Post Call rituals

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megacolon

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Just thought I would throw out a fun discussion thread and see if it lasts.

What is your post-call ritual? Do you have one? I for one don't always go to sleep right when I get home, but usually try to take a nap and then get back up so I can go back to sleep at night. Anyone else have a particular routine for when they get home besides the obvious of sleeping?
 
If I don't have to round in the AM: I skip breakfast, go straight home and sleep until noon.
If I have to round: Eat breakfast, round, go home after rounds (skipping lunch) and go to sleep until 5.

Slip in some grumpiness in between and that's about it.
 
i normally roll the windows down and turn the radio up so that i don't drive off a bridge on the way home. then i stuff my face with whatever junk food is in the pantry before falling asleep on the couch while watching built up Simpsons re-runs on the DVR. these are the best years of my life...
 
glorytaker said:
If I don't have to round in the AM: I skip breakfast, go straight home and sleep until noon.
If I have to round: Eat breakfast, round, go home after rounds (skipping lunch) and go to sleep until 5.

Slip in some grumpiness in between and that's about it.
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Whoa, sometimes you get to go home WITHOUT ROUNDING?!

I'm lucky to leave by 12. 🙁
 
Blade28 said:
Whoa, sometimes you get to go home WITHOUT ROUNDING?!

I'm lucky to leave by 12. 🙁
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Dude, that is what's so cool about being at a smaller, community program. I don't think I've been in-house past 1030 post-call...and sometimes I get out of here as early as 0830 depending on who the attending is.

It's just the nature of the way they run their medicine services here, that is, they are very high turnover so you don't even have to pretend that you are following everybody in such detail that you can't sign them out. THe interns are pretty much just admitting scut-oxen anyways. All the services really care about is that you admit their patients at 3 AM so they don't have to.

I am doing pulmonary and have 32 patients on my census. It would be impossible to round on all of them in the traditional manner. The attendings don't want to do it either.

I make good an sure to have all of my new admissions squared away with appropriate orders well before morning rounds so I can sign them out and get out.

At Duke they were very good about following the rules but it was rare to get out before 1300.
 
colbgw02 said:
i normally roll the windows down and turn the radio up so that i don't drive off a bridge on the way home. then i stuff my face with whatever junk food is in the pantry before falling asleep on the couch while watching built up Simpsons re-runs on the DVR. these are the best years of my life...
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I second this one. For awhile I was doing the Bruegger's salt bagel with salmon cream cheese, but I recently graduated to a Potbelly sub or Tony's Burrito-Mex #2. Tony's has a fake tatoo machine that's pretty cool, too. A scorpion on the shoulder post-call is about as sweet as it gets.
 
Drive home, occasionally hit up Burger King for breakfast, walk in my apartment and C-R-A-S-H. I can and will sleep for hours upon hours...
 
Panda Bear said:
I am doing pulmonary and have 32 patients on my census. It would be impossible to round on all of them in the traditional manner. The attendings don't want to do it either.
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I've had anywhere from 1-50 people on my services before (depends on the service and hospital). The busy services are the ones with 6-7 attendings.

Ouch.
 
Buttermilk Pancakes with lots of butter and Maple syrup.
Then I crash, usually while eating/making the pancakes.

K2
 
Blade28 said:
I've had anywhere from 1-50 people on my services before (depends on the service and hospital). The busy services are the ones with 6-7 attendings.

Ouch.
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Oh yeah. I took one for the team last year. I am repeating intern year and I have absolutely no enthusiasm to suffer for medical training especially when so much of it is pointless. I think people get excellent care here and everybody is just as dedicated, just not as obsessive compulsive if I can phrase it like that.

I like to work when I'm at work but I also like to go home, too.
 
Blade28 said:
Whoa, sometimes you get to go home WITHOUT ROUNDING?!

I'm lucky to leave by 12. 🙁
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Yeah, if I'm on a service with no patients to round on(anesthesia, radiology, path), then I go home. The extra 6 hours are for patient continuity of care only-- there's no continuity of care to be done then I go home.
 
Kimberli Cox said:
My routine was a cold soda, something tasty to eat, warm shower and then to bed. If I slept too long I became groggy, so tried not to sleep more than 3 hrs - of course, it all depended on how tired I was.
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I'm just an intern so i'm always rounding until 1pm or so. when I go home I always say to myself i"m just sleeping for 3 hours. Then I wake up at 8:30 and don't know what happened to that haha.

Then I don't get sleepy until midnight, and I have to wake up at 4am to see all those we admitted the night before that had a whole day to build up complications haha.
 
I am not complaining. So no jokes about cheese with my wine. But....

I have four kids (one a six-month-old) and five dogs. When I get home post-call, it is seldom possible to just go to sleep. There are things to take care of. Two of my kids are not in school yet so they are home. I help my wife around the house and do the never-ending maintenance tasks that are the bane of the homeowner.

I can usually nap a little but I usually just suck it up and go to bed a little early in the evening. Still, I'd rather be tired at home than tired at the hospital.

I just want to point out that I work on my humble and unassuming blog between events while I am on call (like tonight) and should be sleeping. With this in mind, don't you think it's a little selfish of you folks not to read it?

Just asking.
 
