bigeyedfish said:
Any suggestions for useful books to use as a resource during those 3 AM pages?
If I'm lucky enough to be getting some shut eye in the middle of the night and the pager goes off, a book doesn't offer much help. I try to quickly divide it into 1 of a few categories...
1) an easy page that doesn't take much thought to answer (pt wants something to sleep, bp is 165/105,...)
2) an attention grabber that means I'm getting out bed to assess pt and order stuff (chest pain, unstable vitals, etc) and wondering if I'm going to have to get some assistance from a resident and/or fellow at some point in the near future
3) something in between that could go either way and ends up in me ordering something that I need to remember to check up on in an hour or two
Being a scutmonkey intern has taught me to be efficient and thorough and figure out which patients are sick and which aren't. It also really helps to get good at interpreting CXRs/EKGs/ABGs. I'll grab a book or pop open Up To Date later down the line when I know what is going on, but can't recall a particular treatment or want to double check I'm not missing things in my differential.
I can't wait for July when I will be primarily responsible for 1 patient at a time instead of somewhere between 10 and 50.
