Earning my knighthood

I've been working nights the last few weeks. It's been a pleasant change from working in the days (though I really had a lot of fun in my Infectious diseases rotation). For better or worse most of my conversations have now been reduced to:

"Hi I'm Lumpage one of the night doctors. Sorry to wake you, you looked quite comfortable. The nursing staff have told me something interesting about you. How are you feeling in this regard? Oh, I see. Let me have a look at your whatsits... Well let's try this and this. No I don't know what your usual doctors are planning for you, I just look after everybody at night. Now lie still while I stick a needle in you. Okay see you later, try get some sleep!"

If all goes well we get a nice 3;30 am lunch. Alas this seems to be a rare affair.

Well it's not always like that, but that would be 90% of my patient interaction. Another 5% would be turning up to find the patient that complained of being in pain or not being able to sleep is funnily enough asleep. The other 5% the patient can't speak.

Lots of people really hate nights, but for me the experience has been good so far. Perhaps the most distressing part is when you get called to see the same patient every night. Not because the day team is doing a bad job of managing the patient, but because the same patient is just dreadfully unwell. In this regard I've found working with the haematology and oncology patients the most confronting, but also the most satisfying in terms of developing rapport and clinical acumen.

I really wish I could tell more stories, as some of them are genuinely uplifting, but I'm more conscious these days of the ehtico-legal complications of blagging.

Anyway, I have finished the medical sub-specialties rotation and now become the surgical night doctor until January. I'm excited, but also intimidated. it's been several months since I've dangled my toes near a surgical patient. Should be fine though.

Incidentally - I seem to be earning the reputation as the most chillaxed intern. I'm not sure if that's good or bad... Eh.

Oh yeah, it's one week one; one week off. Which allows me to get some quality nothing-time in. Hooray!