Inpatient

First day on the inpatient ward. My resident seems like a pretty good guy, headed for GI or Hem/Onc, so smart, with a sense of humor. Like most internists actually, which is probably why I like them and this environment so much. But most of today was simply inprocessing, getting badges and computer access, meeting the teams, etc. My resident said the magic words (you can go home) at about 3, because today was a clinic day and I have no patients to catch up on right now.

This new hospital (friends, Romans, and countrymen who actually know where I am, please, no comments) is far different than my last one. This is much less well designed in an architectural sense, though system-wise, it may be better. Patients are scattered to the four winds: there are ICUs on three different floors in two different wings, rooms on four different floors, clinics on three, the ER buried in the basement, and the all-important cafeteria at the other end of the basement. And those four diffferent floors are 2,3,7, and 9, so non-continuous. There are no windows in any of the hallways, and no way to navigate except by knowing where you are going. It is apparently a badge of honor once you know your way around. We'll see how long that takes me.