AMA VICDOC Spring 2023 - Magazine - Page 64
"So how is internship going?"
"It’s busy."
They look concerned.
My eye bags must be bad today.
"But it’s good, I’m learning a lot",
I add hastily.
has been educational, enjoyable
I nternship
and fulfilling, but it has also been a big
“Good morning, I’m one of the ED
interns, I was hoping to discuss…”
step up from medical school. As a medical
But they seemed less interested in the
student, you do the jobs that are assigned,
patient’s cardiac complaints, and more
and you leave when rostered to finish –
interested in the patient’s insurance details
or earlier, “for a tute”. As a doctor, there is
– which I didn’t yet have open. After
no picking and choosing – all the jobs are
stumbling awkwardly through more of
your jobs, and there is no leaving until all
the conversation, the explanation for the
the jobs are done, the scripts are written, the confusion emerged: “Oh, no, I’m not the
bloods are checked, and tomorrow’s notes are cardiologist. This is the bed manager.”
We laughed it off and the bed manager
prepared. Most nights I sit in bed scrolling
through dinner delivery apps, too exhausted gave me the cardiologist’s phone number.
to contemplate cooking. Some nights I’m too But the cardiologist’s phone went to
tired to drive home safely. In the last AMA voicemail and suggested leaving my
Victoria Hospital Health Check survey, half number and details by text message.
of junior doctors reported making a clinical Keen to make progress, I did just that,
error due to fatigue. So it was not necessarily and soon received a call back. I launched,
a surprise when my time came.
full steam, into my opening spiel.
It was 7:30am, in the final hour of my
“Good morning doctor, thanks for
final week of night shift. My last job –
returning my call, I was hoping to—”
to ask if the cardiologist at the nearby
“Hold on, stop there. You have the
private hospital would like to admit my
wrong number again. This is the bed
patient. Exhausted but keen to finish
manager.” More exasperated, this
my jobs before handover, I called the private time, and audibly juggling a few other
hospital switchboard and asked to speak
conversations in the background. In my
with the cardiologist. I didn’t quite catch
bleary-eyed stupor, I had mixed up the
the name of the person who picked up,
phone numbers I’d scrawled onto the
but it sounded approximately right.
scrunched up scrap paper in my pocket.
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