Call

Call here is brutal; it's 30+ hours long with minimal or no sleep (I've been averaging 36 hours). The day begins normally at 5am for pre-rounding on patients. We round at 6, finishing up ward work before conference at 7:30 after which we go to the operating room or clinics. The day usually ends at 6 or so but on call days, we spend time with the overnight team. Usually, things are busy with Emergency Department consults, OR cases that weren't finished in the work day, and trauma activations (tomorrow's post). This can last all night; during free time, we see the ward patients to make sure they are doing well. If lucky, we can steal sleep in half hour increments in the call rooms (which are nice; they're personal rooms with a computer, bed, and bathroom with shower). The morning rolls around surprisingly fast and we're pre-rounding on our patients again and finishing up stuff by 10 or 11 (and dating our notes with the wrong date). Unfortunately, students are required to stay for afternoon lectures even post-call so I've been in the hospital until 5pm on my post-call days. The other thing about this rotation is that we come in on a lot of weekends to see our hospital ward patients; on Labor Day weekend, I had to work both Saturday and Sunday. It's a time-consuming rotation.