Finally Finished With General Medical Floors!

It's finally happened. I've officially finished my time in the prison called the "general medical floors." What a milestone!

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Sunday was a short and calm day. One of my patients was a little bit unstable, but I kept them going for the few hours I was there and set them up to be stabilized for the incoming shift, with a direct, solid plan in place to upgrade them to the MICU in case they worsened. Everyone else was stable, and I got through my work quickly and efficiently.

Monday was tougher, especially towards the beginning. A nurse interrupting our rounds multiple times for something very minor (and pissing off our attending as a result lol!), being pulled in a few different directions at once. It ended up fine - I completed everything that I could on a more-than-timely basis. I did not overexert myself by any means. I'm beyond the point of putting in more effort than is worth putting.

Tuesday was easier than I expected, given the fact that all services resumed (Monday was a federal holiday - President's Day), hence there was more for me to follow through upon. Specifically, 5 different patients needed CT scans. Even though I was trying to actively do as little as possible, with the help of my medical students, I managed to push through most of the imaging studies, which was actually pretty remarkable. Hence, despite my efforts to not be productive, I still was - it seems I can't help myself lol.

And that was my final day on the floors. Ended with a bang.

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Now, I sort of lied. This is not necessarily the end of it...

I may get called to cover 1 or 2 days of floors at some point in case someone is out sick or we're short-staffed. These isolated days of coverage pass so quickly that I don't even pay mind to them. I'll quickly forget those days even happened once they pass.

The other possible scenario is substantially worse. Technically, I have one more 2-week block of floors remaining in early May. However, I discussed with our chief residents that I would like to do patient admissions during that block, and they tentatively agreed. In other words, instead of taking care of patients that are already admitted and on the general medical floors, I would be the one admitting the patients to the floors, and it would still count as a complete floor block. I like admissions tremendously more than taking care of already admitted patients because there's more thinking and actual practice of medicine during new admissions.

So, if all goes well and I actually get to do the admissions in May, I'm set to go. My little prison sentence on the floors is complete.

All that remains is: the tough month of March (nighttime admissions and consults, interspersed with daytime board review - that's going to take a large physical toll on my body), some clinic time, some electives, and the aforementioned admission floor block. April 1st through late June will be wonderful. My very last month consists of vacation time and the easiest elective possible.