When you are called in, do you have time...

[sistermike]

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Ok if you are on call and you are at home and someone pages you, do you have time to do your hair? Yeah I know its a really dumb question and when you are called in, that is probably on the bottom of your to-do list but there are people that dread being seen with messy hair (yeah I would have to be one of them). 🙂

 

[tussy]

most of my call is "in house", ei. i sleep in the hospital in a call room. When you get called, you don't have to do your hair most of the time.

Some services allow you to do call from home. You still don't have much time though. There is a patient sitting in the hosptial waiting for you. I think they would rather see you sooner with messy hair than wait an hour for you.

 

[njbmd]

Hi there,
Like tussy, I am in house for call. This usually means that I either get out of bed or stop eating, to go and attend to a patient. When I am on call, I wear scrubs, a lab coat and a surgeon's cap with my hair underneath. That cap takes care of any immediate "bad hair moments".

Since I generally nap (you don't really sleep deeply on call) in a sitting position with my feet up, I don't usually have blanket burns on my face or look too wretched when I am call. I do keep those little Listerine Pocket Breath Strips in my lab coat and splash my face with a little water. Contrary to popular belief, there are very few emergencies that you have to "all out run" to. A brisk walk usually gets you there safer and faster. 😀 After a couple of nights on call, you learn the shortcuts (all of them involve stairs) and you don't worry about what you look like. Most of the folks who look wretched (blanket burns, red eyes and puffy face get teased on morning rounds). I also brush my teeth often and drink plenty of plain water. Coffee can make you more dehydrated so I generally stay away from caffeine-containing drinks after 6pm. I have a small Brita Water bottle that makes any water taste great. 😎

 

[tussy]

Just 2 more words -- pony tail.

The funniest on call is at 5am if there is a trauma - the gen surg, ortho, neurosurg, anesth, and radiology residents all meet together in the trauma bay. Sometimes the helicopter is still landing so we all get there before the patient. We make fun of each other because we all just jumped out of bed and sprinted down to the ER.

There is a shower in my call room, so if it's been a quiet night i might get up a few mintues early to clean myself up before rounds.

 

[Winged Scapula]

I'll echo the thoughts of the others. With the exception of 1 rotation this year, I am in house for all nights on call. For the home call rotation, there was time to bruch my hair but frankly I would not have stopped to do much more (ie, wash, curl, etc.) for 2 reasons: 1) someone is WAITING for you and 2) the sooner you get to the patient, the sooner you finish and the more sleep you can get before having to start the next day.

For in-house call, I generally do nothing to my hair if I get called for a trauma or have to go see a patient on the floor/SICU - maybe just put it up in clip. ALL of us look bad, so there really isn't much to worry about. Believe me, I'm a very vain woman but SOME THINGS you just have to give up - I'll even start morning rounds without showering and putting make-up on (because if you've been up all night, or have to start writing notes at midnight to get them all done before 5 am, there just isn't time).

Hope this helps.