I’ve been away from the blog for a while, working on fellowship applications and riding the wave of the ICU. Thank you for your patience, as ever.

As you might remember from my days as an intern, I used to love the ICU. That love is no longer: doing procedures to people whose fate is inevitable isn’t as much fun as it used to be, and I feel powerless in the face of a culture that doesn’t exactly embrace the avoidance of unnecessary intervention.

This most recent time in the ICU, I worked with an intern who seemed to me less eager than some to take on the burden of her responsibility. About three days into the rotation, she–let’s call her Dawanna–remarked to me with some irritation that “all I ever do is put in orders.”

“Yes,” I replied. “That’s kind of your job.”

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