[susanna]

An intern is a first year medical resident, right?

[Ruby Vee]

Originally Posted by bluesky

My husband (experienced ER nurse) tells me he is always telling the interns what meds to give the pts... they now come to him and ask him what to order The same pt then gives the intern all this respect and authority and doesn't really listen to my d/h.... It would be nice if you (Ruby Vee) could get some real palpable reward for your contributions, though!

My ex-husband was a nurse -- only not a very smart one. The patients used to mistake him for a doctor, and he'd just go along with it. He'd get lots of respect from people (patients, physicians, supervisors) until they got to know him . . .

I get the respect I deserve from the people I respect, and that's worth a lot more than "respect" from folks who DON'T know me. But thank you, bluesky, for your thoughts. It's really nice of you!

[Stitchie]

Originally Posted by susanna

An intern is a first year medical resident, right?

Yes -- it's their first year post med school graduation and their first experience writing orders for patients, etc. They will come to you and ask what to do, etc.

Some are very nice and respect the nurses in the department, have good manners (pls and thank you) and are generally v. approachable.. Others are arrogant (insecurity) and highly difficult to work with. Some (one in particular) are willing to flat out tell you they (she) is scared to death of making a mistake -- which we all do, from time to time.

[BJNurse]

You've got to love July! One of my favorite new intern stories was when I worked midnights in CCU. I had a patient that was made a DNR and passed away during the night so I had to call the resident on call to pronounce. I had a really hard time getting him to come and when he did he insisted that I go in the room with him, my guess is he had seen too many horror movies where the dead guy reaches up and grabs you. After all this I looked at his note and he had wrote...patient appears dead. Nothing else just the time, patient appears dead, and his signature! LOL. I've also had some fun trying to explain to newer doc's that yes those are pacer spikes but there is no rhythm, yes you can pronounce a patient with a permanent pacemaker and no I can't turn it off! I also have some good stories from my days on the code team. I went to a code one day to see the code captian was fresh out of ACLS and looked like he was going to pee his pants. As myself and the rest of the code team were working he would add his pearls of wisdom, such as... can we add some oxygen to the ambu bag (great idea why hadn't I thought of that...shock! shock! (he wanted to shock everything, including the sinus rhythm we had finally achieved)....and my favorite was make sure to check that rhythm in two leads (great thought if it was asystole but Vfib will look the same no matter what lead you pull up). Oh those were the good ol' days. Now that I'm in the cath lab I don't have to deal with the new interns but I do have those lovely cardiologists which is a whole new ball of wax.

[PA-C in Texas]

When I worked at a teaching hospital, I used to love the interns. They are so excited about what they are doing, and most of the time I think it was a real treat to have them around.

I always tried to be the one they could come and ask about something without fear of me blabbing to everyone about their stupidity. I also learned a lot from them. Experience cannot teach you everything, and I used their education as a resource as much as they used my experience. The vast majority of them got over the fact that I am just a PA, and I became friends with several of them.

I really felt sorry for them because they really felt like they had been left out on a limb. The attending physicians really didn't spend enough time teaching, and the interns should not be made to feel stupid for asking a question. PGY 1 is for learning to apply your knowledge foundation with a little more autonomy. Each year thereafter, you are given a little more autonomy and you require less supervision.

[Ruby Vee]

One July (End of the month) I was floated to the floor to do charge (weird custom they had in that particular institution). One of the patients was a 102 year old lady with a breast tumor as big as my fist and as hard as a rock, comatose, with a 40.2 temp. She was a DNR and she picked my shift to expire.

I called the intern to pronounce her. It was the middle of the night, and I'm sure he was tired. He was also fresh from a rotation at the VA. He arrived at the bedside about 20 minutes after the lady expired, and asked me the usual questions: who is the attending? Was she a DNR? What time did we last check on her? Then he went in with his stethescope, flung the sheet back, and touched the patient. He immediately recoiled, and with a look of absolute horror on his face proclaimed "She's still WARM! At the VA they're always COLD" I had to convince him that this warm patient was indeed dead, and that we check patients more often that they obviously do at the VA. By the time I could convince him to check again, she had cooled off considerably, but I'll never forget his look of horror when he touched a warm dead patient!

[Marnaby]

This actually happened to me yesterday...My patient was on a Heparin drip and an intern was in the room doing an assessment (Keep in mind that my pt only spoke Creole). Well, the IV accidentally disconnected from the tubing and the pt began bleeding all over the bed (clots and all). I was in a room with another pt, but the co-worker said that the intern had a complete look of fear on his face and then grabbed paper towels and held them over the site. Hey, I guess if you have to use something...I just thought, "Why not clamp the tubing?" Oh well, it just goes to show the difference in actions between RN's and interns.

[EmilyRN]

I had a patient who was readmitted to my unit after a month of rehab. He had been on my unit for about 2 months after a car accident and was full of VRE and MRSA. He got his external fixators removed, and had a very, very active colostomy. A resident ordered Colace and Senokot for him, as well as no abx! That resident received a call from me right after shift change.

[jloihle]

heres a good one I work on a Tele floor with 3rd day Cabg PtCA and CHF etc... I had a pt go into fulminate pulmonary edema., I mean the man was drowning. Covered pt , called the intern and got an order......10mg lasix OMG,. needless to say had to call the senior resident.

[Tweety]

hmmm....do you think I'd get flamed if I started a thread "Stupid New Nursing Grads" or "Stupid Things Done By Nursing Students".