Floating

I've been working at all the Kaiser clinics since starting last December. The last month and a half, I've been the ill call doctor. Which means they call me at 6:30AM every day and tell me where I'm going. It's going pretty well for the most part. I learned to let them leave me a voice mail (since they were calling at all sorts of different times) and then I wake up at 6:35AM and check it. It's the only way to have a little regularity.

The great thing about ill call is that every time I show up at work, they're excited I came. People are happy to see me again. I get hugs and happy faces. Some of the folks I haven't seen in about ten years. Some of them were only 7-8. I forgot how many people I knew at Kaiser. It's like my old family.

Normally when I show up at work am lucky to hear, "Hi" or "Good morning!". With this job, every day I go to work, I'm the hero who saved 15 to 22 patients from being rescheduled. As well by working in different locations, I avoid the dramas that go along with the same clinic all the time.

The downfalls are there, too. I don't know where I'm going. Sometimes I end up with a huge commute home at night. I have to work on the fly. I can't look at the history of patients in advance of my day. Everything is done at the last minute. I'm not particularly organized or methodical, so this doesn't help my cause much.

But I do enjoy the fun of seeing everyone. It's pretty darn good.