Rural Doctoring

Crawling Into The Hole

OK, I'm starting my second run of night shifts at Macy's, this time SEVEN in a row so I'm hoping my day-to-night transition method is going to hold up:

Rural Career Tip #1

Do NOT, under any circumstances, start working at two different hospitals in the same month. You'll mis-remember all the door codes, wear the wrong ID badge, and won't be able to tell all the Amandas, Daves and Chris-es apart.

Trust me on this one.

Wanted: Nocturnalist Ruralist Hospitalist

Couldn't resist the title--have you noticed how sub-sub specialized medicine is becoming? Tonight I begin the first run of night shifts at Macy's (four nights in a row, a mere warm-up to doing as many as eight). I haven't had regularly scheduled in-hospital night shifts since residency Night Float rotation. I'm a bit rusty at the night routine and have to re-create the correct timing of coffee, protein-rich meals versus carb-rich meals. Meanwhile, the white noise machine and blackout curtains haven't arrived, so this weekend might be less slick than I'd hoped. Cross your fingers for me.

There's a New Kid On the Playground

So I've started working as a hospitalist at Macy's, having worked four day shifts to get a feel for the place and a lay of the land. I've located all the bathrooms and all the working fax machines. I have a yeoman's grasp upon the EMR, which is pretty good and makes life as a resentful Gimbels refugee at least 15% easier than that of a harried Gimbels hospitalist. Everyone is very nice and does a very professional job and I really have nothing to complain about. Not that I'm going to let this stop me, no sir-ree.