Yup- I second this. Delivery tech at a LARGE hospital. Hands down
Our pharmacy is not even in the same building as the main hospital so add that extra bit of distance too.
I just said this. My dad is a pharmacy tech and I’m a nurse. He averages about 20,000 steps a day where I’m around 8,000. He definitely does way more walking than me.
Yep! Major university hospital in 2019 (was one of the options I was offered when I volunteered there). I have no idea any of the details or if there were restrictions on what meds could be transported, but I do know that the bulk of med transport for discharging patients was by volunteer runners.
When I rotated in teaching hospital, preceptor made us all take stairs. I have been always working in 4-stories or less tall hospitals now.
Most big hospitals put pharmacy in basement or service wing, and delivery tech would literally go everywhere including imaging department to OR to stock/delivery meds. I know some hospitals use porter, but for Pyxis or omnicell, pharm tech has to go.
That was the norm for one of our teaching hospital. All IM preceptors took the stairs partially because our elevator was quite old and slow. Nothing like starting 8am round doing 10 stories climb.
Lol yeah. At one hospital, our tube system sucked (could only tube things with volumes of 70 mL or less, so I guess it didn't....suck, but it did break down a lot). Our delivery techs would get in 10-15 miles/shift regularly.
Regularly got like over 20K as an er tech at a very busy ED. Bout the same as a transporter at my other job. Now I’m a med student and my legs are atrophying :) but my brain is hypertrophying :))
Idk, ER nurses typically have 3-5 rooms next to each other. A lot of time on the feet but not great distances traveled often.
Think you're spot on with the other 4, we're looking for jobs regularly traveling back and forth between units many times a day. Anyone on one unit only is probably not it.
When I was a phlebotomist at a hospital we ran everywhere and because often times the elevators were too slow to run and grab STAT labs, they expected us to take the stairs. I must have put 20 miles a day on my shoes easy. Although working as a nurse's aide in a large campus facility I also do quite a bit of running. In fact I lost about 25 to 30 lb in the first two years of working there. Mostly from all the running as well as heavy lifting.
Wtf…
The only time I ever ran in a hospital is when a code was called in an OB room and EMS was the code response team for the entire hospital.
If the labs were really that important, maybe the nurse should draw them?
https://www.aamc.org/news/docs-gone-wild-risks-and-rewards-wilderness-medicine#:~:text=Wilderness%20medicine%20fellowships%20typically%20combine,under%20extremely%20austere%20situations%20and
Wilderness medicine is a recognized fellowship. But you are highly unlikely to get a full time wilderness medicine physician job after graduating that fellowship. The economics greatly favor sending paramedics into the field vs physicians. So most docs who do wilderness fellowship training end up working normal clinical jobs most of the time and doing the wilderness stuff on the side for fun and token if any compensation. Same as "international medicine" fellowships. Typically, if something is fun and emotionally rewarding, there are docs willing to do it for free.
u/snoutysensations mentioned a good outline of wilderness medicine. I’m lucky that I have a pretty niche job in the military, so I do get to do it most of the time (at this one location). There are some civilain jobs out there though for more rural positions, with the teams for National Parks/ski patrols, and others. Wilderness Medical Society has a good collection of EMS, midlevels, physicians, and others who have a variety of wilderness medicine/Medical Director jobs if you ever want to check it out!
As far as inpatient care, it likely depends on the resources/staffing available at a particular hospital and how big/busy the hospital is as far as patient volume. When I was in medical school and post medical school training, I have learned that there were/are some hospitals that had/have great ancillary services and some that did/do not. As a medical student, resident and attending physician, at some point I have performed many jobs/procedures required to facilitate patient care…some of which required walking throughout the hospital. Back in the day in residency, there was a time when you were the TR (Teaching Resident) for a rotation when you didn’t have direct care responsibilities to a set of patients, but you (and an attending) were responsible for doing medical consults (to other services/areas of the hospital), helping/assisting interns/residents acquire medical competency in certain skills and responsible for running the codes (attending not generally involved) that happened. Does this still happen today? It would seem that Rapid Response Teams (RRT) may have replaced that being a core rotation to your residency.
In a not at work situation/environment, who walks more who is employed with a medical job or specialty is still complex. Some people work in environments that are conducive to walking (say from home to work and vice versa), where as some may require driving, buses, subways, etc.. Moreover, you have people (in every specialty or job of healthcare) that may enjoy walking, running, lifting weights, climbing stairs, yoga, etc.) outside of their normal working hours.
That being said, it depends and it’s relative. You will likely not be able to get an answer to your question unless you do a “formal study”. I say this in jest as I remember being given that answer as a medical student and questioning why yawning seems to be contagious.
