Call is just part of life as a physician.  It will mean something different for the radiation oncologist vs the interventional cardiologist, however, no matter what specialty you’re in, you will have some form of call (at least in residency or fellowship).

Something that helped me decrease the amount of call related stress was having a bag already pre-packed the way I liked, complete with all of my medium maintenance things.

I have had a  bag like this since I became a cardiology fellow because we had 24-28 hour calls. Now, after trial and error and error and error (read forgetting contact solution, toothbrush, etc). It helped me to make a list and go through the list the night before in order to make sure I had everything before I went on my way.

The things that I had in my call bag as a cardiology fellow:

Change of scrubs/clothes- including socks

Toothpaste and toothbrush

Headscarf/Bonnet ( I am a black  woman, after all)

Contact solution/Contact case

Facewash and moisturizer

Chargers

Deodorant

Body spray

Wipes

Water Bottle

Ipad

When I was pumping:

Ceres Chill x 2 (This will require some additional post at some point)

Pumps – Elvies

Now some caveats about this- for me, there’s nothing that grosses me out more than showering in a sketchy call room bathroom, so I would always wait until I got home, hence the wipes and deodorant. The bed was different because we always had brand new sheets and so I was a lot less grossed out.

I loved the Dagne Dover Landon bag for this, I used it through cardiology fellowship and interventional for my “go bag” in case I got called in and I was out and about.

Another side note:

One of my attendings actually made fun of me once for being out and about while on call. I was at Whole Foods with my fam, living my best life, and he called me and was like, “Wait, where are you?” I said, “Whole foods, where are you?” He just laughed and was like, “Oh well don’t let me disturb your grocery shopping with this STEMI (heart attack), just carry on.”

I just laughed and said that I would probably still beat him to the hospital. I knew I had what I needed because my call bag was always in my trunk when I was on.

You still have to live some life!

Now that I’m done with training, if I’m out, I still use this list and pack my bag. My bag is the same and it is always there in case I have a really bad night and I am stuck at the hospital overnight.

Hope this is a good launching pad for you as you are looking to pack a call bag!

Happy Call Days! You can do this!

Lise