Get me out of this ICU!

During my Saturday shift, I kept thinking of all these great topics to write about (starting at 5am when I was wondering if I was the only sober one on the highway, and why I was the only one who hadn't had a fun night out the night before), and since I was there a solid 12 miserable hours, the list got really long.  So I've decided to compile all those thoughts into one-liners in one blog, because if I did an entire post for each it'd be really boring for everyone else.

Thoughts from my Saturday shift in the ICU:

• I'm 25, I shouldn't have to work 80 hours a week
• A resident stole my favorite pen and then lost it, and spent the rest of the day complaining about how she couldn't find "her favorite pen"
• I presented a patient to the team on rounds, remarking that at the time I listened to this patient's lungs, there was no wheezing but that at points overnight it had been recorded, then the nurse jumped in and very brazenly stated that she had heard wheezes every time she listened.  Seriously, this is why doctors and nurses do not get along.
• As a medical student you get to do several things: paperwork, assist on procedures (handing things to the resident, running the machine, etc), do a physical exam, etc. But then you become a doctor and literally the next day you're supposed to know how to do the procedure and what tests to order (not just how to do the paperwork to order them).  Patients need to understand that essentially there's no difference between a new resident and med student, and that if they want to have good care later, they need to let the med student do it now, because in a year that med student will be told to do that procedure as a resident alone and won't have ever done it before. 
• The hardest part of being a third year med student is knowing when to speak and knowing when to shut up. Yesterday there were a few things that I saw not being addressed (like funky EKG rhythms) and little to-do's that were forgotten.  I feel like the worst student in the world when I bring them up, because everyone rolls their eyes and now has an obligation to take care of it.  Not sure I'll ever get to the point where I don't feel guilty about this.
• I think nurses have a huge role in patient care, but they work 3 12-hour shifts a week.  When they come on shift, they aren't sleep deprived or starving like med students and doctors always are.  We work twice the hours as they do, and I think it's difficult for them to realize why doctors are sometimes cranky.  I know it's hard to deal with, but when you only work 36 hours a week I don't think you should have the right to be rude/cranky/obnoxious unless circumstances are dire (super-jerk doctor).  I know they have families, but so do doctors.
• Scrubs outside the hospital: yesterday I had to get something for dinner after work, and I hate going places with scrubs on but there was no way I was going home, changing, and then going back out after an exhausting day.  Nurses fall into two schools of thought: "I wear scrubs EVERYWHERE" (even to the gym) and "it's blasphemous to wear scrubs when you set foot outside your hospital unit." I agree that it's tacky to wear scrubs in public (especially at a bar), but honestly, when am I supposed to do errands???  We work 80 hours a week.

Ok that was most of my rants from Saturday.