So it has officially begun...

[Venus21pam]

Ladies and gentlemen: it's time for me to get serious.
Starting Monday I'm officially on the service.

I'll be on the wards (luckily) however, I'm on call my first day! How lovely

I was "voluntold" to come in on Sunday morning to round with the weekend team and get the hang of things before Monday. I guess that's a good thing - I should be able to at least figure out who to call to save my bvtt on Monday.

So keep your fingers crossed and don't get sick on Moday!!

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[excalibur]

i'll be starting the following week, Venus. Thankfully, in cardiology. I really can't complain about my schedule. At Arkansas we have to do 4 months of surgery for anesthesiology, and those months are perfectly spread out at q 3 months starting in August. It's going to be a rough year...we anesthesia kids gotta stick together.

 

[cchoukal]

voluntold. I love it. The reminds of being a medical student on the friday before a golden wknd. The residents always seemed to say something like, "hey, enjoy not coming in this wknd. Of course, we'll be here, so if you WANT to come in, you should feel free." Nice. Anyway, good luck on the first day. Don't kill anyone.

 

[Venus21pam]

Anyway, good luck on the first day. Don't kill anyone.

well, I will certainly try not to. That's my main objective for the first month

At Arkansas we have to do 4 months of surgery for anesthesiology

4 months?? That's rough. Hang in there!

 

[lfcdoc]

I start tomorrow; I'm on call too. Despite appropriate efforts on my part I haven't even been able to find out exactly when and where to meet. I don't even know how to use the computer system, though I'm going to try to play around on it a bit tonight yet. Overall, feeling great about it....yeah right.

 

[Venus21pam]

I start tomorrow; I'm on call too. Despite appropriate efforts on my part I haven't even been able to find out exactly when and where to meet. I don't even know how to use the computer system, though I'm going to try to play around on it a bit tonight yet. Overall, feeling great about it....yeah right.

Well, good luck and I'll keep my fingers crossed!

 

[OB1🤙]

Waddup Excalibur. Hope Little Rock's treating you right.

Starting as of today too. In the ER which isn't too bad- I feel comfortable there for the most part (at least I did as a med student, and that's obviously a whole 'nother rodeo), and no call. Still scared as hell.

Our categorical anesthesia intern schedule isn't too bad- 3 months gmed wards, 3 ICU, 1.5 consult, 1 ER, 1 CCU/tele, 1 outpt clinic, 0.5 night float, 1 anesthesia, 1 vacation. Q5-6 on wards, Q4 ICU/CCU. Not too bad at all.

Good luck everyone!

 

[Venus21pam]

That's a pretty good call schedule there Bruin

I have my first call behind me and let me tell you - it was hell!
The ED docs were throwing admissions at me left and right, I had like five within one hour!
In the meantime the nurses, social workers, case managers, and god knows who else were paging me like every five minutes.
I haven't had anything to eat or drink from 10am to almost midnight.
I barely had time to run to the bathroom.
Welcome to hell I guess.

One of my co-interns who was on call on surgery asked me jokingly: is it too late to apply to law school?

If anyone else wants to share their experiences of day 1 I'll be thrilled to read about them!

 

[johnstoner]

i think i can beat that...

4 months wards - 2 of them are q8 and 1 is q5 and 1 is q4
1 month neuro- i'm not sure what the call is
1 month pediatric ER - no call
1 month adult ER - no call
1 month rheum - no call
1 month primary care clinic - no call
3 months electives - no call
and no ICU months

well...but then again...i'm in a transitional year program, though a tougher one.

 

[Tired]

The Good News:
- q5 call
- solid co-interns on service
- first block is only three weeks
- immediately lower expectations when wearing "Orthopedic Surgery" on coat

The Bad News:
- starting on Neurosurg
- July 1st?! I think not kids, I start Friday

 

[Long Dong]

i think i can beat that...

4 months wards - 2 of them are q8 and 1 is q5 and 1 is q4
1 month neuro- i'm not sure what the call is
1 month pediatric ER - no call
1 month adult ER - no call
1 month rheum - no call
1 month primary care clinic - no call
3 months electives - no call
and no ICU months

well...but then again...i'm in a transitional year program, though a tougher one.

What program is this? Sounds sweet.

 

[danielmd06]

I have my first call behind me and let me tell you - it was hell!
The ED docs were throwing admissions at me left and right, I had like five within one hour!
In the meantime the nurses, social workers, case managers, and god knows who else were paging me like every five minutes.
I haven't had anything to eat or drink from 10am to almost midnight.
I barely had time to run to the bathroom.
Welcome to hell I guess.

