Indok’s Blog

A taste of the future

My awesome intern was sick this week. There are 25 patients on this floor and we can’t order things or sign things.  This past week gave me a taste of what next year will be for me.

A lot of maintaining your ward is about organization - a character that was mostly passed down to my brother than to myself.  Every morning I came in to print out new labs of our patients, then do morning rounds with the head attending.  Learning about the new admissions and then filling out discharge papers, ordering labs, and filling out any other paper work.  This is a lot of work before lunch.  Then after lunch, we have afternoon rounds and new admissions.  It was a bit overwhelming this week, but we did it and I’m proud of myself.

It’s a lot of work - the medicine floors is hectic and you always have to be on top of your game.  But I love it.  I wake up tired but happy.  The way medicine is practiced here is so great.  The internist really do most of the work rather than consulting some specialist right off the bat.  I love that!  It establishes such a great feeling of ownership and accomplishment.     However being short staffed comes with it’s frustrations. There are days that I feel like we’re not doing enough with a patient and I wish I could just have some time to read about this patient and really figure out what’s going on.

I had a patient like this not too long ago - one that was very confused and just continued to worsen.  I remember wanting to read her case more thoroughly but she died the next day.  I wasn’t necessarily sad that she died, but I was frustrated that we didn’t know what killed her.

Sorry to be so abrupt, but I have to go with friends right now.  Till next time my friends!