The new interns are here; our new chiefs were giving them a tour around the hospital. They look so young and fresh and full of vigor. It really accentuates how much I feel kind of beaten down, and I'm not even on that hard of a rotation this month. (It's "only" 60 hours per week!) But the exhaustion from all year long kind of adds up, because you never really get a chance to recover completely.
It affects you in all kinds of little ways, like how I used to be a morning person, and now I have a hard time waking up in general. That's true at any time of the day, really. But getting up at 4:30AM ain't as easy as it used to be, even when I fell asleep at 8PM the night before. I also find it harder to be patient when random people want to strike up conversations. Such as, I ordered takeout, and the delivery guy was wanting to tell me about how bad his day was. I'm like, I listen to people tell me about their problems all day long. I don't want to listen to yours on my off time. Here's your money. Here's your tip. Now scram!
I have my first 24 hour call on Tuesday. I'll be working at the community hospital, which I really like, but I hate having to drive out there and back (typically 45 min to an hour each way, depending on traffic and weather). There's just something soul-sucking about finishing a shift exhausted and then having to get in the car and drive home, especially because this hospital is way out in the middle of nowhere and it's dark as all get out at night. (Shouldn't there be some law requiring street lights on rural highways???) I'm always a little anxious when I drive past the signs that say, "deer crossing, next 40 miles." If a deer was standing in the middle of the road waving its front hoofs frantically at me, I wouldn't even be able to see him until after we both wound up trapped in my back seat.
Overall, I'm glad I won't be an intern any more though. I'm sick of playing "pimp the intern," which is a popular pastime at my program among certain faculty and even upper level residents.
🙄 The times when I was treated less than kindly are still fresh enough in my mind that I will take a step back and not treat the new interns in kind. Nor will I let my classmates. I don't like arrogant people or primadonnas, but I can smile to myself and let live. It's bullies that I really can't stand, and unfortunately, medicine is rife with them.