Year One Wrap-Up (3): An Intern's Perspective

A few months ago, I was still a bumbling intern who was more used to being called a student than a doctor.

And that day too, I was spending a peaceful shift doing all sorts of odd jobs in the ER.

By “peaceful,” I mean the passive kind of peace that comes from not being the one responsible for deciding whether a patient lives or dies.

That's just what interns do.

Sprinting to the lab with an ABGA sample at 3 a.m. while the pneumatic tube system was under maintenance.

Processing dozens of backed-up EKG printouts at 7 a.m.

Transporting a patient who needed a CT to radiology on a rattling stretcher, then going back an hour later to pick them up again.

And answering the phone nonstop to pass along messages.

That was an intern's daily life.

Of all of it, blood draws were by far the worst...