to do as much nothing as possible...indigo, md

Welcome to Intern Year...an excerpt from another great blog about medicine and stuff....those of you not in medicine...this is sadly accurate...and those of you in medicine...you know i am right! Is That Smoke Coming Out of Your Ass or Mine? You are loved. No doubt about it, the one lesson of your intern orientation is that now, finally, after four years of medical school where you were beneath contempt in the medical hierarchy you are now one of the gang, a valued colleague, someone who will be treated collegially. After all, as the designated speakers will point out with heroic rhetorical flourishes, whereas up until now you didn’t count, now you do and with your great responsibilty as real doctors comes the expectation that you will be treated professionally and courteously. Then of course you will actually start intern year and they will treat you like a piece of shit, both institutionally and professionally. Need some sleep? “Fuck you.” Want some time off? “Screw you, you big fuck...

IMG_2227.JPG Originally uploaded by IndigoPhoto2233 this is what my foot looked like two weeks after the injury that occurred 11/06 and can i tell you that i am still having a terrible time with the foot. diagnosed one year later is a non-union fracture of the cuboid at the fourth metatarsal....woohoo....rare fracture cuz i'm a doc....what i'm told anywho!!!!

now as many may know and others may not...for about four years now there has been legislation that regulates the work hours for medical residents...now when i say regulates...i really mean provides guidelines that some follow, many do not, despite the appearance that they are followed on paper....including the 80 hour work week restriction with q3 call and blah blah blah. now just by saying you are "limiting" work hours to 80 a week is insane. if you do the math there are 24hours/day, seven days/week...that means there are 168hours in a full week. so technically our limit is just under half the hours in the total week. not so bad right! only half...that leaves the other half for things like...hhmmmm sleep. after the 80 hours you have 88 hours left....now if you consider sleeping daily...which doesn't always occur...and sleeping an average of 7hours/night....which is on the conservative side of sleep requirements for most people...then you are sleeping...hopefully....about...

Somehow things that are foreign to so many become second nature...how and when does this happen in our training?