Medicine Sub-I, Day 26

A long-call day for the team. My team gets slammed, and there's nothing that I can to do help. First, my last day with the team is tomorrow. So for me to admit patients today would be inappropriate - new patients should be admitted and worked up by the people that will follow them for a relatively long period of time. It's too much trouble for me to do the initial work then transfer it all to someone else the next day. Second, even though I want to relieve their pain, my choices are so limited. Medical students here can put in orders on patients, but every single one of those orders has to be reviewed and verified by someone with an 'M.D.' after their name. Which is how it should be, but it can really slow the pace of patient care if no M.D. is around to sign the darn orders. So, since I can't write valid orders, I'm really of no use to the team. I could have gone home a half-hour ago, but I'm still waiting for someone on my team to catch a break and help me out over here.