The first few times you take call can be nerve-wracking because you just don’t know how it all works, what to bring with you and how you will function the next day if you don't get much sleep. Don’t worry! Most likely you will be on call with one or two other medical students (even though they might be on a different team or different rotation) and the residents that you take call with, will show you the ropes. Remember that you will take much less call than any resident so enjoy your call nights; you will learn a lot. Just sleep in a different room than your intern if you want to get sleep. You will have a chance to work one-on-one with the residents since you will be the only one there from your team, and you will see the more exciting stuff (i.e. codes seem to only happen at night, babies are born in the wee hours and the patients who come into to the ER after hours always have the best stories). However, if your resident tells you to go to sleep, go ahead. You don’t need to impress them with a lack of sleep and fumbling through rounds the next day (you will have plenty of sleepless nights in your future so cherish those nights when you can lay your head on a pillow for a few minutes). Plus, you will do better on the daily ritual “pimping” sessions if you are fresh and awake. That’s the time when Attendings and Residents will ask you questions like what are the differential diagnoses, lab tests to order, etc… regarding the patients on your team (usually on morning rounds).
What should you bring? Toothpaste, toothbrush and Altoids, Certs or whatever breath mint you fancy - a morning presentation that wilts your attending does not make a good impression. Also you can score some points with your residents by supplying their mint needs as well; they will love you! Bring scrubs (remember the ones you “borrowed” for anatomy?) to sleep in if you haven’t found out where to get them at Rush or if you are at another site (County or RNS) where they keep a close eye on their scrubs and you may not be able to snag a pair for sleeping purposes. Remember that JCAHO guidelines prohibit you from wearing scrubs off the hospital premises so be careful going home on your post-call day, and the blue surgical scrubs at Rush are not to be worn outside of the OR without complete cover from shoulder to toe (blue surgical gown). Over the past year or so, Rush has become even more strict about students only wearing scrubs AT NIGHT (after 5PM), even though your residents will wear them on call and post call days. So, be prepared to bring a change of clothes (or maybe just a new shirt) for your post call day. You can get scrubs in the basement at Rush, so you can just pick those up (during the day) and change anytime after 5PM.
The only rotation at County where you take overnight call is surgery. All others (medicine, peds, psych, etc) will have either night float or a separate night call team.