Change in schedule: Is this typical?

[NYCHoosier]

Wow--I guess I really do have a lot to learn.

I think I would be a little freaked out if I brought in my newborn or elderly grandmother and the doctor was hacking up a lung!

If it makes you feel any better, my cousin is PGY-1 doing her prelim year. She got the flu, went to work, and was sent home.

So, they do send them home sometimes!

[L.Jane]

If it makes you feel any better, my cousin is PGY-1 doing her prelim year. She got the flu, went to work, and was sent home.

So, they do send them home sometimes!

Wow! yeay for at least one place having some common sense.

[Pollyanna]

Quick thread hijack...

Dang, really? Isn't there any concern about a sick doctor spreading something in a hospital full of sick patients, especially those that are immunocompromised?

Concern for the patient???? Why would we be concerned about that???

Stomach virus, flu, potential appendicitis (dh figured he could go to the ED if it ruptured). Yep, going to work sick as a resident is pretty much expected.

[moonlight]

Concern for the patient???? Why would we be concerned about that???

Stomach virus, flu, potential appendicitis (dh figured he could go to the ED if it ruptured). Yep, going to work sick as a resident is pretty much expected.

ITA. DH did his MS3 surgery rotation at a hospital that had this mentality. This one student tried to call in sick. They told her if she was that sick she needed to be in the hospital, otherwise she needed to show up for her rotation. She got herself up and checked in to the ER. Crazy!!

[mommax3]

As a resident, DH once went in after puking (and other accompanying unpleasantness) for a couple of hours starting at 2:30 a.m. He got there, found another resident to start an IV on him, and just went about his business for the day. I thought it was insane then and I still do now, but it really was a climate in which "calling in sick" was not allowed. And actually, even now, if he is on call, gets sick, and his partner is out of town.....guess what? He has re-created that same residency climate in his life as an attending.

[DCJenn]

I am trying to imagine a situation where my husband would voluntarily stay home from work and really am drawing a blank.

He has come home early a couple times when I was sick and I needed help with Nikolai. (like two hours early, not jumping through hoops and racing home on his white steed to save the day.)

During the peds retreat during third year a majority of the residents were struck w/ a horrible GI bug. I mean REALLY bad. So, the sick ones all ended up in the ER with IVs and the ID guys did a study on them. Welcome to medicine.

Jenn

[moonlight]

I guess I wanted to add that not all hospitals have this line of thinking. DH got really sick during his Psych rotation right after completing his MS3 surgery rotation. <thanks for nothing surgery Q3!> The attending saw how sick he was that morning, took him to the hospital pharmacy, had the pharmacist give him some meds, and sent him home to rest. It all just depends on the attending and the hospital.

I'm guessing most hospitals have the unfortunately policy rather than a kinder version.

[Pollyanna]

I'm guessing most hospitals have the unfortunately policy rather than a kinder version.

Sure, all hospital policies say to stay home, don't spread disease, blah, blah, blah. But I'm pretty sure the unwritten rule of medicine is "man up and get to work, you're a doctor damn it and doctors don't get sick."

[SoonerTexan]

During the peds retreat during third year a majority of the residents were struck w/ a horrible GI bug. I mean REALLY bad. So, the sick ones all ended up in the ER with IVs and the ID guys did a study on them. Welcome to medicine.

Sad. But also hilarious.

[MrsC]

I think the policies may be a bit different when it comes to swine flu. DH said all of the residents were told not to come in if they have flu-like symptoms.

He did get food poisoning from the hospital canteen in PGY2. They hooked him up to an IV and put him doing paperwork. He was seeing patients again in no time. He hasn't taken one sick day in 4 1/2 years of residency. Other residents have taken days off for a cold...they're considered unreliable.

[Deebs]

Our worst...as an attending DH went in early so that he could be treated in the ED before working his shift, and then worked a 10 hour shift. In reality, he treated himself, but the nurse would get all of the meds he needed unless another doc ordered them to be taken from the Pixus. So, that generated a chart which, in turn generated a bill. DH seriously got a bill for $400 listing himself as the treating physician. I spent hours on the phone with the hospital billing office explaining insurance fraud to them before they finally realized that they had to write the bill off. Crazy! The good thing is, most health care providers develop a crazy good immune system after the first few years of being exposed to crazy germs and tend not to get sick often.

[DCJenn]

OMG- the first year in Peds was AWFUL. Every week he brought some nasty childhood virus home with him. I spent the first year of my married life with a runny nose.

Jenn

[L.Jane]

OMG- the first year in Peds was AWFUL. Every week he brought some nasty childhood virus home with him. I spent the first year of my married life with a runny nose.

Jenn

J is on Peds this and next month.. Luckily that won't bother me at all. I work with kids and have formed a fantastic resistance.. so I am almost fully immune. Hopefully he stays healthy.