The Last Call

A great post from the Cheerful Oncologist about his last call as a resident. I can only concur at what a feeling of freedom that comes when you finish that last night. My residency actually ended on a Saturday morning in June at a community hospital west of Boston as I signed out my patients to the oncoming resident and walked out into a beautiful summer day.

Unlike TCO, my night was quiet, although I had expected the fates to something hellish at me. We covered both inpatients and the delivery room (in case any babies were in need of help) and maybe I went to a delivery or two, but there were not 28 weekers, thank God.

I don't think most non-docs can understand how hard residency is. Medical school is hard, but you have breaks and the tough parts don't last that long. Residency just keeps coming, call night after call night. I started my residency with 4 monts of being on call every 4th night. Ouch