One of my co-interns who was on call on surgery asked me jokingly: is it too late to apply to law school?

Mwahahaha. Better you than me.

Hang in there. It'll fly by faster than you would believe.

 

[sophiejane]

Wow...I'm feeling kind of spoiled. We have a whole extra week of (paid) orientation where we just follow the different hospital services and learn how to do stuff before we start next Monday.

Did I mention no admitting call after 5:30 pm, home call, every other weekend off on all hospital services, and the only overnights in the hospital are on OB and night float (total of 3 months)?

 

[Green912]

Starting in the ED tomorrow. Not a bad way to begin. Four 10 hour shifts a week and no call. Next month will be a different story on OB/GYN.

 

[Tired]

Here's how my first day went.

I get there early to try to get a handle on the 15 patients on Neurosurg. Did I mention that I'm the only intern, with no resident (only the Chief)?

My 3rd patient:
58yo male, elective laminectomy with fusion, POD#3. Febrile the day before and overnight, tachy to the low 100's. Denies SOB, chest pain, leg pain, N/V, cough, body aches. Overnight intern gave Tylenol but no workup. Foley, fluids, good PO intake. Meds include heparin DVT prophylaxis, BP meds, lisinopril, glucophage, and glyburide. Physical exam is normal.

I come on, check out the patient, whose temp is now down to 99.6, no complaints except mild-to-moderate pain at the surgical site. My plan: CBC, blood cultures, urine culture, no empiric abx, slight changes in his pain meds.

So guess what?

Sprial CT shows not one, but two small PEs.

Son of $%&@*! I missed a PE on my first damn day.

<sigh> tomorrow is a new day.

 

[strangeglove]

Here's how my first day went.

I get there early to try to get a handle on the 15 patients on Neurosurg. Did I mention that I'm the only intern, with no resident (only the Chief)?

My 3rd patient:
58yo male, elective laminectomy with fusion, POD#3. Febrile the day before and overnight, tachy to the low 100's. Denies SOB, chest pain, leg pain, N/V, cough, body aches. Overnight intern gave Tylenol but no workup. Foley, fluids, good PO intake. Meds include heparin DVT prophylaxis, BP meds, lisinopril, glucophage, and glyburide. Physical exam is normal.

I come on, check out the patient, whose temp is now down to 99.6, no complaints except mild-to-moderate pain at the surgical site. My plan: CBC, blood cultures, urine culture, no empiric abx, slight changes in his pain meds.

So guess what?

Sprial CT shows not one, but two small PEs.

Son of $%&@*! I missed a PE on my first damn day.

<sigh> tomorrow is a new day.

What else are you going to do, get a CT on every febrile patient? Don't sweat it.

 

[nutmegs]

Here's how my first day went.

I get there early to try to get a handle on the 15 patients on Neurosurg. Did I mention that I'm the only intern, with no resident (only the Chief)?

My 3rd patient:
58yo male, elective laminectomy with fusion, POD#3. Febrile the day before and overnight, tachy to the low 100's. Denies SOB, chest pain, leg pain, N/V, cough, body aches. Overnight intern gave Tylenol but no workup. Foley, fluids, good PO intake. Meds include heparin DVT prophylaxis, BP meds, lisinopril, glucophage, and glyburide. Physical exam is normal.

I come on, check out the patient, whose temp is now down to 99.6, no complaints except mild-to-moderate pain at the surgical site. My plan: CBC, blood cultures, urine culture, no empiric abx, slight changes in his pain meds.

So guess what?

Sprial CT shows not one, but two small PEs.

Son of $%&@*! I missed a PE on my first damn day.

<sigh> tomorrow is a new day.

why'd someone get it?

 

[excalibur]

Wow...I'm feeling kind of spoiled. We have a whole extra week of (paid) orientation where we just follow the different hospital services and learn how to do stuff before we start next Monday.

Did I mention no admitting call after 5:30 pm, home call, every other weekend off on all hospital services, and the only overnights in the hospital are on OB and night float (total of 3 months)?

Paid orientation?? What's that?

 

[sophiejane]

Paid orientation?? What's that?

Total 3 weeks of paid orientation. I know. They give you a taste of heaven before sending you straight to hell for 3 years.

 

[Samoa]

Wow, this thread is a bona fide Tulane '07 reunion...

