New Rotation & USMLE Studying

Aghh, my hospital's wait time is the longest :(

It's that time again -- the four week mark when I switch to a new rotation and start back at square one. This month: emergency medicine. Not only is this rotation at a hospital I've never worked at before, it entails a whole different schedule format -- shift work. Over the course of four weeks, I'll work fifteen 8- or 8.5-hour shifts, the majority of which fall in the evening and night (when the emergency department is busiest). That being said, the schedule seems entirely random, with shifts scheduled on weekends, days off during the week, and different start times from one day to the next. While I'm not sure I'd want to do shift work for the rest of my career, I like that our hours will be capped at 8.5 per shift, and it'll be nice to have the day free before going in to work in the evening!

This morning I drove to the hospital at 6:45 am for a mandatory infection control orientation, only to find that it was frustratingly cancelled. The drive home took three times as long, heading back into the city with the morning commuters. Because I only got a restless four hours of sleep last night and it was still relatively early when I arrived home, I went back to sleep for a couple of hours :)

When I woke up I got down to work. I'm looking forward to having lots of mornings free to get in some productive USMLE Step 1 studying. I find that mornings are when I'm able to concentrate best and I'm going to focus on getting through as many QBank questions as possible before I leave for work in the late afternoons.

If the morning sun isn't motivation to get up and sit at my window-side desk, I don't know what is.

Hopefully I'll be organized and productive in the weeks to come, and be motivated to get in a few more elliptical sessions than I did during my internal medicine block (i.e. if I do more than one -- in the entire 4 weeks -- I'm good!).

Well it's back to the USMLE QBank for a few hours before I have to get going to work...hopefully not having to fight after-work traffic. Fortunately the seasonal street parking ban (for snow clearing) was lifted yesterday, so with any luck I'll even be able to get by without a parking pass this block. I'll write more about how my shifts are going in the emergency department later this week!