Panda Bear said:
I have four kids (one a six-month-old) and five dogs.
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Damn. I didn't know that. My respect for you just bumped up a few notches. 👍

I have a fellow second-year who just had a baby a few months ago - he always looks ragged now. Whenever we see him, we always ask, "are you post-call?" because of his terrible appearance. Then he always replies, "no, I have a baby at home."
 
Hit what ever happens to be left over in the lounge, or graham crackers and peanut butter, coffee then do rounds. Go home, sleep 'til 4 or 5. Get up 'n play with the furry kids (the cats and dogs) until 10 or so 'n go back to bed. Get up at 5am next morning to go back in and start all over again.
 
Panda, if I didn't know any better, I would think we were at the same program. I'm at a private hospital and we don't usually have to round post call either. I'm usually finished by 8am, except we are supposed to go to noon conference. It's a cushy program except the call is absolutely awful. Fortunately it's only 4-5 times a month.

My post call ritual is to eat a donut. Looking forward to that donut gets me through the long night of endless admissions and running codes.🙂
 
Jalopycat said:
Panda, if I didn't know any better, I would think we were at the same program. I'm at a private hospital and we don't usually have to round post call either. I'm usually finished by 8am, except we are supposed to go to noon conference. It's a cushy program except the call is absolutely awful. Fortunately it's only 4-5 times a month.

My post call ritual is to eat a donut. Looking forward to that donut gets me through the long night of endless admissions and running codes.🙂
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See my blog (he says, shamelessly plugging it yet again) for my latest article on some of the differences between a community program and a big academic program.
 
Jalopycat said:
My post call ritual is to eat a donut. Looking forward to that donut gets me through the long night of endless admissions and running codes.🙂
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hey me too...I never eat donuts otherwise but there's something about having one post call to reward yourself.

for me, if it's been a bad night w/o any sleep, I go home, take a shower and then crash and often don't wake up until the next morning.

if I got some sleep, I do my best to just stay up until evening. I usually go for a long run or walk these days too. Oh yea and I always try to watch Oprah.

oh and I totally envy all you guys who get to go home in the AM the next day....24 hour call would be SUCH an improvement over 30 hours (though don't get me wrong, it would still suck to have to work 24 hours too)....those last 6 hours are so BRUTAL.
 
- Stop at Sonic on the way home for a burger, onion rings, and diet cherry limeade.
- Arrive home, let the cat in, and take a quick shower in which I do not shave my legs.
- Eat Sonic food while watching something off the tivo, preferably something that's not a medical show, with the exception of Grey's Anatomy, which, while highly entertaining, isn't that accurate enough to be considered a medical show IMO.
- Put on my sleep mask to block out the daylight and go to bed.
- If I got 0 hrs sleep on call, then I sleep til the next AM. If I got a little, I wake up in the evening and have dinner with my hubby, watch a little tivo, then go back to bed.
 
If I'm out between 12 and 1pm, then I try to go to the gym (doesn't always happen), go home take a shower, eat whatever is hanging around and takes no effort to put together, go to sleep and then get up somewhere between 5 and 6pm. If for some reason, I get out later, then its just shower and sleep.
 
JackBauERfan said:
I'm just an intern so i'm always rounding until 1pm or so. when I go home I always say to myself i"m just sleeping for 3 hours. Then I wake up at 8:30 and don't know what happened to that haha.

Then I don't get sleepy until midnight, and I have to wake up at 4am to see all those we admitted the night before that had a whole day to build up complications haha.
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That's exactly why I never let myself sleep that long - you feel awful and then you can't sleep when the real bedtime comes.

I am amazed at those that say they come home and sleep until the next morning; I just can't sleep that long, regardless of how tired I am. I don't require much sleep, I guess that's why surgery and I are a good fit!
 
Kimberli Cox said:
My routine was a cold soda, something tasty to eat, warm shower and then to bed. If I slept too long I became groggy, so tried not to sleep more than 3 hrs - of course, it all depended on how tired I was.
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My post call ritual is to head for the call room shower, stay in there as long as I want with the water as hot as I want. Come out and moisturize my skin and have a nice freshly-made cup of coffee. Head to the gym and do a light workout, sit in the Jacuzzi and then go home to bed. The Jacuzzi soaks away all of my aches and pains coupled with a nice stretch during my workout. I sleep for about 2 hours and then up to read/study and get on with the rest of my day. I try to get in bed at my regular hour that night.
 
Many post call rituals:
1. Shower if there is time. Can take the place of a good night sleep at least for a few hours.

2. Post call breakfast: Pancakes with lotsa syrup and butter.

3. Go home about 1:30. If I did not eat the 'delicious" lunch provided at noon conference, then I stop at mickey Ds

4. Sleep until 5:30. Then rush to pick up the kids before 6pm (day care closing time).

5. If I'm post call on a weekend, my husband takes the kids to my mother in law's house, so I can sleep when I get home. 😍
 
Stop by McDonalds and stuff my face at home while watching TIVOed Simpsons, then go to bed at 2pm and not wake up until 4am the next morning!

I guess I'm the only one that needs 12-14 hours of sleep in a 48 hour period. I'm such a wimp 😴 🙁
 
Damn, guess I was the only lush!

I would get home at about 1pm, have a glass of white wine and then sleep for ~3hours. More than that and I would be groggy. Less than that and I would be grumpy.

And I never had anything other than a latte (skim) or a coffee post call. I just wasn't interested... Then again, when I woke up I wanted FOOD, d*mn it! :laugh:
 
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