W is for White Coat. . Scroll through my whole feed and you’ll find my first white coat comic. But for real white coats are vectors for infection, antiquated, don’t really help patients differentiate staff anymore, and are otherwise SOOOOO last year. Heather grey patagucci (credit to the fans of @residentlifemd for the term) are the new white. . #whitecoat #hospital #patient #procreate #illustration #webcomic #clinic #healthcare #resident #intern #pgy1 #medicine #inpatient #doctor #relatable #womeninmedicine #blackdoctors #graphicmedicine #premed #premedmotivation #im #residency #internyear #internalmedicine #medschool #medicine #medicalschool #medlife #md #medstudents
V is for Voracious. . Have you ever seen a resident eat? It’s like a magic trick. Now you see it, now you don’t. We get food and we inhale it, usually with one hand on the keyboard typing out notes. Or we graze. Ask any resident and they will tell you their preferences on the stuff in the nutrition rooms - (there are pretty robust pro and anti boost/ glucerna camps at ucmc. We all agree that more of the nutrition rooms need peanut butter, and that Oreos are the best.) . The consequence of this is that I gained weight pretty quickly in residency, and am trying out different creative ways to get rid of it. Trying intermittent fasting right now, and bulk meal cooking. How do y’all manage your diet / exercise when busy? . #hospital #patient #procreate #illustration #webcomic #clinic #healthcare #resident #intern #pgy1 #medicine #inpatient #doctor #relatable #womeninmedicine #blackdoctors #graphicmedicine #premed #premedmotivation #im #residency #internyear #internalmedicine #medschool #medicine #medicalschool #medlife #md #medstudents
U is for Up-to-date. . Ngl, UTD is my best friend, and sometimes I need to pop her open for a quick refresher course on the most basic things and the not so basic ones (I’ve looked up HLH about fifteen times and I forget what it is every time.) . “But shirlene! You should always go to the primary literature!” And yes you right! I try to whenever I can. I also use UTD’s references to get there sometimes. Anyway keep practicing evidence-based medicine y’all! . #hospital #patient #procreate #illustration #webcomic #clinic #uptodate #resident #intern #pgy1 #medicine #inpatient #doctor #relatable #womeninmedicine #blackdoctors #graphicmedicine #premed #premedmotivation #im #residency #internyear #internalmedicine #medschool #medicine #medicalschool #medlife #md #medstudents
T is for “Therapy.” . There are times when my patients come in and want to talk- not about their medical conditions, but about the struggles taking ahold of them in life. The doctor’s office can be a freeing place in that sense- a place where they can feel listened to. When you hear patients discuss doctors they really like, they hardly ever mention how a doctor got their diabetes under better control or switched them to the appropriate preventative medications- you hear- “they weren’t trying to rush out of the room,” or “they listened to me.” . I always feel so privileged when a patient I’ve seen a few times opens up to me about what they’ve been going through. (And some of them are REALLY going through it.) But I sometimes also feel conflicted. If you’ve been to a clinic, you know that the 20 minutes allotted to see a patient is barely enough. (I have 40 min, but in that time the patient has to be roomed, get their vitals checked, I have to see them and then staff with an attending, leaving just about 20 minutes for the appointment itself assuming the patient arrives on time.) And given that patients often have to undertake great measures to come to clinic, they seldom want to JUST talk about their feelings- they want medical care too. . . How do you guys balance these demands without alienating your patients? #hospital #patient #procreate #illustration #webcomic #clinic #resident #intern #pgy1 #medicine #inpatient #doctor #relatable #womeninmedicine #blackdoctors #graphicmedicine #premed #premedmotivation #im #residency #internyear #internalmedicine #medschool #medicine #medicalschool #medlife #md #medstudents
S is for sign out. . Transitions of care are potential sources of medical error. The primary team, who discuss a patient’s plan extensively daily. We then pass the patient on to the call team and sometimes also a night team, who only know what we tell them and we put on a wee piece of paper. We’ve all felt the trepidation of getting a sign out on a patient who you just know is going to crash while you’re covering, and feeling like you could never know enough about them. . Anyway I try not to leave crosscover with the above nightmare scenario, but sometimes you gotta go home! We’re all pretty understanding of that though. . #signout #transitionsofcare hospital #patient #procreate #illustration #webcomic #procedures #resident #intern #pgy1 #medicine #inpatient #doctor #relatable #womeninmedicine #blackdoctors #graphicmedicine #premed #premedmotivation #im #residency #internyear #internalmedicine #medschool #medicine #medicalschool #medlife #md #medstudents
Q is for Quality measures! . Our hospital’s walls are papered with posters advertising the floor’s record on quality measures- new c diff infections, falls, CAUTIs - you name it. You can almost visibly feel the angst layering the staff on the floor after one of these records is broken! . #hospital #patient #procreate #illustration #webcomic #procedures #resident #intern #pgy1 #medicine #inpatient #doctor #relatable #womeninmedicine #blackdoctors #graphicmedicine #premed #premedmotivation #im #residency #internyear #internalmedicine #medschool #medicine #medicalschool #medlife #md #medstudents
R is for Resilience. . I think this comic speaks for itself lol. . #resilience #hospital #patient #procreate #illustration #webcomic #procedures #resident #intern #pgy1 #medicine #inpatient #doctor #relatable #womeninmedicine #blackdoctors #graphicmedicine #premed #premedmotivation #im #residency #internyear #internalmedicine #medschool #medicine #medicalschool #medlife #md #medstudents
P is for Procedures!
