Confessions of an Intern

Week Thirty-two

I have never been so ready to be done with a rotation in my life. OB was better than this! The final week of inpatient medicine for this month definitely went out with a fizzle. I worked the weekend to finish off a hellacious week that was so exhausting I was giddy. I got most of my tears out last week, but there were several bittersweet moments for this week. I think God knew I needed a boost, as several days I was given hugs by patients, told that I was a 'God-send' or and 'Angel of God'. I was thanked and told by patients that I was helpful and kind.

Leading up to this week, I was sapped of much of my spirit, being drawn through so many trying situations. I am good at much of that I hate doing. I always said in regard to my career path that I believed if you could handle something, you probably ought to do it. I'm not bothered by blood and guts, I can handle stressful situations, give shots, etc. I can also talk to people about death and dying, pain, and difficult situations. I can handle it, I should probably do it. I wouldn't want to be expected to be able to weld a water tank, do construction and scale heights. I cannot do those things, so I should not do them. See what I mean?

So my week of wonderment and awe...(do you hear the sarcasm?)...ended with me rounding on an ever growing list of 16 patients, just me and my faculty. Thank goodness the faculty saw some of the patients. I have to see the patients and then check out to my faculty, so we try to get everything done by a set time. This weekend was a bit stressful, because I started with three in the ICU and a couple of really ill folks on the floor. The attending I worked with was one I'd really never worked with before, so I wasn't sure what ot expect of him and what his expectations for me were. I basically just did what I knew needed done and went with it. I have heard from some that on inpatient medicine they still don't really have privileges to write orders or write prescriptions or anything without it going through a 3rd year or faculty. In our program, it is fairly individualized as to where you are at with your competency. This week showed me that I am gaining competency. There were several instances where my faculty asked me questions about what to do. I was also asked if I was a walking drug reference...Hehe...If only residents had to do what I did as a nursing student. Before I could give a med as a nurse, I had to know the side effects, mechanism of action, administration precautions and dose info. As residents, we have had pharmacology, but I guarantee they would know more if they had to know those things before they could write the prescription (they are supposed to by the way).

Anyway, besides checking out the patients with my faculty, I had to check out to the oncoming residents. We give report to the new folks who are coming 'on service' so they know where we stand in the treatment. The interns were fairly reasonable as to the questions they asked. The second year was not really in the mood for inpatient service, I could tell, because there was a bunch of heavy sighs and questions about stuff they could easily look up. My 3rd year...now that is someone I could stand to never talk to again about medicine. He was on with me all of Saturday afternoon and I had talked to him about many of the patients. Then at 5:30 pm he asks me to check out. I'm thinking 'Awesome, I'll get out of here a little early!'...Nope. I was freaking there until 7 pm checking out to him, then I still had discharges and orders to write! What a jerk. He kept asking nitpicky questions, most of which we'd already discussed earlier in the day, many of which the answers I had already given if only he'd been listening.

I'm done with inpatient for now. I get a refreshing break for  a little while now, working out of the office and having a little bit more sane hourly schedule. One more inpatient month of intern year to go, then the inpatient months slow down. I still like it, I'm good at it...I'm just tired of it for now. I'm ready for my second wind...anytime now.