8:00 AM to 9:00 AM – After reading through sign-out from the on-call resident, the resident will look over their patients’, primary patients on their inpatient rehabilitation service and their consult patients who might be admitted to inpatient rehabilitation, vital signs, labs and imaging studies using MiChart, which is an Epic-based EMR. This is also the time to check in on any patients who are planned to discharge that day to say goodbye and make sure they have everything they need.
9:00 AM to 11:00 AM – Rounding - The majority of the morning is spent with patients in the therapy gyms and in their room. With each inpatient service consisting of one resident and one attending, these rounds are informal and focused on patient care and resident learning. It is truly inspiring to watch your patient’s make progress in the therapy gyms!
11:00 AM to 12:00 PM – Work-Time: After rounds, calling consults, completing orders, following-up on patient studies, and working on daily progress notes rounds out the morning. Throughout this time, Andre, our resident assistant, stays incredibly busy by taking care of many administrative tasks. He is a great resource that allow us residents to focus on patient care, while he handles tasks such as obtaining prior authorizations for medications and scheduling follow up appointments for our patients. Having an resident assistant is one of the best parts about training here!
12:00 PM to 1:00 PM – Lunch - Residents on service try to grab a bite to eat with one another to catch up on nutrition and news.
1:00 PM to 4:30 PM – Afternoon Work: Following up on labs and studies, finishing daily progress notes, and prepping patients for upcoming discharges. This is also typically when we admit new patients to the rehab unit. The afternoon is also sprinkled with trips to the resident workroom for snacks supplied by the inpatient senior resident and down to the resident lounge for coffee, along with touching base with our patients again to give them any updates, see how they did in therapy, and make sure any questions are answered.
Once a week, we have team meetings where the entire team gets together to discuss patient progress. This is great for coordination of care and making sure everyone on the team is on the same page.
4:30 - 5:00 PM - Evening Sign-Out: This consists of informing the resident on call of any labs/imaging to follow up on and any foreseeable issues that could arise overnight. Ideally, the patients have everything they need overnight to facilitate a quiet night for the resident taking home call.
Thursday Night Karaoke - Every Thursday from 4:30 - 6:30 p.m., patients, therapists, nurses, transporters, and physicians come together for weekly karoke. This activity is great for team-building, strengthening patient relationships with their team, and even helping patients with aphasia or a tracheostomy vocalize in a fun way.