Day in the Life: Inpatient Family Medicine

I thought this would be a fun series to start up, because unlike this year, I’m going to have a fairly nomadic lifestyle once August hits! I don’t know where I’ll be or if I’ll even have a kitchen, so anticipate some changes for the latter half of this year!

I can’t believe I only have 3 rotations left after this one (tis my first away rotation!), and then I’ll be a 4th-year (assuming that boards go well–I would greatly appreciate all good thoughts/energy/prayers for July!)! Where has the time gone!?

Originally, I was actually going to do a Sports Medicine elective so I could figure out if I liked it as much as I think I’d like it, but I got shot down by the physician I wanted to work with (he only takes residents now, which makes me wonder if somewhere along the way, one of the students ruined it for the rest of us :'( ), so I instead decided to go for Family Medicine!

Day in the Life: Inpatient Family Medicine

I’m not an intern yet, but I liked this. :]

A Typical Day

Morning report in the conference room at 7:25 a.m. We do a quick briefing of all the patients to see what happened overnight, what we need to especially pay attention to, + whether we had any new admissions or discharges. Then we divide up the patients so that everyone gets 1-3 patients to look after.

From 8-10 a.m., we disperse throughout the hospital to see our patients. There’s a 4th-year from my school here, and he has been showing me where everything is, giving me a run-down of the day, what to expect, how to navigate the EMR…basically teaching me everything under the sun.

I sincerely hope he doesn’t find me annoying, because he’s been monumentally helpful in making this rotation an amazing learning experience for me. (I’ve done zero inpatient work up to this point, unless you count psychiatry, but I kinda don’t.) We’re going to be working together on a case presentation next week!

At 9:30 a.m.-ish, we reconvene to present our patients to our attending physician for the week. Depending on the attending, this involves meeting up in a conference room somewhere (or when every place is occupied…the utility closet) to present our patients, or taking the entire FM team (attending physician, residents + students) to do bedside rounds.

After we’ve talked to each of our patients, we’ll gather around somewhere so that our attending can sign off charts, and then we’ll discuss the different cases + how to manage them.

This is one of my first progress notes, but intentionally blurred because hello, HIPAA guidelines. >_>

11:50 a.m. – 12 p.m. is when we powerwalk down to the cafeteria to grab lunch! (Before going back up to the FM conference room for a lunch lecture.)

12-1 p.m. = Noon conference! My friend Kosina is doing her Neurology rotation for 2 weeks here (I hadn’t seen her since August!), so she meets up with me to grab lunch and then sits in on the lectures with me. Noon conferences are on anything from renal pathologies to endocrine emergencies to board reviews to journal club.

1-4:30 p.m. = Afternoon rounds! We go off on our own to check on our patients, and I usually spend the rest of the time studying, catching up on reading, hanging out with patients, etc. If we have any new admissions, this is when we go talk to them!

 4:30-5-ish p.m. = Wrap up + present all patients to the night team, with a focus on what they need to look out for with different patients (e.g. hypoglycemic episodes, possible sepsis, low sodium or potassium, etc.)!

Meals

I was given $100 for the month, which roughly equates to $5/day. Cafeteria food is somewhat expensive (e.g. $3 for a grilled chicken breast to throw into my salad), but definitely doable, since I also get a 20% discount for being considered an employee (yay for Family Med!).

I usually get a salad (a whole ton of greens with some chickpeas, diced hardboiled egg, cherry tomatoes [and once with the aforementioned $3 single chicken breast], with a drizzle of balsamic or raspberry vinaigrette) from the salad bar and/or something from the hot bar, which varies daily. I generally gravitate towards the steamed vegetables and some kind of meat (if it’s chicken, beef, or fish).

Parking

Free, but the parking lot’s ginormous!*

The hospital is huge, so I’ve actually been able to walk a whole ton more than usual, so much so that for the first time ever, I actually met my 10k steps goal for all the weekdays. Oh em gee. (This generally never happens because lifting weights + BJJ doesn’t tend to equate to very many steps.)

I promise I did actually move on Saturday; I did a screenshot of this on Friday night, haha.

*Fun fact: I forgot where I parked on the first two days even though I parked in exactly the same place on both days (…). This is kinda pathetic because remembering parked-car-locations has been a specialty of mine since the age of 3. Double you tee eff, Farrah.

Housing

Free student housing was available, but I had a friend here who lives 4 miles away (~10 minutes) from the hospital. She told me I should come live with her, and who was I to say no to awesome company?! I’ve actually really missed having a roommate, so it’s a lot of fun!

If you eat a banana today, can you save me the peel so I can use it for practicing sutures?”

Suture practice after dinner! :O You may have seen this on my instagram.

There’s no free gym associated with this hospital, but it’s been a-okay thus far, because on my friend’s non-surgery days, we do at-home workouts (we are currently doing Focus T25), and then we make/eat dinner! (On days where she’s in surgery til 9-p.m. or later, I find workouts on YouTube to do.)

F: I really should’ve peed before we started this.
A: Actually, I need to pee too. Let’s pause this and go pee. That’s the beauty of at-home workouts!

After dinner, we go back to studying, because such is the life of a med student. :x And bam, there we have it! This is the most structure I’ve had in my life for a very long while! :O