Acting intern

Two weeks into my psychiatry sub-internship at Denver Health, and I'm having a blast. I was right in guessing that Denver Health would be a great place for a psychiatry sub-internship, given that it is a county hospital and a safety net for indigent and socioeconomically disadvantaged people.

The psychiatry inpatient service is capped at 12 patients, 6 patients for each of the two interns covering the service. On the first day, my attending told me that he wants me to build up to seeing 6 patients by the end of the month. This is consistent with the purpose of a sub-internship to prepare medical students for being an intern.

I'll get a chance to do exactly that this coming week. For the first part of next week, my attending will be away at a conference, and one of my interns will be out taking Step 3. The doctor who is covering for my attending spent some time with the team on Friday to help smooth the transition on Monday.

"You take three patients, and I'll take three patients," he said.

"What?" I said it without thinking, and it may have come out somewhat indignantly.

The new attending looked a bit surprised. He sat back in his chair, smirked, and asked me, "How many patients have you been carrying?"

I told him that I had been carrying 5-6 patients this past week. "Good! Then you can take your own team." He went over to the white board at the nurse's station, where all the patients are listed according to which resident is taking care of them. He erased my intern's name and wrote in my name. "Make sure to bring your pager on Monday. The nurses are going to be paging you when they have questions about your patients."

This promises to be an interesting week.