Right now I'm on inpatient medicine - which means that I work in my base hospital and take care of adults who are in the hospital for various problems - ranging from shock to heart attacks, from pneumonia to osteomyelitis (bone infections), from diverticulitis to altered mental status, from deep venous thromboembolism to urinary tract infections and everything in between. It is interesting to say the least. It is one of our harder rotations, but also one that I learn A LOT nearly everyday.
I was going to take the time in this post to share with a quick view of what an average day is like, because if you've ever been a patient or a visitor of a patient in a hospital - you are probably wondering where is the doctor?
I wake up between 4:45-5:00 am, let the dogs outside before Penny decides to pee in the house. Feed the dogs bfast. Shower (or not if I did the night before), throw on some scrubs, grab a quick bfast then head out the door by 5:30-5:40. Sign out (which is where the night doctor tells us if any significant events happened overnight with our patients. Then 6:15-6:30ish we look at any new labs online, vital signs, etc and go see the patients. We meet at around 8:00-8:30 and round with the attending. (This schedule is what happens in a teaching hospital where there are residents - in other settings some of these steps are removed and many physicians still run clinics during the days while they check in on their patients either in the mornings or evenings). Rounding consists of us presenting the patient's to our boss. Going over the new problems, what we are doing to fix the problem, physical exam, etc. This is where a lot of our teaching happens. After rounds, the we go back to put orders - such as changes in medication, diet, new tests needed, etc.
In the afternoon we work on getting discharge paperwork finished. There is A LOT of paper work that has to be filled out to get patient's discharged from the hospital. In addition, we often have to act like detectives trying to track down old medical records or call pharmacy's to find out the dose of patient's medication, because.... well - they often don't know what their medications are or if they know the meds, they don't know the doses, etc. We also call consults if we need a specialist opinion, follow up tests, and admit new patients that come in from the emergency department or the clinic. Which surprisingly can keep us busy all afternoon. In addition - nurses are calling asking questions. Each time the phone rings - I think to myself silently, please let me able to answer this question. My knowledge is growing, but I still have a LOOOONNNNGGGG way to go.
This keeps us busy all afternoon until evening signout at 5pm, where we tell the night team what to watch out for, who to follow up with, etc. That takes us until 5:30-6pm and thus there is your 12 hour day x 6 days a week. Whew - let me tell you it wears on you and man am I tired by the end of the week.
Tomorrow I promise a fun blog post that will be sure to make you smile :)
I wake up between 4:45-5:00 am, let the dogs outside before Penny decides to pee in the house. Feed the dogs bfast. Shower (or not if I did the night before), throw on some scrubs, grab a quick bfast then head out the door by 5:30-5:40. Sign out (which is where the night doctor tells us if any significant events happened overnight with our patients. Then 6:15-6:30ish we look at any new labs online, vital signs, etc and go see the patients. We meet at around 8:00-8:30 and round with the attending. (This schedule is what happens in a teaching hospital where there are residents - in other settings some of these steps are removed and many physicians still run clinics during the days while they check in on their patients either in the mornings or evenings). Rounding consists of us presenting the patient's to our boss. Going over the new problems, what we are doing to fix the problem, physical exam, etc. This is where a lot of our teaching happens. After rounds, the we go back to put orders - such as changes in medication, diet, new tests needed, etc.
In the afternoon we work on getting discharge paperwork finished. There is A LOT of paper work that has to be filled out to get patient's discharged from the hospital. In addition, we often have to act like detectives trying to track down old medical records or call pharmacy's to find out the dose of patient's medication, because.... well - they often don't know what their medications are or if they know the meds, they don't know the doses, etc. We also call consults if we need a specialist opinion, follow up tests, and admit new patients that come in from the emergency department or the clinic. Which surprisingly can keep us busy all afternoon. In addition - nurses are calling asking questions. Each time the phone rings - I think to myself silently, please let me able to answer this question. My knowledge is growing, but I still have a LOOOONNNNGGGG way to go.
This keeps us busy all afternoon until evening signout at 5pm, where we tell the night team what to watch out for, who to follow up with, etc. That takes us until 5:30-6pm and thus there is your 12 hour day x 6 days a week. Whew - let me tell you it wears on you and man am I tired by the end of the week.
Tomorrow I promise a fun blog post that will be sure to make you smile :)
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