When Should I Call my Resident for Help?
Written by Lindsey Ulin, MD
As a new intern the great responsibility you feel as the responding clinician is both exciting and can be overwhelming, especially at the beginning of the year. I want to emphasize residency is a training program and you are not expected to know everything. This would be an unfair standard even for seasoned attendings. Medicine is a team sport and your residents are there to help you, having started exactly where you are now. So, when should I call my resident for help? Here are my takeaways from intern year.
● Never worry alone. This is my program’s motto and can be a helpful mindset to approach any year of residency with. If you’re worried about a patient, or something doesn’t feel right to you ask for help.
● Concerning changes in vitals or exams. You can build autonomy by taking the first stab at the assessment and plan while running it by your resident.
● Rapid responses and codes. Let your resident know if it’s on one of your patients as they may not get paged or notified otherwise. Know who is supposed to lead these whether it’s you, the resident, or the ICU or EM team as this varies by hospital and sometimes geographically within the hospital.
● If you are stuck trying to get a task done. A big part of intern year is learning how to make things happen in the hospital or clinic. Your checklist task of consult X service may be met with ten different phone or pager options to choose from in the directory. This can also include care coordination tasks like getting home oxygen or line care set up. Learn from their wisdom you’ll have by this time next year.
● Don’t be afraid to ask for help. If your resident seems less than enthusiastic about your question, this is a reflection on them and not on you. You are asking to help care for a patient and should never feel guilty about that.
● Mistreatment. There is no excuse for anyone you interact with to treat you badly, whether that is with other providers, patients, patient's families, or anyone else in the healthcare setting. We are all tired, we are all busy, but we should all expect to be treated with respect. I hope this doesn’t happen to you, but realistically it will at some point in the year. It will feel easier to just take it and not say anything, but I encourage you to tell your resident, chiefs, or faculty.
