I’m working on night float this week for the Heme-Onc service. This means that I take all admissions coming in, and manage the floor patients. The one perk of this job is not having to write progress notes in the morning. The flip side is that you have to deal with otherwise stable patients who go berserk at night. Aside from my pager going nuts occasionally, the hospital itself is relatively quiet.

medical resident work area

The resident work area is my home base; I update the signouts and census for the day team here. It’s a hideous alleyway that was converted from a pediatric ICU. Fluorescent lights illuminate the workstations 24hrs a day, and since the windows are all frosted with cartoons resembling sea creatures, you have no idea what time of day/night it really is. To think, I was never told of this on my interview.

Tonight has been pretty much the same as any other night. I’ve done one admission so far, and pronounced two people. I’ve had 2 greasy chocolate chip cookies so far (made with perfect chocolate to dough proportions) and a 100 calorie Coke I snatched from the pantry. Brewing up some chai to fill my Mug of knowledge that Susan gave me, and going to press onward throughout the night. Nine more hours to go…

Mug of Knowledge, the source of all intelligence

medicine coca-cola, medicine, work