I didn’t know this as a medical student, but as an IM resident there are some Procedures that we routinely do, most commonly arterial and Central line placements. We do these with ultrasound assistance, and typically on critically ill patients. A lot of them are still awake and kicking though! I used to feel guilty about hurting people during procedures (bc we all know sometimes lidocaine doesn’t cut it.) Now, I’m like bruh. I’m saving your life. Grit your teeth and bear it son. I really really really want to be done with this alphabet series so I’mma bout to vom some content out this week haha
#hospital #patient #procreate #illustration #webcomic #procedures #resident #intern #pgy1 #medicine #residency #inpatient #doctor #relatable #womeninmedicine #blackdoctors #graphicmedicine #premed #premedmotivation #im #residency #internyear #internalmedicine #medschool #medicine #medicalschool #medlife #md #medstudents
O is for overworked. Or maybe Overwhelmed?
The number of commitments residents are expected to attend to is inhumane, in my opinion. On top of working an average of 60-80 hours a week, we also are expected to attend to our outpatient clinic patients, study for yet another step exam, fulfill random requirements, and do enough research to get a publication and/or posters to ready us for fellowship. There’s precious little time for ourselves. Despite spending all my time taking care of people, I’ve had a lot of trouble scheduling appointments for myself and find that I frequently have to ask for coverage to do so ! (I don’t know how my colleagues in specialities that are even more demanding of our time do it!) As a consequence, I often feel guilty when I take the rare chance to relax and do nothing, because there are still things I “should” be doing. How can we change the culture of medicine to be more hospitable to having a life?
Also I finally updated my story with commission info! #hospital #patient #procreate #illustration #webcomic #resident #intern #pgy1 #medicine #residency #inpatient #doctor #relatable #womeninmedicine #blackdoctors #graphicmedicine #premed #premedmotivation #im #residency #internyear #internalmedicine #medschool #medicine #medicalschool #medlife #md #medstudents
N is for non-adherence / non compliance.
Medicine is complex, and requires extensive knowledge of physiology to really understand. So it’s very interesting to see how patients understand their bodies and disease states, and difficult at times to describe them in a way that makes sense. A lot of times my patients turn to forums that are full of misinformation because those sources are much easier to understand and seem to make logical sense. It’s more reasonable than the hocus pocus mumbo jumbo of medical talk!
Patients have a lot of reasons to not take medications that are prescribed to them- undesirable side effects, scary stuff on the web, lack of financial resources or even time to pick up meds, lack of buy-in, etc. I try to be charitable and understand that a patient’s body is their own, and to do my best to emphasize why sticking to a treatment plan should be a priority. But dang there are times when that paternalism hits and I just want to be like “that symptom you have is because of your disease!! Not the thing we’re treating you with! You got to take it!” What’s your approach? #hospital #patient #procreate #illustration #webcomic #resident #intern #pgy1 #medicine #residency #inpatient #doctor #relatable #womeninmedicine #blackdoctors #graphicmedicine #premed #premedmotivation #im #residency #internyear #internalmedicine #medschool #medicine #medicalschool #medlife #md #medstudents