Saturday, August 27, 2011

Call overload

(Interesting article from Kimberly Manning, FACP, published this month in ACP Hospitalist).

"So I came in with my bag on a Friday, went through my heinous work day, then admitted all night. And that night? Oh, it was a rough one. No sleep whatsoever. Saturday morning I sat at the nurses' station with my head down on my folded elbow, which was likely in a pool of disgusting sleep-slobber.
..............

And I stayed to admit seven more people that night. I did get twenty minutes of sleep—which everyone knows is twenty times worse than getting no sleep when you're that tired.
On Sunday morning, I was in a stupor and I had altered mental status for real. I fell asleep standing up twice and wrote notes in charts that looked eerily like hieroglyphics. Not good. Not good at all.
.........."

Read full article here