A Day in the Life of a PGY-3 Resident – Dr. von Horn

Amanda Von Horn, MD
Class of 2019

My name is Amanda von Horn, and I’m a PGY3 resident at BU. We work exclusively in the outpatient setting during our third year of residency, which is different than the mostly-inpatient work we do during intern and PGY2 year. We do have inpatient duties when we take call, which during third year is overnight after a full day of clinic, or 24-hour shifts on weekends.

On a typical morning, I start by making breakfast and helping my 7-year old daughter get ready for her day while sipping home-brewed espresso. My husband drops me off at the T station on his way to drop her off at school, and I head to the VA-Boston Causeway outpatient clinic in the North End. I will take about 15-20 minutes when I arrive to review my schedule for the day, check my voicemail and email, and review my many to-do lists for various tasks I need to accomplish that day. I then see my scheduled patients and complete my documentation before heading over to Boston Medical Center with a few of my co-residents around noon to spend the afternoon in the child psychiatry clinic.

We have child psychiatry didactics for an hour before seeing patients in clinic. Typically, I will see between 2-3 patients on a given afternoon and staff the cases with an attending. If I happen to be on call that evening, I will head over to BMC Psychiatric Emergency Services at around 5:45pm. From 6pm-10pm, there is an attending psychiatrist in the ED to triage and manage patients with acute psychiatric needs, and I can focus on seeing any inpatient consults that weren’t seen during the day, or any new consults that come in and require urgent attention. At 10pm, the attending leaves for the evening, and from 10pm-8am, I will manage both the ED and inpatient CL services – triaging, evaluating, and managing patients with acute psychiatric needs. I will sign out the new cases to the day team for both services around 8am, and head home for some much-needed sleep.

I try to make the most of my time outside the hospital. Most evenings are spent at home, cooking dinner for my family after my husband and I help our daughter with her homework assignments. If we have a bit of time left before bed, we will watch some television (her favorite show is Bob’s Burgers) or play PS4 (currently Horizon Dawn and God of War). On weekends, we like to explore Boston for new restaurants and take advantage of all the city has to offer.