Living in the hospital parking lot durring residency???

[Shodddy18]

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Ok, so this is a silly question. If someone owned an RV, do you think a hospital would let them park it in the parking lot and live in it? I'm not actually considering doing this, but I have seen RVs parked in hospital lots that looked like they were there for weeks. I went camping w/ my inlaws and went to some RV shows, and some of those things are much bigger and nicer than my appartments in college. Also, they are much larger and nicer than what the same ammount of money would purchase in an urban area.

Anyone ever hear of this?

 

[deleted87716]

Anyone ever hear of this?

No, but when I was in med school, one of the MS-2's lived in the student lounge (literally...he had no apartment) for almost a month before anyone figured it out.

 

[Dunce]

No, but when I was in med school, one of the MS-2's lived in the student lounge (literally...he had no apartment) for almost a month before anyone figured it out.

now that is some funny stuff

My rent is getting pretty steep these days. Maybe I should just start crashing in the various call rooms around the hospital.
You know, just keep hopping around.....kind of like a hospital hobo or something.

 

[cytoskelement]

Incredible. The student lounge!

Don't you need a waste/water/electrical hookup? Are you going to be able to drive to some campground every couple of days to dump?

 

[deleted87716]

Don't you need a waste/water/electrical hookup? Are you going to be able to drive to some campground every couple of days to dump?

Good point. I wonder how Gonzo managed it on "Trapper John, M.D.?"

 

[8744]

I did a couple of rotations at a VA hospital which was well supplied with call rooms that were almost all never used. They were in a fairly isolated area of the hospital. I don't think it would be to hard for a resident to sort of kind of live in a call room provided he didn't lounge around there all day on his days off and arouse suspicion. Certainly you could sleep there and take a shower even if you weren't actually rotating there as long as you had a Duke ID. (The VA is right across the street from the hospital)

You couldn't do this at Duke because the call rooms are all designated and they are usually in use.

At my current hospital the food is free, there is a resident's lounge which apparently even the cleaning ladies never visit as well as shower facilities (not to mention call rooms). Plus the food is free. If I were waiting to move into an apartment I could probably hole up there for a week or two before anybody took pity on me and offered to put me up until I found a place.

 

[gutonc]

Our hospital, being a quarernary referral center for all of Oregon and parts of Northern California, Southern Washington, Idaho and Northern Nevada (as well as the Western US VA Liver transplant center) has a parking lot that has RV hookups (water/sewer/ electricity) in it. People there pay the same rate everyone else does to park (it's $10/day) on the hill and an extra $5/day for utils which is way cheaper than a state park and a whole lot more convenient. So far this month (in the MICU) I've had at least 5 patients whose family members were camping out in the parking lot for days/weeks. My family suggested exactly what you are...spend $50K on a nice motor home and just park it at the hospital the next X years. I think my wife would kill me.

BE (now PE)

 

[njbmd]

No, but when I was in med school, one of the MS-2's lived in the student lounge (literally...he had no apartment) for almost a month before anyone figured it out.

Hi there,
One of my MS-3 students lived in his car during his first year. He moved the car from neighborhood to neighborhood so that the police (and the residents) would not bother him. He would curl up in his sleeping bag and would shower in the student lounge area. He did this for the entire year so that he could save money. The next year, he got married. His wife drew the line at living in a Honda Accord.

njbmd

 

[3dtp]

Hi there,
One of my MS-3 students lived in his car during his first year. He moved the car from neighborhood to neighborhood so that the police (and the residents) would not bother him. He would curl up in his sleeping bag and would shower in the student lounge area. He did this for the entire year so that he could save money. The next year, he got married. His wife drew the line at living in a Honda Accord.

njbmd

If I had matched in Seattle I would have lived on a boat. It's about the only thing affordable there.

 

[southerndoc]

Where I did my last 2 years of medical school (our Savannah branch campus), there was a medicine resident who owned a house about 100 miles away from Savannah. He lived in a camper 5 days out of the week and would go home to see his wife and kids on the weekend if he wasn't on call. I don't think the hospital ever said anything to him.

 

[Shodddy18]

Where I did my last 2 years of medical school (our Savannah branch campus), there was a medicine resident who owned a house about 100 miles away from Savannah. He lived in a camper 5 days out of the week and would go home to see his wife and kids on the weekend if he wasn't on call. I don't think the hospital ever said anything to him.

thats cool. do you know if the camper was in the hospital parking lot, or was it at a trailer park or something nearby?

 

[southerndoc]

thats cool. do you know if the camper was in the hospital parking lot, or was it at a trailer park or something nearby?

Hospital parking lot

 

[Winged Scapula]

Typically an urban legend, but I've seen a resident sleep in his car as well while between girlfriends (and their apartments, apparently).

However, most hospitals have a policy that you cannot live in the parking lot, the call room etc. I admit to having stayed in the callroom when my apartment was being painted and after all the furniture moved out, but I think an RV would get cramped after awhile.

Many years ago when I worked at a VA, one of the patients came for a clinic appointment in his RV, expecting apparently to be admitted. A few days later security traced a foul odor to his RV. You guessed it...he had died in the camper, and in the > 100 F heat in a central California summer, he sort of...rotted. Make sure someone checks on you everyday, is the moral of this story!

 

[meddog1]

I knew a surgery resident who lived out of various call rooms throughout the hospital. Since it was standard to see the GSurg folks spending most of their lives in the hospital anyway, no one really caught on to what the guy was doing. He never had time to do laundry so he always wore scrubs and would buy new underwear every paycheck and toss the dirty ones out.

 

[Sugar72]

Good point. I wonder how Gonzo managed it on "Trapper John, M.D.?"

I'm glad someone pointed out this very important pop culture icon.