My colleague and I discussed how we're going to arrange the upcoming night shifts. The plan is for me to come back the evening of the 15th (Wednesday), so I'll be home until then, continuing my nighttime schedule. I won't be coming in for my elective rotation - frankly, the attendings and fellows on that service don't even know that I'm scheduled right now lol.
The only issues this plan may pose is if I somehow get called in during the daytime on Monday or Tuesday. That would disrupt my schedule and defeat the purpose. I'm going to be adamant about not coming in during the daytime, but if I get called to cover a night shift, I'd be more open to that.
There's also the little issue of the Wednesday morning clinic for which I'm typically scheduled. I can ask for coverage for that so that I don't have to come in for 2 hours in the morning - only to come back later in the evening. This is typically not difficult to cover, so I'm not expecting I'll get a hard time with that.
Expectations and reality don't always match. Let's hope that this plan will work out just fine. If not, then I'll just have to do the job for which I'm called.
During whatever time I have off, I'll be doing some studying (being a doctor is a lifelong process of learning, after all), work on my licensing, and possibly even engage in hobbies to a small degree. 4 nights should be enough to do a mixture of all of these, as long as I'm somewhat efficient.
Oh, and of course, meditating and exercising. These are far too easy to forget.