The anesthesia ppl here at UW spend 4 months on surgery also. Two months of it are on ER-trauma (which is run by surgery here).

I started last Monday on the burns/plastics service, which is not so bad. Plastics is fun, and the burn service is fantastic, once you mentally get past the fact that, yes, we're skinning people and yes, they're alive, albeit anesthetized.

So my first day, we rounded and then I was assigned to the OR all day. The whole week, in fact. But this next week I'm in the ICU 6a-6p, so the rubber hits the road pretty soon.

After this I'm on trauma surgery at the county hospital for two months, and then plastics again for two months, then neurosurg, VA, peds surg, neurosurg again, then ER-trauma, vacation, surg onc and ending on vascular.

It's gonna be a fun year, I think.

 

[Tired]

why'd someone get it?

They wanted to explain the tachycardia and fever without having to do a full ID workup. Also, since I had just come on service, they were well-aware of his history of PEs, and this was not passed on to me during signout.

Bleah.

He's doing fine by the way. I holding on to my streak of "no dead patients are my fault in July" (Day #2!!!!).

 

[sophiejane]

"no dead patients are my fault in July" (Day #2!!!!).

 

[excalibur]

Anyone run any codes yet? The hospital I'm at is a private one, and you're the only resident on at night, and when a code blue occurs, your paged to "run the code". Obviously you're going to do the best you can, but the nurses and respiratory staff who show up and have been doing this for years are going to help you. Still, being labeled as in charge of the code on your first month of internship is scary. We'll see come this sunday when I'm on call if I get one.

 

[Venus21pam]

Wow excalibur, that is pretty scary.

Speaking of codes I missed one the other day. My pager went off and I didn't catch it so I called the operator to trace it and she's like "oh, that was a code page". Freakin great!

 

[Bevo]

yeah

Lucky that all I have to do is cpr and they only run a code for 20-30 mins here. Where I did my medicine core, we ran codes for 45? mins before they called it. I was called for a code after I had signed out today. It had been an hour since I left the hospital premesis and I got paged 4 times in a min. Nurse yelled at me that I should be there. I told her I had signed out if she could please call the oncall resident who has the code pager.
Since its a holiday, they treat the day as a weekend shift. So once we finish our work and round with the attending, we're free to check out. Its still feels weird though. I still feel like I'm the student.

 

[sophiejane]

Anyone run any codes yet? The hospital I'm at is a private one, and you're the only resident on at night, and when a code blue occurs, your paged to "run the code". Obviously you're going to do the best you can, but the nurses and respiratory staff who show up and have been doing this for years are going to help you. Still, being labeled as in charge of the code on your first month of internship is scary. We'll see come this sunday when I'm on call if I get one.

Same here.

We have to start the code at least. ER comes up and intubates, and I'm sure would take over if necessary, but still...

I keep telling myself, okay, it's not that hard. Do your ABCs, shockable, not shockable? Deliver shocks, continue CPR, start drugs.

I'm going to get an ACLS card and keep it with me. I'm current on all that, but still, you can't kill a dummy.

 

[excalibur]

where can we get those ACLS cards? I saw some of my fellow Arkansas interns with them. they said it was given to them at ACLS training while in school at Arkansas. I'm sure I could order it online, but any quick, easy, free way to obtain them would be appreciated.

 

[Green912]

Anyone run any codes yet? The hospital I'm at is a private one, and you're the only resident on at night, and when a code blue occurs, your paged to "run the code". Obviously you're going to do the best you can, but the nurses and respiratory staff who show up and have been doing this for years are going to help you. Still, being labeled as in charge of the code on your first month of internship is scary. We'll see come this sunday when I'm on call if I get one.

Not to be harsh, but don't be too impressed with others ACLS skills until you've seen them in action. I've been teaching ACLS for about 7 years and I've seen some truly scary techs and nurses who've "been doing it" for years. Not able to read basic rhythm strips, don't know first-line drugs, etc...

 

[Bertelman]

My sweet year..
12wk GM wards, q4
4 wk each cards, renal, crit care, q4

off-call 4 weeks each neuro, cards c/s, pulm c/s, OB, Heme/Onc, ER, Rads

Then 4 wks vacation.
Holla.

First week (neuro c/s) of internship I consistently arrived at 0900, attended a few meetings, saw basically one pt per day, no notes to write. Home by 1600. Even my neighbor, an artist, was jealous of my hours.