that doing consults and presenting is the most educational thing we do on call, but considering that the Intern is just goiing to need to repeat everything we do anyway it seems more like burden for the resident (who now needs to hear us present) rather a way to help.

 

[SLUser11]

See, I've seen consults plenty of times, but I don't see how that helps the resident unless it's a really bad resident. I've never seen a compentent intern trust my (or any other medical student's) history or physical, let alone my assessment and plan. I agree that doing consults and presenting is the most educational thing we do on call, but considering that the Intern is just goiing to need to repeat everything we do anyway it seems more like burden for the resident (who now needs to hear us present) rather a way to help.

Occasionally it's helpful for the resident, but usually it's just helpful to the student, who needs experience seeing patients by himself and formulating a plan. Honestly, it's usually easier for the resident to just go down and do the consult himself, which is why I have to constantly remind my junior residents to include the students in this process.

A lot of the things that you do to "help" as students is truly a burden. I can write progress notes about as fast as I can read a med student's note, and I can write orders/op notes a lot faster than they can, but part of being a resident is that you have an obligation to teach. This "burden" is a part of the job.

The resident you quoted above seems to have a bit of the histrionics.....it is important take her complaints to heart, though, because that is what a lot of places are like when you have to cross-cover for all the services.

 

[cpants]

See, I've seen consults plenty of times, but I don't see how that helps the resident unless it's a really bad resident. I've never seen a compentent intern trust my (or any other medical student's) history or physical, let alone my assessment and plan. I agree that doing consults and presenting is the most educational thing we do on call, but considering that the Intern is just goiing to need to repeat everything we do anyway it seems more like burden for the resident (who now needs to hear us present) rather a way to help.

Seeing a consult is one of the few times you can make their lives easier. Finding all of the past medical history, getting an accurate med list, finding imaging studies and reads, writing down labs and vitals, etc all takes a lot of time. Sure they aren't just going to sign off on your A/P, but if you have all of the information they need in your note, they can see the patient in 5 minutes and develop their own plan. Believe me they will appreciate it when you say you called the pharmacy and got the accurate meds.