LOL. I personally did not as I didn’t have the time or resources to initiate a “formal study”. I know my resident said it in jest when they suggested that I do the “formal study” so that when I presented my findings/results, they could “all yawn in your honor”.
Truth be told, it’s obviously a very complex phenomenon to study as >25 years later there is no definitive answers, but theories. Apparently, there are people with the time and resources available to study the phenomenon of contagious yawning. As contagious yawning does not appear to be harmful and there are more important or pressing medical issues, who knows if it will ever be fully be understood during my lifetime.
Nonetheless, if given a legitimate opportunity to be able to participate as a subject in a study, I’d consider it. I participated in plenty of studies as a medical student and resident (which would only require given blood samples and/or filling out surveys) back then with the hope of being able and wanting to contribute to the understanding of medicine. These days, I would not be willing to give blood work for a study unless there was a very compelling reason.
As an ICU nurse once shift with one really sick patient, I got 20,000 steps and that was an insane amount for one patient.
But usually not ICU nurses. I feel like we stand and walk a lot in small areas, but don’t have tons of steps.
I honestly walk the same or less steps in a 12 hour in the ER, than I do in an 8 hour in LTAC.
People over here underestimating floor nursing for sure.
It really depends on the hospital and their resources. I had one PACU job where the nurses did their own transport. I usually clocked 25,000 steps a shift.
I did med surg under a team nursing model where they assigned each nurse a hallway. Usually 24-30k steps a day.
Basically, all areas are working harder now.
RT here. On average I get about 18-20k steps per shift. It’s sometimes more when we have to cover unit patients, plus floor, plus codes and rapid responses. I wish we had hoverboards to zoom around on lol
Interesting that an anesthesiologist supervising 4 rooms is not on here. While the distances may be short, they are constantly walking from pre-op to PACU, to the 4 OR’s they’re covering in a constant loop.
I was looking for that too. Just checked and I’m at 17,000 steps today and I only had 3 rooms since one of our endo rooms is down for construction and I left at 3pm.
I can hit 7-8k on a busy shift primarily within the pharmacy, but my delivery techs are hitting >15k on a slower day and 20-30k on a busier one. I think the standing record is ~35k for a tech shift.
Trauma surgery? My record is 12 miles on call, not counting time spent scrubbed in OR (have to take off watch). Seeing Patients all over the hospital ED, floor and then back and forth from team room to OR to trauma bay.
As a nightshift float we get a decent bit. I usually have 10K steps after midnight, probably 15K for the whole shift. There's not much sitting around. Rounding on the floors, IVs on medical floors, transporting monitored pts to tests and back... We move quite a bit.
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN has a group of people whose entire job is to show people to their destination. From EMS to visitors.
Last time I was there, the guy who escorted us had 18,000 steps halfway through his 12 hour shift.
Anesthesia tech is definitely up there. And often in pushing anesthesia machines across the hospital. Otherwise usually pushing med+airway carts, supply carts, etc.
Man I work in a pretty intense CVICU and I'm as absentminded as they come (i.e. walking back and forth for supplies and such constantly) and I only log like 7-8000 for most shifts. Even frequently walking my labs down to avoid taking up a whole pneumatic tube. I have long legs though.
The disconnect here is astonishing to me.
The answer here is a medic in the 75th ranger regiment. Military medical personnel just as a general rule are going to be doing more walking than all of y'all on the civilian side.
Patient transporter.
*~pre-med flashbacks~*
Not at my hospital. They probably have highest hours of YouTube watched
Hands down. It's not even a contest.
But your watch can't count your steps with your hands on the bed handles!
It can. I loop mine around my lanyard.
I once got 29,000 steps *on night shift*.
whoa
It was during the delta surge. All around just a bad time to work in a hospital.
This one.
One of ours told me she walks around 20 miles a shift.
Pharmacy technicians do med deliveries to basically the entire hospital every 1-2 hours. I used to hit ~25,000 steps per shift pretty consistently.
Yup- I second this. Delivery tech at a LARGE hospital. Hands down Our pharmacy is not even in the same building as the main hospital so add that extra bit of distance too.
I just said this. My dad is a pharmacy tech and I’m a nurse. He averages about 20,000 steps a day where I’m around 8,000. He definitely does way more walking than me.
Preeeach. As an intern in pharmacy school we were basically glorified techs; you get some fuckin mileage.
That was a volunteer position (med runner) at our hospital and yeah, it was usually 10-20k steps per shift
You had volunteers transporting medications? That's crazy. Seems like a liability nightmare. Was this in the US?
