Alright, let me start off by saying that I'm definitely going to be enjoying EVERY SECOND of my fourth-year up until the minute that I enter the hospital for my first shift as an intern next year, because if intern year is going to be even busier than I've already been during my first week of my Sub-Internship, I'm not 100% ready for it yet. 😅

While I've gotten so much great learning in the hospital this past week, I've had such little free time outside of it. Like, my days would usually consist of me getting up at 4:15 AM to make sure that I got to the hospital by 5:30 AM in order to adequately pre-round on my patients and write progress notes, some of whom would be people that were newly admitted overnight. Then I would go to morning report around 7:30 AM (or Grand Rounds around 8:00 AM), round on patients with various attending physicians until about 11 AM or so, work on any orders, discharges, consults, etc. until noon conference, come back from conference in order to spend my afternoon executing the care plans that we've decided on for our patients while at the same time coordinating patient care between various entities both inside and outside of the hospital, checking in on my patients, admitting new patients, writing H&Ps, attending impromptu learning discussions hosted by attendings, going to simulation labs and learning conferences specifically designed for the Sub-Interns at CHOP this month, writing discharge summaries, and a few other things that I can't think of at the moment, before finally handing off my patients to the long-call intern and going home around 5 PM (plus or minus an hour).

After getting home, I would have a couple hours to myself to take care of emails and other tasks that I couldn't attend to during the day, before going to bed around 8:30 PM-ish, only to get up and do it all over again. And when I was on long call last Wednesday, I didn't even leave the hospital until 9:30 PM due to a complicated admission. So yeah, long days with some awesome learning opportunities, but little free time lol. However, I did finally get the chance to explore a little bit of Philly with some of my good college friends last night after my 11-hour shift ended, although I first had to fight the urge to crawl into my bed and crash. I'm glad I was able to spend some time with them, because I hadn't seen them in such a long time. We also grabbed some Philly cheesesteaks during our night out, which were freakin' delicious after I put some hot sauce, ketchup and salt on them. On a sidenote, I didn't realize how many friends I had up in Philly until I posted on IG that I was up here…even though my schedule is hectic, I'm gonna really try to make time for everyone I told that I would link up with, but it won't be easy 😅.

Because I am here as a Sub-Intern, the responsibilites that have been entrusted to me are relatively enormous to what I've been used to. I mean, I knew I would be working hard and would have a good level of autonomy over my patients…but daaammmnnn! *in my best Chris Tucker voice* They really meant it when they told me that I would have full autonomy over my patients. I literally have been feeling like I'm my patient's doctor, much more than I did when I was a third-year medical student. I mean yeah, I had a sub-internship (or Acting Internship as we call it at Wake) a couple months ago at Wake in Heme/Onc and I was doing a lot back then too. Even though I was pretty autonomous at that time, there was only so much I could do because of the fact that we had a lot of Oncology patients. So with that said, there was a good amount of oversight taking place by not only my senior resident, but also by the attendings. Because this current rotation is primarily a Gen Peds service mixed in with a few other specialties and we're not dealing with chemotherapy on a daily basis, I am able to do more.

And BOOOYYY have I been doing more.

I honestly wasn't prepared for it all the first day I picked up my patients. Even though I looked like I was doing fine from the outside (I got positive reinforcement from my senior resident on my first day, to my amazement), internally I was very frazzled and I felt like I just couldn't get myself together. I was having trouble prioritizing patient tasks and trying to keep up with everything while at the same time trying to get used to this new service at a new hospital in a new city. Of course my senior resident and the other interns were there to answer questions and to support me, but because I hold myself to (sometimes ridiculously) high standards, I found myself becoming frustrated throughout the day as well as in my second day on the service because I didn't feel like I was adapting to the flow of things quick enough. I quickly learned that while I'll be getting high-quality education about medicine during the course of this month, what I'll also be receiving that is just as important is high-quality education in the practical delivery of patient care in our complex healthcare system. Yeah I have the book knowledge, but I am definitely lacking on the more practical side of patient care, which I know will come with time spent during residency. That being said, I've been learning some very useful things this past week and am sure that I'll continue to learn even more during these next three weeks.

I've definitely become acclimated to the service as the days have progressed, and I think that I've finally gotten somewhat more comfortable in the flow of things here. I went from asking myself on my first day why I decided to do this to myself when I could've been crusin' through a much easier elective back in Winston, to being grateful yesterday that I was given this opportunity to leap out of my comfort zone and challenge myself in ways that will only benefit me in the long-run. I'm excited to be able to continue to expand my network, (try to) explore Philly some more while linking up with friends here, learn from the diverse patient population here, learn how to be even more efficient in patient care in the hospital and how CHOP's hospital system works, and take advantage of the other various learning opportunites that will present themselves while I'm here. I've already grown quite a bit since I've been here and will only continue to grow some more as I take on this tough rotation day-by-day. It also helps to know that this is my last tough rotation of my fourth-year, so I'll definitely be smooth-sailing after these next three weeks 😎. Well, relatively speaking at least. I still have other rotations to complete, but they shouldn't be that difficult. But before those other rotations, I have both Thanksgiving and Winter Break to enjoy, as well as my four-week flex block that I will be using for the majority of my interviews!

Speaking of, I got word a few days ago that I was blessed with an interview at CHOP that is very conveniently taking place this Tuesday! 🙏🏿 That definitely makes life a lot easier since I'm already up here and all. Between this interview and my next one taking place in a couple of weeks in Pittsburgh, I'll have been able to knock out both my Pennsylvania interviews during my month up here. By the way, if you weren't already aware like I wasn't, Pittsburgh is about a five-hour drive from Philly. Yeah, it blew my mind too.

I guess this was one of those days where I just couldn't seem to stop typing. I'll end my post here so that we can both get on with our days haha. I hope you have a spectacular week!

AND PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEEEASSEEE EXERCISE YOUR RIGHT TO VOTE!!! IT'S CRUNCH TIME!!!

I've been going through a lot this past week in trying to get my absentee ballot (that I requested over a month ago) and have been sending in multiple emails and calls to my county's board of elections because believe it or not, EVERY VOTE COUNTS. According to their office, they've FINALLY sent out my ballot yesterday, which is ridiculous but whatever. I REFUSE to let my voice be silenced, and it is imperative that you believe that your voice deserves to be heard, because it absolutely does. Voter suppression is real y'all, and I'm sure that there are some shady things going on with the overall voting system. However, attempting to make your voice heard with your vote is much better than not voting at all!!

“Falling down is not a failure. Failure comes when you stay where you have fallen.” – Socrates

– Black Man, M.D.