What about eating in the hospital when you're working? This depends on whether you're a clerk, resident, nurse or consultant. It also depends on what service you're on.
When I was on the vascular surgery service, I lived on cheese and cookie sandwiches and diet gingerale pilfered from the ED fridge. My senior resident ate power bars between surgeries around lunch time. Eating an actual meal was scoffed at.
On general surgery, my team met for a working lunch to run the pt list and assign tasks. It was an incredibly busy day for all the other teams but our consultants were not in the hospital so our team had been pitching in as we could. One of the consultants from another team "caught us" sitting down to eat and made a snide comment about us being lazy. The comments and judging continued for the entire time I was on service: in rounds, on the floor, in the OR.
As someone who had been thoroughly convinced that general surgery was not for me, I wasn't as shy about speaking my mind. Given my absolute lack of sleep it wasn't my best retort though, something along the lines of being judged for multi tasking by running our list while eating so we didn't collapse in surgery later that afternoon.
The general surgeon residents got very good at finding spots in the hospital and cafeteria where they wouldn't be seen by consultants. That's ridiculous. It breeds a sense of us against them and a feeling that the bare necessities of life aren't important when you're a resident.
I was rather shocked when I went onto the eating disorder service next. Not only was I expected to eat lunch, I was also expected to eat morning and afternoon snacks as well. When I chose to work while eating my lunch I was harshly judged by the team. I got reminders when it was snack time. Wow.
The internal medicine service provided us with coffee every morning, lunch every day and cookies and milk on Friday afternoon. The pharmaceutical companies pay for these treats but we never really know who they are or how much they give. Lunches were done with rounds - line up to get yummy food (not just pizza!) then listen to lectures or take part in group discussions. These lunch hours were important for learning and for connecting with our teams and the residents and clerks on other services. Friday afternoons were EKG rounds with cookies and milk. It's hard to be terrified of not knowing how to read EKGs when you have cookies.
Something I keep being shocked about is that my internal medicine and some of my emergency medicine preceptors make sure that I get a lunch break. They often don't take breaks themselves but want to ensure that we don't continue that habit.
I think what shocks me about getting lunch is that I keep hearing so many docs (to be fair, mostly old school ones) saying that the problem with my generation of doctors is that we won't be working enough. Their fear is that we will not make medicine our whole life like they've done. Maybe that's part of the unexpected advice and push for us to take breaks - they don't want us to make the same mistakes they have.
When it comes right down to it, I don't really care if I get a nice break in the middle of the day. Having the choice to scarf some food down and access to coffee is all I really need. Every now and then I also need a breath of fresh air. Too much of a break makes me lose my momentum. Talking to my fellow residents though, I'm a bit of an anomaly. They want to have a full lunch break in their day.
Having the option to have a meal, snack, break or breath of fresh air is what makes the day go better. As with most folks in life, residents just want a bit of control over the basics of their life.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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