Tales from The Fight Club: A Teaser

After your first call as an intern.

Well, it's July 8 and our interns are now one solid week into caring for patients.  As mentioned here before, we recently had some major changes in our rules for training that greatly limits the number of consecutive hours that interns can work.  I also said that, for the most part, change that allows for folks to get rest--in some capacity--is a good thing. Maybe not this much rest, but that's not the point of this post so I won't go any further with that.

Anyhoo.

Just wanted to tell y'all about a "first" that's about to take place on the-little-blog-that-could.  For the first time, I will be having a "guest poster" who just happens to be one of my favorite people in the whole-wide-Grady adding to the "Duty Hours Pre-Form" saga.  ("Duty Hours Pre-form" being my very witty take on the popular term "Duty Hours RE-form." W-ow, I'm so witty.)

Where was I? Oh yeah. . .a guest poster.

For the record. . . . even though you probably don't, I see this whole "guest" thing as kind of a big deal. For reasons based upon absolutely zero factual information, I have decided that when you have a guest blogger on your blog then you've officially arrived.  Ha.

Wait. Does it count if the guest just happens to be one of your best buddies?  Uuuuuhhhhh, excuse me? A guest is a guest.

Anyways.

Technically, this guy isn't exactly a guest. He's no stranger to this blog. In fact, he is so freakin' hilarious that I have included him in some of my favorite posts.  Who is this Grady doctor, pray tell? I will give you a clue:



You guessed it! None other than the Grady doctor who despite being in Atlanta is always in a New York state of mind, Neil W.!

Neil W. is not only one of the smartest people I have ever known, he also happens to be one of the most naturally funny. Don't let the fun spirit fool you though--this guy is one of the most decorated teachers at Emory and also excellent in front of the camera. Check him out here talking about how we're all going to drop dead from eating too much artificial food coloring:

Housecall: Artificial Food Colorings: MyFoxATLANTA.com

Okay. . . .I know he's knowledgeable and all but seriously? The best part about Dr. Neil W. is this: Can this guy tell a story! He's my faculty mentor and honestly our meetings are half career related half story telling.  Seeing as we are both storytellers at heart and hard wired to be Grady doctors, this made us fast friends. (Not to mention the fact that he is the only other person I know who doesn't like cheese--but that's a whole different story.)


Anyways.

Stay tuned. I am finalizing the post this evening. Neil, who trained at the legendary Bellevue Hospital in NYC tells a tale that further underscores why the old school approach to residency training probably needed some revamping. . . . . interns, residents, and medical students listen up!

These are actually post call interns circa 1993.

I'll leave you with this thought about how I thought of some parts of pre-duty hours reform residency training.  Our rules were kind of like "The Fight Club Rules". . . .

#1 - The first rule of Fight Club is, you do not talk about Fight Club.

#2 - The second rule of Fight Club is, you DO NOT talk about Fight Club.

#3 - If someone says stop, goes limp, taps out, the fight is over.

#4 - Two guys to a fight.

#5 - One fight at a time.

#6 - No shirts, no shoes.

#7 - Fights will go on as long as they have to.

#8 - If this is your first night at Fight Club, you HAVE to fight.

Yeah. Kind of like that.

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Stay tuned.  Oh, and if you want to read a few Neil W. shenanigans from this blog, just type "Neil W." into the search bar.  He's definitely been here before . . . . . .