Time for lunch

To my surprise, psychiatrists take an hour out of their day to eat lunch. Even psychiatry residents do this. Fairly regularly, too. On my first day of the clerkship, the residents and medical students all walked a few blocks to a local deli. We actually ate at the restaurant instead of taking the sandwiches back to the hospital and working through lunch or eating at a noon conference. The thought crossed my mind that this luxury might just be an anomaly.

But it continued. One day last week, I had to write two notes and talk with a patient, so I decided to work on the notes through lunch. My resident was apologetic: "I'm so sorry you're not taking a lunch break!"

Working so hard through the third year of medical school, I've almost forgotten how relaxing and refreshing a lunch break can be. It's social; it's fun; it's what normal people do out in the real world.