How long before you stopped acting like a med student?

[dpmd]

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Yes, I was one of those eager to please med students. I enthusiastically worked my ass off on my rotations (no I didn't just fake it in order to suck up). Need a film? I'm on it. Another admission H+P? No problem. I would stay until told to go home, and help out with whatever I could until then.

No real surprise that I started off my intern year in a similar fashion. But somewhere along the line something changed. While I will still take care of the work that needs to get done, I find myself more willing to let stuff slide (but I still feel guilty sometimes). Someone needs to assist on this free flap...the other resident is willing? fantastic! Let's divide up the floor work...hey, dpmd you're post call why don't you go home and we'll take care of it..sounds great to me. On anesthesia over the holidays, with no elective cases scheduled for two weeks? (I actually thought about this one for a few days then decided to follow my fellow residents suggestion to just take both weeks off).

So I would like to hear from other recovering med school overachievers. How long did it take for you to go from go-getter to "if this pager goes off one more time tonight I am going to kill someone"?

 

[gasnewby]

On anesthesia over the holidays, with no elective cases scheduled for two weeks? (I actually thought about this one for a few days then decided to follow my fellow residents suggestion to just take both weeks off).

i don't understand. don't you still have call?

 

[labst]

There's no shame in not being eager to stay later than necessary or going home when you are post-call. If you feel guilt as a result of these things, then you're strange. If your co-residents are trying to make you feel guilt as a result of these things, they need to be schooled.

 

[colbgw02]

How about 6 hours into my first day of internship. Of course, I had to do a transitional internship, so I considered the entire year just BS farting around time until I got to my specialty.

 

[Tired]

So I would like to hear from other recovering med school overachievers. How long did it take for you to go from go-getter to "if this pager goes off one more time tonight I am going to kill someone"?

On call I pace the floors, going from one to another all night long, looking in on my patients until at least 2am. Then I sleep for an hour or so. Then I wake up and round.

If I don't get paged from our surgical ward at least once an hour, I go up there and ask around to make sure everything is okay.

Of course, I'm highly paranoid and am frequently convinced people are out to kill my patients. Six months and no deaths when I'm on call.

 

[labst]

Although that's theoretically good practice, it's not very efficient. In fact, when you're a senior, what do you plan to do if you have juniors who don't do that? Or when you're an attending? As you become more experienced, you will know which patients you need to check up on and who you do not. Otherwise you just expend a lot of energy for no reason.

 

[dpmd]

i don't understand. don't you still have call?

That's the best part. There is no call while on anesthesia, unless they have you cover for GS or NS.