Ana Rahman, MD

A day in the life of a PGY-2 resident

My name is Ana Rahman, MD, and I am a PGY-2 psychiatry resident here at Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN). I started off the year on PES, the psychiatric evaluation services. This is a team of case managers, social workers, nurses, resident physicians, attending physicians and advanced practice clinicians who work together to triage psychiatric patients who come to the emergency room and formulate a plan that will provide the best and most appropriate level of care. After I complete my PES rotation, the remainder of my PGY-2 year will include rotating through the partial hospitalization programs, the child and adolescent unit, addiction psychiatry, the geriatrics service, the inpatient behavioral unit and the consult and liaison service.

My day usually starts by waking up at 7 a.m. I will throw on some scrubs, make my regular cup of coffee, grab a protein bar and some yogurt and head out the door. On days when I’m running low on breakfast supplies, I will grab breakfast from the Lehigh Valley Hospital–Muhlenberg cafeteria. Their options are pretty great! The drive over to the hospital is about 15 minutes, including traffic. I will usually put on some music to wake me up and get me ready for the day. I get to the hospital around 8 a.m. This is when I attend the rapid psychiatric stabilization daily huddle. During this meeting, all team members are updated on bed and staffing availability, progress of patients waiting for placement or those requiring evaluation and any complex issues that require more thorough discussion. Once I get my assigned patients, I will chart-review and then either see them in person or virtually if they are off-site. After evaluating the patient, the attending physician and I have a discussion when we decide whether the patient needs outpatient services, a partial hospitalization program, psychiatric hospitalization, stabilization in the emergency room or safe discharge. Once disposition is decided, the appropriate clinicians are updated so that the treatment plan can be carried out.

At noon, it is time to grab lunch. This is my favorite part of the day because it means getting to spend time with my co-residents. After lunch, I will see any new patients that pop up, work on my notes or make phone calls for collateral. My day usually wraps up around 4:30 p.m. Some nights after work, my co-residents and I will grab dinner or do some kind of activity. There’s always something going on in the Lehigh Valley that we can check out if we want to venture out. Otherwise, we will gather for game or movie nights at each other’s apartments. Other nights, I will head to the gym. I live right across from one of four LVHN gyms that are free to all LVHN colleagues. After working out, I will come back to my apartment, make dinner and chai and spend the rest of my night either reading, watching TV or catching up with my friends and family.