IM Sub-I: First Day

This morning I reported to the Professional Office Building at the hospital for a quick HIPAA orientation before getting my badge and parking permit. There, I was pleasantly surprised to see Liza, who's doing a cardiology sub-I here. Nice to see a familiar (and friendly) face.

There are five medicine teams, and I was assigned to the Blue Team. The attending is Dr. C; he asked me about my school and where I did my medicine rotations. I met the rest of the team in the ER: Greg, a 2nd year; Zack, a transitional intern; Yan, a medicine intern; and An, a third year who's been on the team for the past month. Later I asked one of the chief residents what was expected of me, and she said that she expects AIs (students doing an acting internship) to step up to the plate and act like interns. In other words, third years would have to answer to me. Good to know. I've been paired with Yan, and after she taught me how to use the computer system, she said I could go to the library and study unless I get paged. Ummm...study what? I didn't exactly bring any prep books with me. Instead I familiarized myself with the two patients I'll be following starting tomorrow. I also explored the hospital and found the medical library, which was located in a different building and is a long walk away from the hospital (via walkways, of course). An saw me wasting time in the foyer and suggested that if I had nothing to do, I should just go home. I called Yan and asked if I could leave (2 hrs early), and she said ok. In those two hours, I drove to the campus and browsed through the Co-op, buying a $5 T-shirt in the process in order to get my ticket validated. There's a parking garage for the Co-op now, which was a good move; the old parking lots were way too small.

Call is q5, and it follows in this sequence: Pre-Call, Call, Post-Call, Short Call A, and Short Call B, before it starts all over again. Short calls take place either from 8-12 or 12-4 pm; i.e. yesterday my team was on Short Call B and picked up 4 pts, including a bounceback. On a call day, shifts are staggered so that one intern comes in the morning and rounds on all the patients, then the other intern comes later at noon. Since I'm with Yan, I'll come early in the morning to help her pre-round. Due to a limited number of overnight call rooms, students don't stay past 10:00 pm; that means An and I can get a decent night's sleep every night. Not that I'm complaining.