New Interns

It is that time of the year when the residents turn over; chief residents graduate and new interns arrive, wide-eyed and bushy-tailed. All of us seasoned vets remember that first day of intern year, that overwhelming feeling, that fear and anxiety, and the absolute bewilderment at not knowing how to do anything. But we're put into a tough position. Breaking in an intern, walking them through the simplest things, is frustratingly time consuming. From logistics like how to page a consultant and how to put in an order to critical patient activities such as evaluating someone in extremis, we feel like we're doing double the work as we walk a newbie through. And looking at their shocked faces, we remember how hard it was and want to cushion things, to make it easier, to shy them away from the pain. But on days like today - when I had six admissions, one emergent intubation, a patient pass away from an unlivable injury, a family meeting, and a miraculous transfer to commandeer - I simply can't hold the punches. Sometimes you just have to be thrown in the deep end and come up swimming. All that being said, and this being a public blog, I do want to say that it is the responsibility of rising residents and our attendings to keep patients safe, and even in a time when freshly minted medical students struggle with the transition to being MDs, we do not let patient care become compromised.