One of the most feared rotations as an intern was the month you spent in the medical ICU. If you were unfortunate enough to have drawn that rotation in July, 2 days after getting "MD" behind your name, it was 31 days of anxiety, panic, fear and humiliation.
If you were lucky, you knew what you didn't know. If you were really lucky, and behaved yourself, the nurses liked you and would help you out of a jam by "suggesting" things that might be helpful.
I was lucky in three ways.
I had already done 6 months of my anesthesia residency (remember, I graduated early). Sudden events didn't scare me.
My ICU rotation was in February - so I already had a fair amount of experience with non-surgical stuff.
I was engaged to one of the nurses. We didn't tell anyone until my last day of the rotation.
If the nurses didn't like you, it was a god-awful time. They would call you at 2 AM, about 15 minutes after you finally fell asleep to let you know that Mrs. Edwards' blood sugar was 105. Normal.
Make friend with the staff - they were there before you, and they'll be there after you. You're the visitor.
