"Happy new year!"

These were the words of the recovery room nurse as I put the finishing touches on orders for a post operative patient at 00:05 or 5 minutes past midnight this morning. Looking at the clock, I sighed, "Well, it is July 1st." Her come back was "Happy new year!"

Yes, it is the first day of the post graduate training year. There are brand new interns, who are also known as first years, signifying their PGY 1 or post graduate training year 1 status. A quote from my past when the PGY 1 designation was just beginning is "They can call us anything they want, we are still working our butts off." This is true. I just did not know it would get worse my second year. I also did not realize the terror I some times felt when I was on call late at night was nothing like the terror I some times feel now when I realize I am truly IT. Yes, I have colleagues I can consult but the responsibility is all mine.

So, at 07:00 there they were in front of the board, new interns. The old interns were now PGY 2s or second years. They sounded as if they had learned a great deal in the last 365 days. The computer was down for an extended period of time and the electronic medical record was a mess as a result but we muddled through the change of shift and as I left an intern was recording the first set of orders which would be signed with a MD following her name.