it has become a huge problem for persons coming down with illenss during summer months, as this is holiday time. doctors and nurses are off for the yearly vacations, leaving the hosp and patients in the hands of interns and newbies. when they are not gone vacationing, they sit around making phone calls and talking to fellow workers about the trips, cost, destinations, others experiences and suggestions. and the rest of the year they are caught up with trying to cash in on their "sick" days. if they are not used they do not carry over. so it is difficult to keep the same doctors or people who are familiar with your case around, leaving you to have to go thru expensive unnecessary proceedures because the new people are lost. it would be so much better if hosp staff could stagger their vactions so someone is running the store so to speak.l it frightens me, and has caused me extreme discomfort and fear. and sick days????? people can't get their medical bills paid for while the workers are off using up their deserved days off. what a shame.
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Bhattacharya agrees there is sometimes a reluctance on the part of new interns to ask for direction even in those first few months of training. "There's a culture in many medical centers where asking for help is a sign of weakness. You don't want to show that you don't know what you're doing."
However, interns are often acutely aware of their own limitations. Dr. Gregg Meyer, of the center for quality and safety at Massachusetts General Hospital, remembers feeling nervous and out of place when he began his training. "I think of my colleagues during orientation," he says. "The No. 1 question was, 'When are you going to figure out that I don't really belong here? That I'm not good enough?' The reality is that you're never good enough."
But ultimately Meyer, like every other doctor, nurse and researcher contacted for this story, said that he would have no hesitation about going to the hospital in July or sending a family member: "The truth of it is, yes, you're dealing with doctors who are inexperienced. But oversight is higher, too. There's never a good time of year to get sick."
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