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lony
Student
Rochester, Minnesota
7
Questions
Asked
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what does a typical day look like for you and What’s one part of your daily routine that people might be surprised to learn about ?
For my Literacy class, I am completing a project that involves interviewing a professional in the medical field I'm interested in to learn more about their career journey and experiences.
I am very interested in the field of neonatology
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1 answer
James Hanson
Pediatric Intensive Care Physician; Consultant
157
Answers
Oakland, California
Updated
James’s Answer
I am a pediatric intensivist - not a neonatologist, but our jobs have many similarities. Because critically ill patients need care around the clock, I had many overnight, weekend, and holiday shifts. In fact, we had weeks "on service", and sporadic nights on service averaging about every 6 nights. Sometimes we had little choice but to combine the two, leaving us with up to 30-hour shifts. Some nights I got no sleep at all, so I spent much of my career exhausted. However, the weeks I was not on service (2 of 3), I had a lot of daytime to enjoy life, be the parent on my kids' field trips, and such.
Many of us also work on research and teaching, which adds time to our schedule. Most places reduce your clinical time if you are engaging in these activities, but one tends to be compensated better in time and money for clinical work than for other duties.
My days rarely seemed "average", but I would work from about 07:00 to about 19:00 for my day shifts and 18:00 to about 09:00 on my night shifts (unless they were combined, as I said above). Most days are fairly busy with little time for refreshment, rest, or food/drink (one cannot eat or drink in a patient care area). I worked in a large ICU, so was usually running from crisis to crisis, and finding time as I could for documentation and teaching. We had two physicians on during the day, and one on nights and weekends. So, we would always try to help one another have time for family conferences and other needs by paying close attention to the other physician's patients in addition to our own.
As an intensivist or neonatologist, one does many procedures in addition to diagnosis and medical treatment: placement of intravenous or intra-arterial lines, tracheal intubation, chest tube placement, lumbar punctures, suturing/wound care, are common.
Many of us also work on research and teaching, which adds time to our schedule. Most places reduce your clinical time if you are engaging in these activities, but one tends to be compensated better in time and money for clinical work than for other duties.
My days rarely seemed "average", but I would work from about 07:00 to about 19:00 for my day shifts and 18:00 to about 09:00 on my night shifts (unless they were combined, as I said above). Most days are fairly busy with little time for refreshment, rest, or food/drink (one cannot eat or drink in a patient care area). I worked in a large ICU, so was usually running from crisis to crisis, and finding time as I could for documentation and teaching. We had two physicians on during the day, and one on nights and weekends. So, we would always try to help one another have time for family conferences and other needs by paying close attention to the other physician's patients in addition to our own.
As an intensivist or neonatologist, one does many procedures in addition to diagnosis and medical treatment: placement of intravenous or intra-arterial lines, tracheal intubation, chest tube placement, lumbar punctures, suturing/wound care, are common.