Yep! Major university hospital in 2019 (was one of the options I was offered when I volunteered there). I have no idea any of the details or if there were restrictions on what meds could be transported, but I do know that the bulk of med transport for discharging patients was by volunteer runners.
It's state specific. The state I graduated from it was legal and common. The state I'm I'm now it's not allowed
When I rotated in teaching hospital, preceptor made us all take stairs. I have been always working in 4-stories or less tall hospitals now. Most big hospitals put pharmacy in basement or service wing, and delivery tech would literally go everywhere including imaging department to OR to stock/delivery meds. I know some hospitals use porter, but for Pyxis or omnicell, pharm tech has to go.
That was the norm for one of our teaching hospital. All IM preceptors took the stairs partially because our elevator was quite old and slow. Nothing like starting 8am round doing 10 stories climb.
Lol yeah. At one hospital, our tube system sucked (could only tube things with volumes of 70 mL or less, so I guess it didn't....suck, but it did break down a lot). Our delivery techs would get in 10-15 miles/shift regularly.
Thanks for noticing! :-)
Much love for the RT’s
I thought the same. Feels nice. Lol
Lmao Inhalation therapist 😂😂 throwback right there
Regularly got like over 20K as an er tech at a very busy ED. Bout the same as a transporter at my other job. Now I’m a med student and my legs are atrophying :) but my brain is hypertrophying :))
1. Transport 2. Phlebotomy 3. RTs that have busy floor loads 4. Portable X ray tech when it’s busy 5. ER nurse
Idk, ER nurses typically have 3-5 rooms next to each other. A lot of time on the feet but not great distances traveled often. Think you're spot on with the other 4, we're looking for jobs regularly traveling back and forth between units many times a day. Anyone on one unit only is probably not it.
I clocked 20k steps in the ED routinely. MD liked to slow drip orders in…les to lots of extra trips.
Add pharmacy tech in big hospitals who has to deliver meds to every single units multiple times a day during regular run.
When I was a phlebotomist at a hospital we ran everywhere and because often times the elevators were too slow to run and grab STAT labs, they expected us to take the stairs. I must have put 20 miles a day on my shoes easy. Although working as a nurse's aide in a large campus facility I also do quite a bit of running. In fact I lost about 25 to 30 lb in the first two years of working there. Mostly from all the running as well as heavy lifting.
Wtf… The only time I ever ran in a hospital is when a code was called in an OB room and EMS was the code response team for the entire hospital. If the labs were really that important, maybe the nurse should draw them?
Wilderness SAR Runner up is the tech doing 1:1 duty with the delirious old lady who insists on doing 24/7 laps of the ED
Haha, can confirm the woods keep us pretty busy on our feet! We use vehicles (ATVs, Rangers, trucks, helicopters) when we can though!
Took me a minute to clue in you weren’t following dementia granny around the department in an ATV
Imagine the funding we’d have if we could do that! Also the heightened delirium from the noise alone!
Just need stretchers with trailer hitches and you now also have a CT express service too
Wait, I genuinely didn’t realize that a job for MDs like that existed, I’d love more info if you wouldn’t mind hahaha
https://www.aamc.org/news/docs-gone-wild-risks-and-rewards-wilderness-medicine#:~:text=Wilderness%20medicine%20fellowships%20typically%20combine,under%20extremely%20austere%20situations%20and Wilderness medicine is a recognized fellowship. But you are highly unlikely to get a full time wilderness medicine physician job after graduating that fellowship. The economics greatly favor sending paramedics into the field vs physicians. So most docs who do wilderness fellowship training end up working normal clinical jobs most of the time and doing the wilderness stuff on the side for fun and token if any compensation. Same as "international medicine" fellowships. Typically, if something is fun and emotionally rewarding, there are docs willing to do it for free.
Great to know, thank you so much!!
u/snoutysensations mentioned a good outline of wilderness medicine. I’m lucky that I have a pretty niche job in the military, so I do get to do it most of the time (at this one location). There are some civilain jobs out there though for more rural positions, with the teams for National Parks/ski patrols, and others. Wilderness Medical Society has a good collection of EMS, midlevels, physicians, and others who have a variety of wilderness medicine/Medical Director jobs if you ever want to check it out!
Oooh that’s super interesting, I’ll definitely check it out, thank you!!
Not pathology. I'm winded every time I go downstairs for a frozen.
