Sep
21
Emergency Medicine Residency (Part 1.5: Answering an Important Reader Question)
September 21, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Whenever you get a major trauma, do you get your fair share of procedures (chest tubes, central lines, etc..) or do the surgical residents tend to take them? . At our program, because it is a Level I trauma center, trauma surgery is in charge of most of the traumas. The EM residents manage the [...]
Sep
20
Emergency Medicine Residency (Part 1)
September 20, 2007 | Leave a Comment
(The following article is directed primarily at those contemplating matching into Emergency Medicine. Those of you who are not may read it but I make no apologies for targeting a particular group of readers. Emergency Medicine has become a very popular specialty lately so I’m sure there is some interest out there. Most of my [...]
Aug
23
In Which Your Uncle Panda Rips Off the Lid, Rolls it in a Tube, and Places it (Politely) Where the Sun Doesn’t Shine
August 23, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Why Don’t We Starve Them Too? As my regular readers know, I am opposed to the use of sleep deprivation as an educational tool during residency training. The fact that residents are deprived of sleep as a requirement of their job is undeniable especially given the typical call schedules and the obvious fact that work [...]
Jul
9
Tell It To The Marines
July 9, 2007 | Leave a Comment
The Good Old Days As some of you know, I spent a considerable part of my misspent youth in the Marines. I enlisted in 1983. Back then they still had something called “mess duty” which many of you probably know as “KP.” Periodically, non-rated Marines would be pulled from the company to work in the [...]
Jul
4
Welcome to Intern Year
July 4, 2007 | Leave a Comment
(Gentle readers, I present the following which is mostly written in Marine-speak. You have nothing to fear and yet, if you have a weak constitution or are easily upset I implore you to skip this article, perhaps using the time saved to peruse the latest Peanuts comic strip in the newspaper or anything else that [...]
May
11
Sink or Swim: Call and The New Intern
May 11, 2007 | Leave a Comment
(I had call on my first night as an intern almost two years ago and as of last week I am officially and forever done with call. It’s been a long two years and I won’t miss it. I’m working the 11PM to 9AM shift in the Emergency Department this month and I marvel at [...]
May
4
Grow a Pair There he lies, six-foot-five inches of corn-fed American manhood, a horizontal slab of sinew and muscle with a chiseled chin, tousled hair, and perfect teeth whining like a little girl because the nurse is late with his pain medications. For God’s sake buddy, didn’t you get the memo? Of manhood, stoicism is [...]
May
3
Guilty Pleasure
May 3, 2007 | Leave a Comment
(With apologies to Graham-PB) AMA Against the possibility of your thinking poorly of me, let me say at the outset that I did everything I was supposed to do and even a little more. I argued, cajoled, threatened, and I even told him the usual lies that keep people believing in our ability to cheat [...]
Apr
20
Random Ramblings
April 20, 2007 | Leave a Comment
That Doctor It’s official, I have become “That Doctor.” You know, the guy who told them that their father only had three months to live and here he is, six months later, being wheeled in by his triumphant family. I mean, he looks almost the same as when I saw him the last time, maybe [...]
Apr
9
A Letter to an Attending
April 9, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Who do You Think You Are? Dear Sir or Madame, I am exceedingly glad to be done with the rotation. I have been a resident for almost two years and that month was perhaps the worst experience of my medical career. You made what should have been a moderately unpleasant experience which is what we [...]