Ever wonder what the typical week for a pediatric resident is like? You’re in luck! Valley Children’s pediatric resident physician, Dr. Kelly Hady let us tail her for a week and she gave us an inside peek into the life of a resident.
Kelly Hady, MD Resident Physician, PGY-1, aka an "intern"
Hometown: Atlanta, GA
MONDAY
5:30 a.m. – Wake-up and off to work! Where and what I’m doing at work changes, but for the month of October 2020, I’ve been on a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) rotation. As interns, we rotate at Valley Children’s neonatal intensive care unit at St. Agnes Hospital. It gives a good introduction to neonatology before we do later rotations in the main hospital level 4 NICU.
6:30 a.m. – Arrive at work and begin “pre-rounding” on my assigned patients. This involves going through each of the babies’ charts, gathering crucial information about how they’ve been doing overnight (i.e. eating, breathing, peeing, pooping, etc.) and reviewing all the lab results we’ve collected. (Almost all of the babies here are preemies and it always amazes me just how tiny they are!)
9:00 a.m. —The attending physician arrives and we begin to “round on the patients” or visit each of the patients room by room. I present each patient’s information to my attending physician and we discuss the plan/any changes in management. Often, the attending physician will also incorporate some teaching during these discussions — today we talked about how to adjust ventilator settings in order to help the baby’s oxygen delivery to their lungs.
12:30 p.m. — Grab a quick lunch (because everyone has to eat!), finish up my notes, and make calls to update families.
2:00 p.m. — We received a call from upstairs about an impending delivery. I quickly gown up and put on my extra personal protective equipment (PPE)! I accompany the team to the operating room for a C-section. The baby was born a few weeks early, so we brought her down to the NICU for extra care.
4:00 p.m. — The neonatal nurse practitioner (NNP) arrives for the night shift and we “sign-out” our patients. (Which basically means we go over the patient list and update the nurse practitioner about what happened throughout the day.)
4:30 p.m. – Off of work! Having moved from Atlanta in June, traffic is the bane of my existence. Here in the Central Valley, my work commute is a dream! I usually use the drive home to call my parents (via handless device, of course) and chill out with some music.
5:00 p.m. — Once I get home, I usually hang out and watch TV with my roommate, Maryam, who is also one of my co-interns. I then whip up some dinner (I’m an avid Trader Joes fan!) and get some studying in before turning in for an early bedtime.
TUESDAY
5:30 a.m. — Another early wake-up call. Throw on some scrubs and head to the hospital!
6:30 a.m. — Morning chats with the NICU nurses, get updates from the NNP and pre-round on patients —including my new patient from yesterday afternoon.
9:00 a.m. — Round with my attending, put in orders and work on my notes. Time management is essential today because I’ll have to leave early this afternoon.
2 p.m. — My attending physician lets me leave early and I have to go to the main hospital for a meeting with my “coach”. Each resident is assigned a coach to check-in with periodically to help guide us through residency. I get there early, so I head over to the graduate medical education (GME) office, which is the hub for our residency program. I run into a couple of my fellow interns and chat for a few minutes.
3 p.m. — I head downstairs to the hospitalist’s office to meet my coach. We cover an array of topics from my practice board scores to research opportunities and from rotations to how I’ve been adjusting to life in Fresno. Even though Valley Children’s is incredibly supportive, it’s nice to have a designated person to check-in with and look out for you!
4 p.m. — I head home and decide to take advantage of the beautiful weather by going out for a quick walk in the neighborhood. I then get to spend the rest of the evening relaxing, cooking dinner and binge-watching “New Girl” on Netflix with Maryam.
WEDNESDAY
5:30 a.m. — Alarm goes off -- I hop out of bed, get ready, make some coffee and head out the door. One perk of an early shift: seeing the sunrise over the Sierra Mountains! It is so beautiful every day.
6:30 a.m. — Receive sign-out from NNP. We just got a new admission, so I help the NNP with the orders and notes before I pre-round on the other patients.
12:00 p.m. — Time for our academic half day. Due to COVID-19 guidelines, the residency program transitioned over to doing this virtually, rather than in-person lectures. Although we have “Zoom lectures” now, the residency program often reserves conference room spaces for viewing. Again, it’s always nice to catch up with friends during these lectures – all while maintaining proper social distancing, of course!
3:30 p.m. — I use one of our lecture breaks to call a dress shop back in Atlanta and order my bridesmaid’s dress for my brother’s wedding next spring. It’s sometimes challenging to manage the time difference on the East Coast, so I try to use these breaks wisely!
5 p.m. — I finish up academic Half Day and head home to fit in an evening workout, eat dinner and study a little bit before hitting the hay.
THURSDAY
5:45 a.m. — My alarm sounds and I’m not going to lie, waking up this morning is a struggle. I decide to get in gear and treat myself by getting a caffeine-fix from the Starbucks drive-thru on the way to work.
6:30 a.m. — More mingling, sign-out and pre-rounding.
9:00 a.m. — Again… I round with my attending physician, put in orders and write notes.
12 p.m. — Grab a quick lunch and then, I head to continuity clinic. This afternoon clinic consists of well-child visits, sick-visits and a telemedicine consult. I really enjoy these afternoons because it’s a change of pace from the inpatient or hospital medicine that I do throughout the week.
5 p.m. — Finish up with my notes and head home. Another uneventful evening, but I go to bed excited that tomorrow’s Friday!
FRIDAY
5:30 a.m. — It’s FRIDAY! After a long 12-day stretch of working (I worked last weekend), I’m excited that I don’t have to work this weekend. I wake up in a good mood and get ready for the day.
6:30 a.m. – I arrive at work and, you guessed it -- pre-rounding on my patients.
11:00 a.m.— My attending physician lets me know that I’ll be performing a “LP” or lumbar puncture procedure this afternoon, which is where we use a needle to take a small sample of the fluid around a spinal cord. I’ve done an LP in the past, so it takes a bit of the pressure off knowing I’ve already successfully done it before. We gown and glove up and complete the LP without issues. SUCCESS!
12:00 p.m. —Time for lunch—I decide to treat myself to a cheeseburger from the cafeteria grill for all my hard work this morning.
1:00 p.m. — Finish up my notes and spend the rest of the afternoon managing patients with the nurses.
4:30 p.m. — Our NNP comes in and I sign-out the patients…I’m finally in weekend-mode! As I’m leaving the hospital, I get a text from some of my co-interns about getting together this evening for some after-work tennis.
5:00 p.m. — Change out of scrubs and into some athletic gear. Maryam comes home from Valley Children’s Charlie Mitchell clinic and we spend the next hour relaxing and catching up on our favorite shows.
6:30 p.m. — Meet up with some of my co-interns for our version of “Friday Night Lights” — tennis at one of the local high schools. We’ve been hitting the courts fairly often since it’s an easy way for us to be social and active at the same time.
8:30 p.m. — We play for a few hours until our hunger strikes. We decide to continue the fun by heading 
over to Sequoia Brewing Company for some post-tennis brews and burgers while we shares stories about things we’ve dealt with throughout the week.
10 p.m. — I’m beat, so I head home to shower and then….SLEEP. Overall, it’s been a busy, but great week. It can be stressful at times, but I wouldn’t trade my job for the world!