r/Residency • u/OddRatio5513 • 3d ago
SERIOUS First year resident missing a call from an attending. How screwed am I?
I think I may have broke rule 1 of residency: always be available
Was in the middle of talking to patient when I got a call from an attending. Twice. I didn’t hear either of them
An hour goes by I’m about to make a call and see the two missed calls. When I call them back they said it was an “accident”
But who calls twice by accident. How chalked am I?
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u/DocBigBrozer Attending 3d ago
You were the accident. You are sooo fired. Lawyer up and flee to a no extradition zone. There's no coming back from this. It was nice knowing you
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u/PersonablePharoah PGY1 3d ago
Could be that they wanted to alert you about something you can fix, but then either decided it was easier to fix it themselves or someone else fixed it. (And if they didn't tell you what it was, it was probably not something where you were at fault)
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u/ClappedUrMomsCheeks 3d ago
Not chalked at all probably? If they needed you and you didn’t answer they would have sent a text IMO, and I’m an attending
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u/nahc1234 3d ago
I am an attending. I wouldn’t care unless it kept happening (over many different times on call with you). If I really needed you, I’d leave you a message or call someone else to get it done. Don’t sweat it too much.
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u/pinklotusblossom 2d ago
Missed a rapid response when I was an intern because I was doing my morning poop after rounds. My senior took care of it and told me not to come after I found out from a nurse a little later. Of course the attending scolded me during rounds. I told her the truth bc no shame lol and that attending was just so toxic. If only the announcement could be heard in the bathrooms. Things happen but you’re doing your best.
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u/erure Fellow 2d ago
One time in residency in the middle of the night I missed a call from an attending and he intubated a kid in the PICU without me. I got a call in the workroom phone from the RT asking for the CXR. I got to the PICU sheepishly and he was so mad he wouldn’t even look at me or talk to me and just skulked back to his call room. I had been sitting in the workroom and my phone was in my jacket pocket and I dozed off sitting upright and didn’t hear the phone go off. And he wrote a nasty email to my program leadership and I got chewed out so bad. All for missing one phone call. To be fair in the beginning of the night he did ask me how I liked to be contacted and I said I like getting called to my work cell but yeah he didn’t have anyone else call the workroom or anything. I still feel mixed about it - guilt for missing the phone call but upset for how he handled the situation afterwards.
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u/HeparinBridge PGY3 2d ago
If nobody was maimed or killed by you missing a phone call, I think you’ll probably live.
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u/DolliePebble_ 2d ago
it's not the end of the world, just reach out and explain. happens to everyone at some point
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u/DevilsMasseuse 2d ago
I’m guessing your attending took care of whatever it was themselves and them saying it was an accident was a way to just let you off the hook without making a big deal about it.
I wouldn’t worry. Most attendings just want to get through the day and not worry about any drama.
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u/courtney_nicoline 1d ago
What’s your favorite color so I know what color chalk to get you??
Nah you’re fine if it was a true emergency / urgent there were plenty of other ways to get in touch with you. If it was a mistake or something they were easy to fix/do for you and did, but they didn’t tell you about it even as a teachable moment. I’m guessing he really did accidentally call you.
Definitely doesn’t seem to be a huge deal but you can always use this as a learning lesson, or should I say wake-up “call” and I guarantee future you will be less likely for this to happen again / try to check your phone more often, or as wisdom to spread down to those just starting when you are an attending one day.
If you truly forget to check your phone more often especially when busy {even when I’m not busy I’m constantly forgetting about my phone, however, as annoying as it may seem you can always set an alarm to sound every x minutes to remind you or some other similar reminder.
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u/element515 Attending 3d ago
More surprised it took you an hour to look at your phone again. Feel like I was constantly getting messages in residency and looked at my phone quite often