Day in the Life of an OB/GYN Intern

Written by Bianca Georgakopoulos, MD

Gynecology edition:

5:45AM: Wake up and get ready for the day

6:00AM: Turn pager on and get sign out from the night resident

6:30AM-7:15AM: At the hospital, I am ready to round on the inpatient post-ops and consults with my medical student. Some of the morning progress notes include post-operative follow-ups from the day before and consult follow-up notes.

·      For example, on gynecology rounds, you might round on a urogynecology patient who had a sacrocolpopexy the day prior for pelvic organ prolapse, a young patient who may have hemoperitoneum due to a suspected ruptured cyst, a patient undergoing a suction dilation and curettage (D+C) for a missed abortion, or a pediatric oncology patient with vulvar ulceration.

·      During this time, I also have my medical student practice a patient presentation and give feedback.

7:15AM: My medical student and I meet with our pre-operative patients to review the consent form and write a progress note.

7:30AM-8:30AM: With our first scheduled patient, we roll back to the OR with the attending physician. The procedure went well. We plan to have a follow-up in one week to make sure the patient’s bleeding stops and her labs are appropriate.

8:30AM: Head to the resident-run clinic that is supervised by one of our fabulous generalists. It’s a quick five-minute drive from the hospital.

8:30AM-12:00PM: Typically, I have seven patients in clinic. Some patients are post-partum from an uncomplicated vaginal delivery and others are prenatal appointments. We see a variety of patient issues including pregnancies complicated by gestational diabetes, limited initial prenatal care, and gestational hypertension. As an OB/GYN intern at my program, we typically handle OB prenatal appointments our first year and will get exposure to GYN in the second year (this is different for each program).

12:00PM: Quick lunch on the way back to the hospital.

12:15-1:15PM: Practice pegboards on the laparoscopic trainer to improve my technique for an upcoming laparoscopic bilateral salpingectomy procedure.

1:15PM: Received a page from the internal medicine team about a patient with vaginal discharge. Since the imaging was negative for structural abnormalities like fibroids or malignancy, we attempted a bimanual exam with a speculum exam for gonorrhea/chlamydia/ trichomoniasis swabs.

2:10PM: Received a page from the emergency department team about a suspected ectopic pregnancy, so we evaluated the patient and got a consent form signed after discussing the case with the attending.

2:45PM-5:30PM: To the OR with a medical student for a possible laparoscopic salpingectomy. I taught my medical student how to close port sites. The night resident will evaluate this patient in four hours with labs.

6:00PM: Completed the operative note and put in orders. It’s time to sign out to the night resident and turn off the pager.

6:15PM-9:30PM: Now that I’m home, I make dinner and hang out with my husband (who is also an intern) and our two rescue dogs.

9:30PM: Time for bed. Also, time to get ready to do it all again tomorrow!

Stay tuned for the Obstetrics Edition when I am on nights next month!