A Hard Days Night
“Each of you comes here today a hopeful. Wanting in on the game. A month ago you were in med school being taught by doctors. Today,youare the doctors. The seven years you spend here as a surgical resident will be the best and worst of your life. You will be pushed to the breaking point. Look around you. Say hello to your competition. Eight of you will switch to an easier specialty. Five of you will crack under the pressure and two of you will be asked to leave. This is your starting line. This is your arena. How well you play? That’s up to you!” Chief of Surgery Dr. Richard Webber stood half way up the steps in the main entrance hall of Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital and gave us the speech that either sent us running or sent waves of excitement through our bodies
Webber quickly concluded his speech and we were soon assigned Attendings to shadow for the rest of the year. I stood beside 4 other interns, we were all assigned to the same Attending.
“I sure hope we don’t get medusa” one of the female interns mumbled inwardly to the group
“Whose medusa?” another intern gulped as his eyes widened at the nickname
“Interns?” We heard a sharp call from the double doors near the reception area
“Shit!” The intern who earlier spoke about Medusa made it clear who we were facing as she cursed under her breath
“I’m Dr. Grey and I’ll be your senior attending this year” she mumbled uninterested as she checked her pager “I have five rules” she continued “Memorize them. Rule number one: Don’t bother sucking up. I already hate you. That’s not gonna change. Trauma protocol, phone list, pagers.” She said as she handed us the necessary equipment we had to keep on our person at all times.
“Nurses will page you, you will answer every page at a run. A run! That’s rule number two. Your first shift starts now and lasts 48 hours. You’re interns, grunts, nobodies, bottom of the surgical food chain. You run labs, write orders, work every second night until you drop, and don’t complain. On-call rooms, Attendings hog them. Sleep when you can, where you can, which brings me to rule number three. If I’m sleeping don’t wake me unless your patient is dying, Rule four: the dying patient better not be dead when I get there. Not only will you have killed someone, you woke me for no reason. We clear?” Dr Grey came to the end of her lecture and we all stood back overwhelmed
I raised my hand in curiosity
“What?” Grey snapped
“You said five rules, that was only four” I spoke up bravely as the other 4 turned to stare at me
“Rule number five: When I move, YOU move!” Grey shouted as she took off in a sprint through the halls as her pager went crazy beeping
We took off behind her and entered our first patient room and saw the woman convulsing in fits in front of us. Each one of us froze except for Dr Grey. She launched into action fearlessly, calling out orders to everyone around her.
“We need a crash cart in here” Grey called out into the hallway “Don’t you idiots just stand there! Quinn push one of epinephrine, Ross get the paddles off the crash cart and prepare for defib, Blake begin compressions and the rest of you just make yourselves god damn useful” Grey ordered
We all moved into action as quickly as we possibly could, the room became manic and just as quick as it happened, it was over. We managed to stabilise the patient and our first crisis was averted.
Dr Grey took a quick glance at us all and left the room without saying another word. We all took a massive sigh of relief and made our way to the Intern locker room.
“I’m Cassandra Blake” the young bright blue eyed brunette cheerily turned to face us as we all took a seat in the locker room “but you can all call me Cassie”
I stood up and gave her a polite nod as I turned to face my locker and I opened it slowly inspecting it carefully, removing my stethoscope and placing it around my neck.
“I’m Daniel Ross” a tall blonde haired boy spoke from the end of the row of lockers “call me Danny”
“I’m Rose Smith” a small, shy, red head announced quietly from the bench in front of the lockers
“I’m Justin Jones” another guy leaning against the lockers spoke up, he wasn’t as tall as Danny but he had very defined features and deep chocolate coloured eyes and hair.
I was the last to introduce myself. I left it a minute to say something but spoke up once the others started looking at me.
“Quinn” I smiled politely “Jamie Quinn”
“Nice to meet you Jamie” Justin held out his hand with a flirtatious smile
“Justin, leave the girl alone” Danny butted in
I shook my head at their childish behaviour but smiled and shook Justin’s hand anyway
“So what’s the deal with Medusa? Why’s she called that” I asked turning to face the girls
“That’s Meredith Grey” Cassie said in admiration
“No way” I said, realisation hitting ”THAT’S Ellis Grey’s daughter? THE Ellis Grey” I asked in amazement
“It sure is” Rose agreed with my amazement
“So whose service are you guys starting with for the week?” Danny asked curiously
“I’m with, uh, Dr Jackson Avery” Cassie said as she looked down at her rotation sheet “He’s plastics right?” she asked as she looked up for assurance
“That guy is Harper Avery’s grandson!” Danny exclaimed
“What?” I questioned in disbelief “how are we supposed to look good beside all these frickin legends?” I shook my head looking down at my own rotation sheet
“I’ve got a Dr Alex Karev, in paediatrics” I sighed “ugh dying babies is not a good start to my internship”
“I have Dr Grey in general” Rose sighed “great”
“Too bad kiddo” Justin hit Rose’s back with a sympathetic clap as he picked his rotation sheet up from the bench beside me “I’m with Dr Derek Shepherd in Neuro! NICE!” Justin exclaimed
"WHAT?” I looked up at Justin “I forgot Derek Shepherd was here too! God all these unbelievable surgeons and I get stuck Dr Alex ‘Nobody’ Karev” I grumbled
“Don’t beat yourself up” Danny spoke now “I’m with a Dr April Kepner in the E.R, is she anyone special?” Danny asked hopefully
“Pfft, I heard she failed her residency boards because she had sex with Dr Avery in the bathroom before the test and she got distracted” Cassie said and we all burst into fits of laughter
Just as the laughing began to die down a tall man with short brown hair and hard, dark chocolate eyes and a furrowed brow line burst through the door
“Quinn, get off your ass and answer you god damn pager” the doctor ordered furiously
“Uh, yes, um, sorry Doctor Karev” I fumbled with my pager and jumped from the bench as I ran to follow Karev out the door. I stopped just before leaving the room and looked back at the rest of the group. I mouthed the words help and gave a strained look
“Good luck” they called sympathetically
I ran and soon caught up with Dr Karev, walking at a furious pace beside him
“Dr Karev, I’m sorry about earlier I wasn’t keeping an eye on my pager, I hope this doesn’t set us off on the wrong foot” I stuttered as I tried to issue an apology
“Do that again and a patient could be dead” he mumbled
I hung my head and shut my mouth as we entered the elevator up to the paediatric floor and exited. At the main desk there stood another doctor, she seemed a little older than Karev, but when she turned my way I was taken back by her striking, glittering blue eyes and golden shoulder length blonde hair, she wore a friendly, welcoming smile and approached me cheerfully.
“Hi, I’m Arizona Robbins” she smiled as she shook my hand “I’m head of paediatrics, I hope Doctor Karev has been treating you well” she said doubtfully
Karev scoffed at her remark
“I look forward to learning under you both Dr Robbins” I smiled, ignoring her last comment on Karev
Like my mother always says, if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all
My first day was a whirlwind and this was just the beginning. I can’t think of a single reason why I should be a surgeon, but I can think of a thousand reasons I should quit. They make it hard on purpose. There are lives in our hands. There comes a moment when it’s more than just a game, and you either take that step forward or turn around and walk away. I could quit but here’s the thing, I love the playing field. here…
