INTERN UPDATE
Monday, August 8

After working on the floor for one month and 1 wk, I actually feel like a real doctor. All throughout the first month, I felt like a little scared rabbit, hoping that no one would ask me anything, hoping that no one expected anything out of me, hoping that no one would die on me.

When a nurse asked me something, I would stare blankly at him/her, hem and haw, and say, "uh... hm... I'm not sure... what do you usually do in this situation? Let me ask my resident and get back to you."

Now, when a nurse tells me something and gives a recommendation, I am able to say, "yes, that may SEEM to be the right thing to do, but because of A, B, and C, we have to do D." And I'll know that I'm right, because the nurse will suddenly light up, as if remembering that yes, in this situation, it IS appropriate to do D. But I'm no snob to the nurses. I always listen to what they have to say carefully, because no matter what I know and have learned,
they've been here for 5-20 years.

Everytime a nurse calls me, "Dr. Lee!" i feel like snickering, and going "tee hee..." YOU SUCKERS! I'M NOT REALLY A DOCTOR!

...except that I am, and then it's pretty sobering, because the health of patients are at stake here, and I try to pretend it's my mom or dad here in the hospital. after all, they are someone's mom or dad.

2) internship is exhausting work. i think i am getting 4-5 hrs of sleep per night, which doesn't sound that bad, actually. the only thing is, there is no down time.

it's literally wake up, shower, go to work, come home, shower (if i'm feeling up to it), sleep. last wk of night float felt like one, long, long night. you would think that things are quiet at night, but when you are covering 10 interns, each of whom has 8-10 patients (80-100 patients total), each little issue adds to the several HUGE issues, and becomes a colossal amount of work that is never finished. and for some reason, patients die during the night and not the day. don't ask me to explain that phenomena.

yakob at 12:37 AM

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