starting my peds internship soon. Just found out that i will be on floor for the first block...any useful tips like how to impress the attending,seniors and learn enough at the same time....i am excited and scared at the same time!
on floor for the first block
- Thread starter heman466s
- Start date
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2002
- Messages
- 5,016
- Reaction score
- 1,590
Sometimes folks miss the stickies up above....
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=266682
I would say that for ward interns, focusing on really good sign-offs is a key.
Wanna impress everyone? Know what the kidney does for a living
. I mean that stuff they taught you in med school that you didn't really learn then!
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2007
- Messages
- 711
- Reaction score
- 29
Congrats on starting residency! I just found out I will be ward senior my first month of 3rd year, so I'm deciding what my brand new PL-1s can do to impress me. I think the first thing is to not try to impress your seniors/attendings/etc. Everyone knows the first wards experiences is super hard; understanding how a hospital works is hard enough, never mind the fact that you'll be taking care of sick kids while your pediatric knowledge is in its infancy. So what I will probably tell my interns is:
- know your patients very well, it's hard/impossible for the senior to know all the details about every patient
- spend time with your patients and on the floor. Talk with the nurses. Resist the urge to go to the lounge and shoot the s*** with your colleagues. Be accessible to your seniors.
- There are no stupid things to page your senior about, at any time of day or night. I expect new interns to either not know a lot of answers or to be unsure of their plans. Have a plan, but page liberally! I'd rather get 100 pages about basic things (because they're not basic to you yet) than not hear about a kid getting sicker until it's time to call the PICU.
- read on your kids (if you can, the days are exhausting)
- Write good H&Ps with a thoughtful assessment and plan.
I'm sure there's more than that, and hopefully your seniors will spend a few minutes the first week discussing their expectations. Best of luck.
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2002
- Messages
- 3,915
- Reaction score
- 22
You are in a tough situation and I would not expect too much "understanding" from those around you. The learning curve is steep in intern year and there is no steeper curve than inpatient floor (in many programs).
Your job, in addition to what was stated above, is to quickly adapt to admitting patients (H&P), writing admission orders and communicating effectively with staff, peers and seniors.
For every patient you will need to
1. focus your H&P depending on the complaint
2. create a solid H&P that can communicate pertinent pos/neg and explain your reasoning for admission orders (by simply reading it)
3. Always have a plan for differential -> workup -> treatment -> discharge criteria
4. Know the worst case scenario is how to deal with it
5. HAVE A PLAN (and read about the condition before presenting the patient). 5 minutes on uptodate can make you go from zero-to-hero
6. Always ask questions. If you don't ask questions, you look disinterested and will miss out because everyone is too busy to look over your shoulder and hold your hand.
Your job, in addition to what was stated above, is to quickly adapt to admitting patients (H&P), writing admission orders and communicating effectively with staff, peers and seniors.
For every patient you will need to
1. focus your H&P depending on the complaint
2. create a solid H&P that can communicate pertinent pos/neg and explain your reasoning for admission orders (by simply reading it)
3. Always have a plan for differential -> workup -> treatment -> discharge criteria
4. Know the worst case scenario is how to deal with it
5. HAVE A PLAN (and read about the condition before presenting the patient). 5 minutes on uptodate can make you go from zero-to-hero
6. Always ask questions. If you don't ask questions, you look disinterested and will miss out because everyone is too busy to look over your shoulder and hold your hand.
