Top Ten

Things I loved about Intern Year...in no particular order...

10. Celebrations. It's Valentine's Day; it's our last day of the month; it's somebody's birthday; it's a Tuesday in June--let's party! In residency, we will use any excuse to bring in some cake/donuts/pinata and have ourselves a little shin-dig. Often, it's a bright spot in a long day, because suddenly that 30 hours doesn't seem so bad when there's a chocolate chip cheese ball with Scooby Snack graham crackers.

9. Wearing scrubs to work. This will be even better next year, when short call is done away with and we get to wear scrubs whenever we're not in clinic. Even better are the Pediatrics track jackets that we ordered, that have sort of become our call uniform. Paired with black scrub pants, I get told I look like a Bond girl and a ninja (true story). Paired with red scrub pants (or "clown pants" as Dr. Cedillos likes to call them), I get to match Christina, who is really embarrassed when we match and will now only wear her red pants AFTER I've already worn mine that week. The only problem is they don't come with a belt, and when you have 3 phones and 4 pagers to carry, it's a little hard to keep them up...still working on that one.

8. Owl Team Breakfast. This is by far one of the best traditions of the program so far. Although it's hard to pick just ONE Owl Team tradition to out shine the rest,you can't beat mimosas, sweet potato pancakes, and the lack of Friday morning clinic that accompanies the last weekend of the month. Circle up and re-live all the inside jokes from the month, stuff your face full of non-cafeteria breakfast food, and then go home and sleep in your own bed. Awesome!

7. Kudos. This really is probably my favorite part of the month--Kudos time at our Housestaff meetings. People send in Kudos for all sorts of things, from random inside jokes to thank-yous for helping out to a job well done. I've laughed myself to tears on multiple occasions. I won't bore you here with a bunch of inside jokes that you won't get, but if you're curious, I have a lot of good ones. Also, it's nice to occasionally get a real Kudos--like for doing a nice job in the ER, or to get a shout out for being awesome with a particular patient.

6. Rocking a procedure. Doesn't matter whether it's threading that UVC away from the liver, tying a stitch and seeing the skin come together perfectly, or popping through an LP needle and getting clear, beautiful fluid back--doing a procedure correctly is a pretty good high. Medicine in general is a lot about knowledge and not a lot about skills (unless you're a surgeon), and so when you get to use your hands to do something, it's pretty fun.

5. The kids! Obviously, this is why we do what we do. In the middle of rounds the other day, one 8 year old boy interrupted the presentation, pointed at our senior resident and said, "You're beautiful." I mean, it just doesn't get any better than that.

4. Being well-supported. This is huge for me. There were many times I wandered into the Chiefs office just to have a place to sit and hide while I ate a mini Twix. Times when I was getting slammed with admissions and someone else stepped up to take over even though it wasn't their team. Times when the cross-covering senior resident had to brave angry charge nurses or Gold Team crazies so that I wouldn't have to do it alone. I would hope that it's like this everywhere, but I know it's not, and I'm so grateful I'm here.

3. Outpatient months. Oh, those glorious days of rolling into clinic about 8:30 and rolling on out around 5. Getting a nice lunch break and not having to round. Oh, and vacation eligible, you say? Yes please!

2. My fellow 'terns. Holy cow, I can't even put into words how blessed I feel to be able to work alongside the rest of my class. They are smart, funny, hard-working, caring, and some of them are really good cooks! We have made it through a crazy year, and have 2 more crazy years left, and I couldn't ask for a better group.

And the number ONE best things about Intern Year--IT'S OVER! That's right kids, I made it! I am no longer the bottom of the totem pole. As of today, there is someone else going to be holding the pager and writing the notes. Of course, that also means that there's no one else telling me what to do when that pager does go off...cause that's now my job. Here's to being a senior resident!