Citation

Davis T. Fam. Med. 2019; 51(5): 438-439.

Affiliation

New Hanover Regional Medical Center Family Medicine Residency, Wilmington, NC.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Society of Teachers of Family Medicine)

DOI

10.22454/FamMed.2019.336554

PMID

31081917

Abstract

My residents and I were the family medicine storm team in charge of caring for patients during the hospital lockdown that resulted when Hurricane Florence hit the city of Wilmington. As an attending of only a year, my concerns were twofold. One was giving our patients and community the best care possible and the other was keeping my residents healthy and safe. Unaware of how long the lockdown would last and knowing how stressful it would be, to protect the well-being of the team, I decided we should share all our meals together. My goal was to decompress and debrief on what we saw each day and after, if possible, to focus on something other than the storm outside.

These family meals usually ended in our joking about what variety of “meat plop” the cafeteria would serve that day. All jokes aside, what the meat plops lacked in visual appeal, they made up for in taste.

After day one, the winds began to pick up outside. Jokes and quips like “Is this storm actually going to come?” were no longer heard when the clouds rolled over us. Our rounding room was located in the basement directly adjacent to the temporary daycare the hospital had set up for children of employees working the lockdown ...

Language: en