If you’ve had any encounters with doctor friends/ relatives, you would be familiar with that PTSD expression the moment you mention the word “call”. *shudders* 😱
So what actually goes on during an overnight call? Follow me on a walkthrough! (without actually experiencing the trauma yourself) 🤡
After a full day of work, your call starts proper at 5pm. Your name and contact number appears on the roster, and you will be the first line of contact for ANYTHING within that particular ward coverage all the way till 8am the next day. It can range from “Dr, patient constipated 💩 for 5 days! Can order up laxatives?” to “Dr! Patient blood pressure low! Come review now!”. If you are unfortunate enough to be holding on to the code blue phone, then… you will also end up as the first responder for airway management (intubation)/ resuscitation for a sudden collapse in the wards. 💀
New admissions to the wards have to be seen, and almost all patient complaints will be escalated to you to be addressed. Most of the time you get bombarded by texts and calls from various nurses from different wards, so time management and prioritisation is crucial. Honestly most of the public don’t understand the role of the on call doctor and this deserves a PSA. During on-call timing, aka post-office hours, the on call doctor is more often than not different from the primary team doctor taking care of the patients. He/she has to be responsible for up to hundreds of patients overnight and their key responsibility is to keep the patients alive and stable overnight, and address pressing concerns. Sadly, on call doctors do not have the luxury of time to do routine family updates or attend to non urgent complaints immediately. For example, if they were called for 3 different patients at the same time:
1) sudden collapse in the ward, need CPR and urgent resuscitation
2) new fever spike of more than 38 degrees
3) mild headache, insomnia at night
Obviously they will attend to 1 > 2 > 3. Hence, patient 3 will not be seen immediately, and will have to wait for his/her turn to be reviewed. Unfortunately, on call doctors do get complaints from patient’s family or patients themselves for “not reviewing patients fast enough” in such situations. I really do hope we can see more understanding patients when it comes to such circumstances.
If there are lulls in between the call, then congratulations, time to retire to your bed to sneak in a short nap (before you get nastily woken up by your priority text/ ringtone). On certain calls, you get to experience a “staycay” in an A Class patient’s bed. Most of the time though, you have to make do with resting in a cramped room with a creaky single bed (chalet style). Being able to sleep on call is a true luxury!
Doctors, while rooted in science and logic, also have their superstitious side. We believe in certain on-call myths that few have dared to attempt debunking.
1) do not take the last lift
2) do not eat bao 包
3) eat mee siam to siam the calls. Eat dumplings 水饺🥟 to 睡觉💤
4) drink Coke Zero/ floral water and not 💯 plus
5) do not jinx your call by saying “what a quiet call”
I’m sure there are many other myths floating around out there so do drop a comment if you have heard of any interesting ones!
When you’re clerking your 15th patient of the night, on your 3rd cup of caffeine, and about to review your 30th patient, that’s when you start questioning your life choices – did I really make a wise decision to choose this career path and toil away my youth working overnight shifts at least once a week? WELL. Till now, I can’t give a definite answer. On certain fulfilling days, everything is worth it, but on terrible call nights… this is debatable.
The only consolation is in the belief that THE SUN WILL ALWAYS RISE. Tank through the night, and you will be free to escape from the hospital back to the comfort of your own bed at home (about noon time).
Boy, aren’t you glad you’re living this experience vicariously through my account and not actually living through it irl? 😅
