My first rotation of the intern year is emergency medicine, a rotation that is required for all DOs in this state. My program director, whose wife is a DO, is more familiar with the DO regulations than I am and made sure every DO in the intern class got a month of ER. Very thoughtful and considerate of him. My first day of ER was memorable in that shortly after my shift I overheard a group of nurses talking about how Michael Jackson died. I thought it was a bad joke at first, since Farrah Fawcett had passed away just earlier that day, but as it turned out it wasn't.
Medicine interns work eight hour shifts in 3 time slots: 7am-3pm, 3pm-11pm, and 11pm-7am. At 7am and 11pm the attendings, residents, and interns round on all the patients before the attendings ending their shifts sign out to the ones who are just starting their shifts. In rounds, we present our patient in one sentence, usually stating the name, age, chief complaint, and pertinent labs and other tests. Sometimes the attendings will take time to teach a bit during rounds, but not often (especially if they're in a hurry to go home). Whenever I end my shift, I have to sign out to the EM intern who's worked the fewest hours so far. The EM interns work 10 hour shifts: 7am-5pm, 2pm-midnight, and 9pm-7am. So if I get off at 11pm, I sign out to the 9pm intern. I rarely ever leave at exactly 3pm/11pm/7am, though; I often run an hour or so over.
We don't get to choose our schedules. I can work 3 days and then get the next 2-3 days off, or else I can work 2 days and get 2 off, it varies every time. I also learned to bring all my meals with me to work since there really isn't much time to go to the cafeteria when there are patients to see (not to mention the cafeteria is expensive). The EM attendings treat the medicine interns all right, but clearly favor the EM interns more. Any procedures in the ER go to the EM interns and residents, and medicine interns never attend the traumas. While the EM team is working on a GSW victim who's bleeding out, I'm still writing notes or seeing patients. As for introducing myself as "Dr.____," I'm getting the hang of it, but sometimes I still say my first name during my introduction.
On a side note, I like wearing a long white coat =)
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one thing I didn't want was to compete with other residencies. but it sounds like the ER is pretty busy and you round like an ER residency would. I have an ER month but it will be night shift and it's very much I should what I want to do. But I also have to do floor call and codes in the hospital. I heard it's not bad except the time of day.
I sometimes forget that my coat is long until I see a reflection of me through a glass door. It felt so weird wearing it the first time. I too like saying my name as Dr. instead of student doctor. I think patients listen more but I don't get the luxury of spending as much time with them like I did as a student. It's a lot of rushing from one patient to the next.
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