Residency 2.1: Owl Team--The Final Battle

Yup, you read that right--we're now in version 2.0 of residency--watch out world! Now that I'm a PL2 (Pediatric Level 2 for those of you uninitiated), I get the esteemed privilege of no longer writing notes (not counting the PICU, Heme-Onc, ER, clinic, Green Team...wait, how is this a change?) Just kidding, not having to write H&Ps makes admissions SO much faster on my end! "Oh, you need me to sup that admission? No big deal, I'll just go listen to their heart and then click through a pre-typed order set and let the intern do all the work." Awesome! (Don't worry, I try to do a LITTLE more work than that)

I also get to carry... The Phones! So, each team has a phone and a pager. The intern carries the pager, which is how all the nurses bug you about those tylenol orders and minor things like a GCS of 4 (look it up, non-responsiveness can be fun!). The phones are for getting checkout on new admissions and for secret communication between seniors (wait, that was a secret). As an intern, I was a little jealous of the phones. It meant that when you paged someone (especially the attendings at home), you didn't have to sit glued to a phone until they called back--cause you have one on your belt! It meant that you're (theoretocally) knowledgeable enough to take checkout on new patients, even from outside hospitals (umm, let's just say that if you have the chance, I highly HIGHLY recommend taking your kids to pediatric hospitals--we've all seen WAY too many scary things done to kids at regular hospitals before they get transferred to us). It meant that you could say, "Call me if you need me" and send the intern off to check on that Gold Team kid whose mom was asking for benadryl when their kid is asleep.

However, now that I actually get to have the phones, I know it's not all fun and games (although I still feel sort of important when I get to tell docs at the other hospitals what to do). But alas, having the phones also means that you can never get too comfortable sitting down with a family, eating dinner, or going to the bathroom, because you are ALWAYS reachable. It means that you are the one who has to wake up the attending in the middle of the night to ask them a question (which is SUPER awkward when you call the WRONG attending...oops!) And good luck keeping your pants up when you have to carry FOUR of them at the same time.

My special belt now that I have The Phones

So besides those things, being a senior isn't so different. And it wasn't so scary. I have been well-prepared over the last year to do a better job assessing the patients, interpreting information, weighing options, troubleshooting, doing some very fast reading on the fly, and then calling for help when I need it (see "GCS of 4" above).

And we had a ton of fun this month. I know you guys think we don't ever work at night just because we have time to play Kinect and Girl Talk Jenga and Bananagrams, and make homemade ice cream and butterbeer and watch movies and 4 straight hours of Lingo. We do work, I promise. We just get really good at squeezing in all the fun and good food we can. It's okay, you can be jealous.

Nate and me playing SingStar on our last night

You can also be jealous that I am DONE with Owl Team forever! And of the fact that I'm on Cardiology Clinic this month--Call Free! Weekends off, no overnights, or even late nights. Woohoo! See you next time!