Fly Up Day

Today’s posting is a guest blog from a friend of mine who is in nursing management at a major metropolitan hospital. It is amusing, but let it also serve as a warning to preserve your health – at least through July.

Today is the July 1 - Fly Up Day ! ! Today is the day that each level of medical-in-training type people advance one year. As you know, it is the first-year resident who is the one that is first in line to the patient! ! It is the first-year resident that the nurse calls when there is a problem ! ! Obvious, she is not calling him because he is the most competent - but because he is bottom of the totem pole and is the one to be pulled away from dinner, sleep, whatever ! ! !

Well, today - the first-year resident who all the patients encounter were mere med students yesterday ! ! They were not allowed to write orders yesterday - they were not allowed to do anything ! ! ! And when the first year resident gets into a bind, he is to call his second-year. Well, yesterday that second-year resident was the first year scut person ! ! ! So that first-year resident (they used to be called interns) is such a “know-nothing” ! ! !

And to make matters worse - that “no-nothing” usually comes in two flavors ! ! ! Cocky - because just yesterday they were the top dog in med school ! ! And now they have advance to the coveted title of Doctor ! ! ! They can do it all ! ! ! So when they tell you to give a patient 10 aspirins for the fever, DO NOT question them - because they know it all - their name is DOCTOR ! ! ! !! ! On the other hand, there are the ones who realize that they know nothing and are scared witless ! ! ! Some are soo frozen that they can’t do a thing ! ! !

So welcome to the World of Medicine - July One ! ! ! BE CAREFUL out there on the roads, on that ladder doing home repairs, watch your foot with that lawn mower, don’t fall off your chair at the computer ! ! ! ! Your loved ones will miss you when you are gone at the hands of that first-year resident ! ! ! !

Good advice. Let's not turn "Fly Up Day" into "I'll Fly Away Day."