{"id":2498,"date":"2018-09-19T11:23:29","date_gmt":"2018-09-19T15:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/?p=2498"},"modified":"2018-09-25T08:39:47","modified_gmt":"2018-09-25T12:39:47","slug":"coffee-and-the-state-of-the-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/2018\/09\/coffee-and-the-state-of-the-hospital\/","title":{"rendered":"Coffee and the State of the Hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ellen<\/a>

Ellen Poulose Redger, MD, is a Chief Resident at Stony Brook University Hospital in Stony Brook, NY<\/p><\/div>\n

I think you can tell a lot about how things are going in a hospital based on the amount of consumption of coffee by its employees.\u00a0Visit the Starbucks, Au Bon Pain, Roasterie, Einstein Brothers, or whatever coffee shop inhabits square footage in your hospital, and I\u2019d venture to say that you can take the pulse of the hospital.\u00a0Lots of large coffees to go? It\u2019s either just about shift change and people are rushing into their jobs for the day (or night), or the hospital is bursting at its \"cup<\/a>seams and everyone is go-go-go.\u00a0Is someone ordering an Americano?\u00a0He or she must know that the dregs of the day\u2019s coffee are all that\u2019s left and is instead gambling that a freshly pulled espresso shot is a safer bet.\u00a0A latte?\u00a0That lucky person might have a little time to spare and might even sit down to enjoy his or her drink right there instead of hurrying back to the floor\/clinic\/unit\/OR.\u00a0How about the counter with the milks and sugars \u2014 are all the sugar or sweetener packets gone?\u00a0Must be insanely busy. Milk or \u2014 gasp \u2014 half-and-half all gone?\u00a0The shop\u2019s been busy, so much so that they\u2019ve run out of the dairy product within the allowed 2-hour\u00a0serving time.\u00a0You see \u2014 if you happen to have time to take note of these things \u2014\u00a0there\u2019s a lot to be observed.<\/p>\n

\"coffee<\/a>How much coffee does a residency program go through during a conference?\u00a0Are the residents burning the candle at both ends while on service?\u00a0 If so, we\u2019ll go through a pot of coffee in 5 minutes as they sit down for afternoon conference.\u00a0 [My co-chiefs and I have carried on the tradition of providing coffee with conference \u2014 there is no excuse for sleeping if you have access to caffeine.]\u00a0 Things have been a little bit calmer on the floors and they have a few minutes to decompress?\u00a0We might need to fire up another pot of coffee after conference, just to give everyone a few more minutes to sit together and chat.\u00a0How fast are we going through the half-and-half or almond creamer?\u00a0Are all of the caffeine lovers on service at the same time, or has it been an unusually busy time and everyone\u2019s reaching for a cup during conference?\u00a0Or perhaps there are days when our \u201cproprietary blend\u201d wasn\u2019t that popular, and most of the coffee went down the drain. (I will never again buy French vanilla coffee. Sorry, everyone.)\u00a0 Even for those who don\u2019t drink coffee, I think just having it there and knowing that someone got there early to set it up and set out the accoutrement for serving shows that we, the nebulous chiefs behind the email account, care.\u00a0 We want our residents to know that yes, the days are long, and the pages are nonstop, but there\u2019s a hug in a cup waiting for them.<\/p>\n

\"to-go<\/a>Let\u2019s go back to the coffee shop in the hospital \u2014 maybe it\u2019s midafternoon, and a senior resident or fellow or attending has taken an intern there for a quick feedback session.\u00a0 (Please, everyone, do sit down with your learners to give and receive feedback!)\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s 6:30 am and the senior resident is buying five specialty drinks to celebrate the end of a block with her interns and students.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s 9 pm and there\u2019s a couple there, both on call, stealing a few minutes of time with each other before heading back to their respective domains.\u00a0 There is so much to observe in just that little area.\u00a0 That shop is a measure of the pulse of the hospital, if we just look up from our smartphone long enough to see what is going on.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"NEJM<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think you can tell a lot about how things are going in a hospital based on the amount of consumption of coffee by its employees.\u00a0Visit the Starbucks, Au Bon Pain, Roasterie, Einstein Brothers, or whatever coffee shop inhabits square footage in your hospital, and I\u2019d venture to say that you can take the pulse […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1296,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[129,47,130,33],"class_list":["post-2498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-residency","tag-coffee","tag-mentors","tag-pulse","tag-reflections"],"yoast_head":"\nCoffee and the State of the Hospital - Insights on Residency Training<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dr. Poulose Redger takes a coffee break and considers whether caffeine fuels hospitals.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/2018\/09\/coffee-and-the-state-of-the-hospital\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Coffee and the State of the Hospital\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dr. Poulose Redger takes a coffee break and considers whether caffeine fuels hospitals.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/2018\/09\/coffee-and-the-state-of-the-hospital\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Insights on Residency Training\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-09-19T15:23:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-09-25T12:39:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/07\/AU000_epouloseredger.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ellen Poulose-Redger, MD\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ellen Poulose-Redger, MD\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/2018\/09\/coffee-and-the-state-of-the-hospital\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/2018\/09\/coffee-and-the-state-of-the-hospital\/\",\"name\":\"Coffee and the State of the Hospital - Insights on Residency Training\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-09-19T15:23:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-09-25T12:39:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/#\/schema\/person\/9582a49f225d70a7043e5aad25bfd855\"},\"description\":\"Dr. Poulose Redger takes a coffee break and considers whether caffeine fuels hospitals.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/2018\/09\/coffee-and-the-state-of-the-hospital\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/2018\/09\/coffee-and-the-state-of-the-hospital\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/2018\/09\/coffee-and-the-state-of-the-hospital\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Coffee and the State of the Hospital\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/\",\"name\":\"Insights on Residency Training\",\"description\":\"Observation of residents across diverse medical specialties\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/#\/schema\/person\/9582a49f225d70a7043e5aad25bfd855\",\"name\":\"Ellen Poulose-Redger, MD\",\"description\":\"Ellen was born just outside Atlanta, Georgia, at the end of her father\u2019s second year of medical school. 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