Archive for September, 2008

You don’t want to just survive your internship and residency, do you?

Of course not. You want to excel.

But most of the books…

most of the websites…

and nearly everyone you talk to out there…

They all seem to warn you about what a disaster your internship and residency can be. They speak of grueling nights on-call; rarely, if ever, seeing your family and friends; and getting utterly embarrassed by attendings in front of everyone. They worry you with talk of malpractice, needle sticks, medical errors, and boards preparation.

Well, it doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, it isn’t this way. I should know… I’ve been there…

And I’ve posted some videos to help you to have success in your internship and residency. Just go to this tips and pearls for residency video to start.

You’re on-call and it’s three in the morning. You get called from the ER and you call them back from your call room, because you had just laid down. You’ll find that it’s almost like they have a direct connection to your pillow. As soon as your head hits that pillow, they’ll call you.

You call back and they see the in-house caller ID “resident call room” and the ER doc says, “Whoa! Dr. Tori, trying to get some sleep? Trying to rest your head? Why don’t you come on down? I have a few admissions for you.”

Great. That kind of stuff starts to tick you off after awhile. The first few times you’re like sure and you head on down. The next few times you start to get the idea that people think you’re a slacker because you’re in your call room.

Well, here’s the thing… (more…)

Ready for this?… It’s a shocker… A study published in the Vol. 300 No. 10, September 10, 2008 issue of JAMA concludes,

“increased on-call workload was associated with more sleep loss, longer shift duration, and a lower likelihood of participation in educational activities.”

You can see the article abstract here: Association of Workload of On-Call Medical Interns With On-Call Sleep Duration, Shift Duration, and Participation in Educational Activities