The Holiday Hospitalist

In what has become the ticker-tape of recent posts, I'll start with updates:

• My partner had her graft examined today and it looks AMAZING! We kissed the home vacuum dressing goodbye, and now she has a plain Adaptic on it and gets to move her arm a tiny bit more.
• The Mac ICU diagnosed a dead hard drive, which has now been replaced so I am glad to say I am reporting live from my own beloved G5 once again. 
• Public service announcement: Back up your hard drive regularly. Don't ask, just do.

I'm working at the hospital over the holiday and holiday weekend, as I have done for--oh--seven years. Every year during residency and every year since I arrived in Rural, I've signed up for holiday duty, and I've done this for a couple of reasons. First, I'm not a holiday person. I don't wrap presents and I don't send holiday cards. I would never spend money on a tree cut down merely to prop it up in my living room and decorate it, although I do enjoy seeing other people's trees. Second, every call group has to have one person who can be flexible about major holidays, and that role has fallen to me because I don't have children or family members who insist upon holiday celebrations. Finally--and here's the shocker--I actually enjoy working at the hospital during major holidays. My reasons:

• A slower pace rules a hospital over the holidays. There are fewer overhead pages, no meetings, and no last-minute disposition crises--"The SNF just called! They've got a bed and can take Mr. Smith in an hour!"--because most agencies are closed and usually only anticipated discharges take place.
• Staff morale is strong among the chosen few who get to work on the holiday. There are a lot of Santa caps and plenty of green and red scrubs, and the mood is much more tolerant than it is on a regular day because we are all united in the all-for-one-and-one-for-all spirit of people who drew the short straw.
• I love the extra touches our hospital produces for patients who are trapped in the hospital over a holiday. The volunteers came up with faux fall foliage for all the rooms over Thanksgiving, and they might trot out the plastic mini-wreaths they used last year tomorrow. I know this kind of tacky decor sounds depressing, but it isn't. I find it uniquely touching and I always look forward to seeing the salmon/coral walls decked out for the season.
• Most hospitals provide a free meal for working staff on Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I look forward to the turkey and mashed potatoes, or ham, or pork tenderloin, or whatever they have on the menu every year. Not because the food is good, although our cafeteria really tries hard and sometimes they hit the ball out of the park, but because this free meal is another sign of solidarity and generosity of the season.

The only thing I don't like about working over the holidays is the extra-chunky weight gain which results from two solid weeks of chocolate cake, holiday cookies, Christmas candy, and general culinary deathliness which is required of an American Christmas. And don't tell me I could exercise self-control and politely decline these treats, because you'd be wrong. I can't. So there.

Comments

[rlbates]

Merry Christmas to you and all in Rural!!!

[Beth]

Last year was the first Christmas I worked (we get the choice of working Christmas or New Years in my program - you work like a rented mule for 6 days and have 6 off or vice versa). I loved it, mostly because my scheduled kicked ass - three nights of night float, post-call Christmas day, a day in the clinic and then 7 days off. This year I worked a day in the clinic and now I'm doing a PICU stretch that includes two 24-hour calls. On the days I'm not on call we get to leave after rounds in the morning. I'm post-call tomorrow (hey! I know a guy!) so I get to see my husband and parents.

My husband's parents live about two hours away so by working the holiday, we don't have to split time between houses. Plus, I totally second what you said about things being more low-key in the hospital during this stretch of the month. Even the lab tech I called earlier about adding on a test was pleasant! I'll get a breakfast of eggs and toast, some kind of fried pork product, potatoes of some incarnation, juice and coffee before I go home tomorrow. It could be worse, I reckon.

Merry Christmas, Rural Doc!