Wards
As a first-year resident, we spend two months on the Ward and one month on the inpatient Heme/Onc service. The ward team consists of an attending, 3 interns, 2 senior residents and 4 to 6 medical students. We take call every 4th night with a senior resident. During the day, the team will cover all inpatient medical pediatric patients (General, Cardiology, Pulmonary, GI, Endocrine, etc.) except Heme/Onc, and at night we'll care for the Heme/Onc kids, too.
A typical day as Wards Intern:
My day begins around 6:30 a.m., when I show up to pre-round on my six to ten patients. At 8 a.m., I go to morning report, where we talk about the patients who were admitted overnight and a resident gives a brief lecture. At 8:30 a.m., I go to rounds with the team where we typically discuss the new admissions first and then talk about old patients. By 10:30 a.m., we are usually done with rounds after which I start working on notes, putting in orders, speaking with families, or calling consultants. At noon I'll sign out to the Senior Resident, then go eat lunch and attend our daily 12:15 p.m. conference. At 1 p.m., I either go to my continuity clinic (one half day per week) or finish getting my work done until 4 p. m. when we have sign-out to the night coverage. We have ID, Radiology and Cardiology afternoon conferences weekly. Every 4th night I am on call with an upper level. I am responsible for admitting new patients, accepting PICU transfers, and handling problems on the floor. We usually admit 6 to 12 patients when on call. In the morning, we spread out the new patients between the interns, so that the patient load is even. During the weekends, I do not have to come in unless I am on call so I have one Saturday, one Sunday, and one full weekend off per month. It is a busy but educational month where I learn a ton of General and Subspecialty Pediatrics.