Now that our ambitious Dr. Nelson has begun his residency, he's more official than just an intern, however, he's still the new guy and subject to abuse. Por ejemplo: he spent the month of August up at Westchester Medical Hospital Center in Valhalla. The chief resident put him on call two days in a row, and then every third day/ night for the entire month. Its a high trauma month, meaning they get extreme cases from all over the county, nearly 24-7. Consequently, he didn't get much sleep and was logging nearly 100 hours a week. Working over 80 hours as a resident is against the law, so he was basically set up to fail, no matter what he did. He agonized over the situation all month. Should he lie about the hours? He'd done some of that at Brooklyn and at St. Luke's, but the difference was how much the chief resident cared about him... and the fact that he was hoping to get into those other programs, thus more likely to take hits for the team. At Westchester, the chief brazenly didn't put himself or the other chief resident on the schedule. At all. By dumping most everything on Peter, and not seeming to care, the chief had clearly communicated his interest in cruising through his final year by abusing the underlings. Peter, though, was pushed to the edge, and finally said something to the program director (who was unaware of the situation b/c he works down in the city full time and doesn't provide much oversight up in Valhalla). Everybody had to report their hours personally to the director and he had to approve the upcoming months' schedule. Mission accomplished. Feathers were ruffled, but Peter remained unmoved and happy with his choice. Oversight will increase and the other underlings (called GPR's = General Practice Residents = basically ppl just out of dental school who have to do one year in a hospital to get their dental license in NY) received a copy of the law from Peter to prevent future abuse. When the chief finally stopped giving him the silent treatment and the stink eye, Peter asked him, "are you mad at me, or are you mad at yourself?" Ouch. Someone got SPANKED!
Isn't it disturbing to think that there are senior residents with years of experience trying to get out of working (ie. attending to vulnerable patients with oral/ jaw problems) by passing it all on to the new, inexperienced residents? Wow, this whole world is changing my paradigm on healthcare.
