Since I have started residency, the most common question I get asked is “so how is your first year going so far?” I thought it would be fun to talk about my day in this post. When we first start as interns in our program we rotate through 2 weeks of different rotations such as Gynecology service, Night Float, Neonatal Intensive Unit, Ultrasound, etc. But on some of the weekends, we work Labor and Delivery(L&D) shifts. Although no two days on L&D are ever the same I will tell you all about the general schedule.
On weekends we get sign out at 8 AM. Sign out is when the day and night team meet together to discuss what happened overnight with the patients, new admits, and what the day team needs to get done. Before sign out, we usually get assigned some postpartum patients (patients that have delivered) so that we can round on them, write our notes, and put in orders.
Once sign out is done the senior on the team will assign tasks to the different team members. As an intern I have various jobs such as seeing the triage patients, assisting in deliveries, and scrubbing into C-sections. Triage is one of my favorite tasks because you never know who will show up. Basically, patients come with different complaints such as contractions, decreased fetal movement, bleeding, or even labor! It’s fun working up patient complaints and figuring out the best management plan for them.
Throughout our shift, it is also important to update “The Board.” Basically the board is a physical or electronic version of a big list that has all of the patients with their room numbers, lab values, “to-do”, and other basic information. Usually, a senior member of the team must know all the patients on the board because that is how he or she will be presenting them to the attending or night/day teams.
Time flies (at least for me) on L&D so it is important to stay hydrated and nourished (when/if) possible. I always have a lot of fun, but definitely need a day after to recover!
Who’s worked on L&D? Comment down below!
