A 5th year general surgery resident is considered a Chief resident. A title granted by the mere passage of time. And like all individuals, each Chief has their own unique personality, and with it, their own unique leadership styles. As you can imagine, some of those styles are good. Others, not so good. As a junior resident/intern we can take a lesson from each style. Put together what works for us and in a way determine what kind of chief we want to be one day.
My current chief has completely divided our patient list by Attending, and granted the care of one specific team to myself to carry. I don't mind. I've been asked much harder things before and survived. But then, our chief went on vacation. And it's no longer physically possible to cover my own list. Simple example, three of my Attendings are all operating at the same time. I am one person. And then say I borrow my second year to cover a room. 1+1 = 2. In no concrete mathematical equation nor even in any theoretical idea can we physically cover three rooms going at the same time. It makes for some late nights at the hospital as I retrace the entire day organizing the list figuring out new patients, post op patients, discharged patients and trying to fill in missed holes in each of their plans. So even if "my chief" has technically nothing to do with my list, it'll still be nice to have a little more coverage in the OR.
Although looking ahead to Monday, there's four rooms going at once. Now... what to do about that? I find myself somewhere between a pickle and a rock.
Much Love.
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