Day in the Life: Radiology

Happy Monday, and welcome to Medical Mondays! I’m here to talk about…the chillest rotation on the face of the earth I’ve had thus far: Radiology!

I’m really lucky that I had this break right in between my 2 weeks on day vs. night service, because I just started night service yesterday and am essentially going to try to be nocturnal over the next 2 weeks–at least I won’t be alone though!

If you’ve been around long enough to see what my med school radiology rotation was like…well, thanks for stickin’ around for so long! ;P

Day in the Life: Radiology

7 a.m. – 8 a.m. (W/F)

On Wednesdays and Fridays, I’d have morning report for family medicine! Wednesdays usually consist of a lecture about a relevant topic for the month done by the attending who’s on service, and Friday usually has a case presentation done by the service team about an interesting case they came across. There’d also be mini lectures done by various residents about different topics!

8 a.m. – 9 a.m. (W/F)

Since I was already at the hospital, I’d usually spend this time catching up on life. I spent the first few days of this rotation using this time to catch up on all the discharge summaries and phone notes I had to write, and prepping some of the discharge summaries for patients who’d been there for a while so my fellow intern wouldn’t be stuck with the brunt of it.

(Life is so fun when the EMR is out while you’re on service! …not.) After I finished up on those, I’d spend this time reading up on things, doing practice questions.

I found my friend’s cursor hanging out on the document I was working on when she was supposed to be sleeping (she was on nights/I was on days) so I wrote her a message. :D

9 a.m. – 10:30/12 p.m.

I’d go to the radiology reading room during this time and find a resident to sit in with. There’d be a different one for each–for instance, one would be doing everything “body”-related (CTs of the chest/abdomen/pelvis, ultrasounds) while another would be doing everything “neuro”-related (CTs/MRIs of the head/brain).

They’d try to go over different findings that would be helpful for me to be able to spot/be aware of. There were sometimes stat calls to the radiology room for Code Strokes, so the residents would try to get all the other pending images read beforehand so people wouldn’t be left hanging on the results. Afterward, they’d do a read-through with their attendings and compare the findings they’d noted vs. the ones the attending had noted, and discuss accordingly.

After a while, I’d be sent on my way for the day, so I’d usually spent the remainder of the time hanging out in the library in the Medical Education Building doing self-study.

I liked the artwork outside the radiology room! :P

12:30-5 p.m.

I had patients to see in the office on most afternoons, so I’d grab lunch somewhere around noon and walk over to the office. My visit have spanned all sorts of things, including…filling out paperwork, seeing patients to establish care, physical exams, counseling on birth control options, prenatal visits (I seem to be getting a ton of those lately ._.), pap smears, suspected Legionnaire’s, insomnia, poor appetite, chronic abdominal pain, colds, strep throat, medication refills, hospital follow-ups, workups for abnormal EKGs, etc.

Thankfully, the office is still my favorite place to be, which is a great sign because (a) this is what I’m going to be doing for the bulk of my future career, and (b) I’m going to be seeing more patients in my 2nd and 3rd year! I did have a couple days where it seemed like a bunch of my patients were on strike/didn’t show up (the weather was pretty nice outside, so maybe that contributed to it), so I got to squeeze in some reading and practice questions!

Totally unrelated to the above, but my med school apparently ranks 9th in the country for sending graduates to their first-choice residency programs! :D

• If you had a bunch of free time right now, what would you be doing!?
• Check out previous Day in the Life’s!