Tag: on call

Paula Lyons July 1. My first day as a family medicine intern, assigned to Labor and Delivery, and my first night on call, 6 pm sharp. Enviously, I watched the other interns smartly packing up to go home. “See you in the morning–maybe!” they joked. I glanced at the status board: eight patients in labor. And now I was “in charge,” at least in name, till 7 am report tomorrow. Several chaotic hours later, I finished helping a Guatemalan mother of five to deliver her sixth son. My hands were trembling. Toweling the plucky little newborn dry, I admitted the truth: Despite my University Hospital’s proud reputation as a maternity center, this woman would probably have done as well or better in her own warm,