Friday, June 22, 2007

Wise words: internship starting


Illustration: William Hogarth, Industry and Idleness, Plate V (1747). "The idle apprentice: turn'd away and sent to sea." The British Museum. (Sad: he probably violated rule #8, below.)

Internship starts tomorrow. I'll be starting with the medical ICU, and my first day will include an overnight call night.

Amidst all the emotions associated with the anticipation of such an event, some of the graduating interns came up with tips for us while on rounds, and one of them wrote them up and sent the list out to our email list. Here's an excerpt (the first six are mostly hospital specific):


7. Send each other funny pages--it will keep your spirits up. And make you laugh in the middle of an otherwise serious conversation.
8. Get your coffee on the way to work. Otherwise you'll never get it, and nobody wants that.
9. If you're thinking about writing an order, just write it. Don't make a box on your to-do list to write an order.
10. If you don't know the answer, don't lie and make it up.
11. Don't forget to pee. They trigger patients for more urine output than some interns have. And drink a lot of water.
12. We know you're scared to death. Under no circumstances (unless you are [name of graduating intern]) should you memorize ACLS protocols.
13. And from [name], a graduating senior: "Nobody ever died of note-penia. Just take care of your patients. The note will come."

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Godspeed, Joe. I'm your equivalent on the East side, on call as well. Don't worry, I'll be sending you the funny pages. The lewd ones without names are probably from me.

And the line about note-penia was classic.

Joe Wright said...

Small favors: our patients won't be babies.

I've got to get out of the house now; but I think for the next couple of weeks I'm going to be blog-penic.

Unknown said...

I just finished writing something else on my list of things I'm learning about my new job! I find it so reassuring that we are doing this at the same time.

Also, E got R to pee by offering her candy.

jess said...

haha, i'm on call my first night on the micu, too. good luck!

emily said...

I'm thinking about all of the new interns at all of the nation's hospitals, and all of the nurses and techs who are sighing and having to work harder. They may complain, but the system seems to work. The annual ritual makes hundreds of interns into real doctors! Good luck, good humor, and good patients (and patience) to all!

Drnjbmd said...

Well, Joe, you have to start somewhere and MICU is "somewhere". May your learning curve be steep and may you discover the joys of an internal jugular cordis. I know that you are going to have loads of fun and loads of "Ah Ha" moments in MICU.

Anonymous said...

I'm SO SORRY but, tag. You're it.
http://methedup.net/etc/me-me-meme.html