Weirdly was really motivated to get a comic out today. Won’t go deep into this, but honestly? Covid is starting to really worry me. The worst of the pandemic has yet to hit, and we are already out of ppe. The patients we’re seeing get sick aren’t necessarily old with a laundry list of comorbidities. We’re losing a lot of healthcare personnel to quarantine after exposure vs COVID rule out while waiting for testing in coworkers who are ill (which is showing me, if anything, how often residents just tough it out and come to work sick.) I’m technically seventh in line for jeopardy, but I was pulled out of clinic to cover the MICU for a couple of days. And there’s a sense of foreboding in the air that I, personally, can’t seem to shake. .⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I’m going to attempt to catch a few zzzs. #comic #webcomic #coronavirus #resident #intern #inpatient #doctor #relatable #womeninmedicine #blackdoctors #graphicmedicine #premed #premedmotivation #residency #internalmedicine #medschool #medicine #medicalschool #medlife #md #medstudent #nurse #physician
Had a different comic lined up initially for this week but it felt wrong not to talk about coronavirus. There’s a ton of people on Instagram providing amazing information about it. I’m post 28 hour call and slept an hour, So I’ll keep this quick- I’m scared af. ARDS patients are some of the sickest we see. They are brittle, require extensive monitoring, and many of them end up on Ecmo. Our ICUs are already full. If coronavirus takes hold, we’ll almost certainly have to go straight to rationing resources. .⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ There’s also the fact that, since we are on the front lines as healthcare workers, we are at very high risk of contracting COVID19. I’m young and able-bodied, but I definitely didn’t consider that I would be at the frontline of a highly communicable disease when I decided I wanted to be a cardiologist. And yet young health care workers the world over have been confronting and sometimes succumbing to this disease head on. Scurry stuff. .⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #comic #webcomic #coronavirus #resident #intern #inpatient #doctor #relatable #womeninmedicine #blackdoctors #graphicmedicine #premed #premedmotivation #residency #internalmedicine #medschool #medicine #medicalschool #medlife #md #medstudent #nurse #physician
I remember being a third year med student (in part bc I have comics chronicling that journey). It wasn’t too long ago, after all. I remember feeling confused about how I was being graded, and feeling simultaneously like I was always under surveillance and constantly being ignored. My experiences on rotations were dictated largely by whether the resident I was on service with remembered my name. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Now that I’m a resident, I can see a lot of those experiences from the other side. And it turns out… most of the time it’s not about you. We’re carrying 10x your patient load, managing interns, coordinating care, and would also like to go home. A resident who is taking out their frustrations on you needs reprimanding, but as far as making good use of your time? residents won’t keep you in the hospital needlessly for longer than you should be there (unless we’ve forgotten that you’re here, in which case please tell us! I promise we feel awful when that happens.) I’ve gotten very lucky and largely love my students- but see my story today for a guide on How to get your residents to love you (or, at the very least, just me, Shirlene.) ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #comic #webcomic #healthcare #resident #intern #inpatient #doctor #relatable #womeninmedicine #blackdoctors #graphicmedicine #premed #premedmotivation #residency #internalmedicine #medschool #medicine #medicalschool #medlife #md #medstudent #nurse #physician #medschool
looks up drug * *finds out insurance doesn’t cover it, it’s $500 a pill, and it’s the same as the generic they’re already on anyway ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I’m gonna be taking a few weeks off drawing comics! A girl needs to chill!
#comic #webcomic #healthcare #resident #intern #inpatient #doctor #relatable #womeninmedicine #blackdoctors #graphicmedicine #premed #premedmotivation #residency #internalmedicine #medschool #medicine #medicalschool #medlife #md #medstudent #nurse #physician
The next panel: me still sitting on the toilet, talking softly to minimize the echo, doing Kegels mid pee: “hello, this is Shirlene with General medicine?” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #comic #webcomic #healthcare #resident #inpatient #doctor #relatable #womeninmedicine #blackdoctors #graphicmedicine #premed #premedmotivation #residency #internalmedicine #medschool #medicine #medicalschool #medlife #md #medstudent #nurse #physician
I was going to expound on my feelings about resilience training, but a quick scroll through my profile and you’ll get multiple perspectives, so lemme just say that having to stay up later to finish my notes for the day and finish my morning report then cover ICU call the next day did wonderssss for making me a tougher more resilient cookie so I guess it was successful? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #comic #webcomic #healthcare #resident #intern #inpatient #doctor #relatable #womeninmedicine #blackdoctors #graphicmedicine #premed #premedmotivation #residency #internalmedicine #medschool #medicine #medicalschool #medlife #md #medstudent #nurse #physician
My requirements for my hospital theme song- high energy, inspires me to strut like Charlize Theron, loud enough to block out anyone who is trying to talk to me on the way. This week it’s “RIP Aretha” by Dreezy. In this comic it’s “Money Good” by Megan Thee Stallion. What’s your pump up song? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #comic #webcomic #healthcare #resident #intern #inpatient #doctor #relatable #womeninmedicine #blackdoctors #graphicmedicine #premed #premedmotivation #residency #internalmedicine #medschool #medicine #medicalschool #medlife #md #medstudent #nurse #physician
(swipe through) Never thought breathing was hard until I had to ask people to do it all the time. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #comic #webcomic #healthcare #resident #intern #inpatient #doctor #relatable #womeninmedicine #blackdoctors #graphicmedicine #premed #premedmotivation #residency #internalmedicine #medschool #medicine #medicalschool #medlife #md #medstudent #nurse #physician
Shout out to the S/Os out there- I don’t know how you put up with us. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #comic #webcomic #healthcare #resident #intern #inpatient #doctor #relatable #womeninmedicine #blackdoctors #graphicmedicine #premed #premedmotivation #residency #internalmedicine #medschool #medicine #medicalschool #medlife #md #medstudent #nurse #physician
There are plenty of things I want to work on in the New Year that are within my control. Then, there’s a significant number of things that aren’t. This vacation has given me time to think about how truly inhumane residency is. We work 60-100 hrs a week (duty hours are averaged over a month, and the month atribarily starts on a Sunday, making it pretty hard to break them as an IM resident.) If you want to do a competitive speciality, you do research in your free time. You study for step 3, then boards. Clinic time is written off as a “break,” but between writing notes, calling back patients, and filling out paperwork from insurance companies trying to slack on coverage, I can wrack up just as many hours as on my inpatient blocks. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I often hear this adage that, as a resident, I can accomplish self care if I prioritize it. But what’s left out of that is that in order to prioritize myself, I have to sacrifice something else- whether that’s time spent creating, or quality time with my fiancé, or seeing friends. It’s another demand for us to be superhuman against incredible odds. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ And I can’t tell myself that the point of residency is to make me a better doctor. I would be a better, more patient doctor if I could do all the things I tell my patients to do that I have very limited time for. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ So my New Years resolution is to be kind to myself. Be accommodating. To recognize that though many of my friends are going through this with me, it’s not normal. To keep trying my best, but not to kick myself when I’m too exhausted to accomplish that. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ So…ahem. What’s your New Year’s resolution? . . #comic #webcomic #healthcare #burnout #resident #intern #inpatient #doctor #relatable #womeninmedicine #blackdoctors #graphicmedicine #premed #premedmotivation #residency #internalmedicine #medschool #medicine #medicalschool #medlife #md #medstudent #nurse #physician