Hiatus

I think I know why I can't keep a blog going...I think my frequency of posting is directly related to my degree of excitement about my current rotation, and indirectly related to the amount of time I have on my hands to blog.

Right now I am on a rotation that I loathe. With the fire of a thousand suns. Thus, no updates.

It's not so much the rotation itself (pediatrics) but the residents and interns who make it so intolerable. The rotation director has also put into place some ridiculous policies that make it very difficult to not hate every second I spend at the hospital these days. For example:

1. Students take call Q4 (every fourth day) until 10 PM. This means students admit any patients that come in between 4 PM (end of our official shift) and 10 PM. Most students are released by their residents by 8 PM if they haven't admitted a patient, since admitting a patient and running through orders and the presentation with your resident takes for-e-ver, and students (unlike the intern and resident on call) are NOT allowed to leave after rounds the day after taking call. Which is all fine until you get the resident who makes you stay and admit a patient at 9:30 and then you're there until after midnight and back less than 6 hours later and have to stay until 5 PM the following day while your intern and resident sleep in their nice warm beds.

2. Students have to be present any time the residents "run the list". This entails going over every patient's to-do list for that day: follow up on labs, schedule/order/followup on MRI/CT/Xrays, whatever. A necessary evil. The trouble comes when this running of the list happens FIFTY THOUSAND TIMES because the interns are painfully inefficient and the resident is a crazy control freak. And students have to listen to this at least 4-5 times a day.

Ugh. I'm getting all annoyed just thinking about this nonsense. I can't wait to be a resident to PUT AN END to the NONSENSE. Holy jesus people. Please have mercy on your medical students.