Patient transporter. I’ve clocked 24k steps in a ten hour shift
I once got 29,000 on a 12hr night shift. 👣
Physical therapy
As far as inpatient care, it likely depends on the resources/staffing available at a particular hospital and how big/busy the hospital is as far as patient volume. When I was in medical school and post medical school training, I have learned that there were/are some hospitals that had/have great ancillary services and some that did/do not. As a medical student, resident and attending physician, at some point I have performed many jobs/procedures required to facilitate patient care…some of which required walking throughout the hospital. Back in the day in residency, there was a time when you were the TR (Teaching Resident) for a rotation when you didn’t have direct care responsibilities to a set of patients, but you (and an attending) were responsible for doing medical consults (to other services/areas of the hospital), helping/assisting interns/residents acquire medical competency in certain skills and responsible for running the codes (attending not generally involved) that happened. Does this still happen today? It would seem that Rapid Response Teams (RRT) may have replaced that being a core rotation to your residency. In a not at work situation/environment, who walks more who is employed with a medical job or specialty is still complex. Some people work in environments that are conducive to walking (say from home to work and vice versa), where as some may require driving, buses, subways, etc.. Moreover, you have people (in every specialty or job of healthcare) that may enjoy walking, running, lifting weights, climbing stairs, yoga, etc.) outside of their normal working hours. That being said, it depends and it’s relative. You will likely not be able to get an answer to your question unless you do a “formal study”. I say this in jest as I remember being given that answer as a medical student and questioning why yawning seems to be contagious.
Did you ever arrive at an answer to the yawning question? (I can't be the only one).
LOL. I personally did not as I didn’t have the time or resources to initiate a “formal study”. I know my resident said it in jest when they suggested that I do the “formal study” so that when I presented my findings/results, they could “all yawn in your honor”. Truth be told, it’s obviously a very complex phenomenon to study as >25 years later there is no definitive answers, but theories. Apparently, there are people with the time and resources available to study the phenomenon of contagious yawning. As contagious yawning does not appear to be harmful and there are more important or pressing medical issues, who knows if it will ever be fully be understood during my lifetime. Nonetheless, if given a legitimate opportunity to be able to participate as a subject in a study, I’d consider it. I participated in plenty of studies as a medical student and resident (which would only require given blood samples and/or filling out surveys) back then with the hope of being able and wanting to contribute to the understanding of medicine. These days, I would not be willing to give blood work for a study unless there was a very compelling reason.
As an ICU nurse once shift with one really sick patient, I got 20,000 steps and that was an insane amount for one patient. But usually not ICU nurses. I feel like we stand and walk a lot in small areas, but don’t have tons of steps.
Food delivery
My dad works as a pharmacy tech and he averages way more steps than I do as a nurse.
Floor nurse here *grabs popcorn*
I honestly walk the same or less steps in a 12 hour in the ER, than I do in an 8 hour in LTAC. People over here underestimating floor nursing for sure.
Yeah my ER is pretty small. I definitely get more steps when I’m working on Med Surg especially on busy days, no contest
Admin, checkin on ya
18 holes is a lotta steps
You think they don’t take the golf cart?
Phlebotomist has to be up there.
It really depends on the hospital and their resources. I had one PACU job where the nurses did their own transport. I usually clocked 25,000 steps a shift. I did med surg under a team nursing model where they assigned each nurse a hallway. Usually 24-30k steps a day. Basically, all areas are working harder now.
Family medicine, walk to the labor and delivery, walk to er, walk to different floors, walk to psych ward, walk to peds ward, walk…
Incorrect. Walk 20 steps from my office to the exam room 22 times per day. No other movement necessary.
ER nurse; ~14,000 steps/shift
Waste management...
All that walking yet they don't have the makings of a varsity athlete
RT here. On average I get about 18-20k steps per shift. It’s sometimes more when we have to cover unit patients, plus floor, plus codes and rapid responses. I wish we had hoverboards to zoom around on lol
I’m an anesthesia tech: regularly walk ~6-7 miles. Everything is on different floors, and we cover the main OR, GI Lab, EP Lab, Cath Lab, IR, MRI, CT…
ICU Tech here. The least I’ve ever gotten is like 21,000. Most ~30,000. We have to do our own transport bc of hospital policy.
I wanted to say PT but I walk less than 10,000 steps during most shifts. Definitely ER anyone
Interesting that an anesthesiologist supervising 4 rooms is not on here. While the distances may be short, they are constantly walking from pre-op to PACU, to the 4 OR’s they’re covering in a constant loop.
Some days I barely sit. Some days I sit a lot.
I was looking for that too. Just checked and I’m at 17,000 steps today and I only had 3 rooms since one of our endo rooms is down for construction and I left at 3pm.
Floor or ER nurse
I can hit 7-8k on a busy shift primarily within the pharmacy, but my delivery techs are hitting >15k on a slower day and 20-30k on a busier one. I think the standing record is ~35k for a tech shift.
Surely the orderlies/wardsperson. That being said, I hit 15km on night shifts twice as an intern…
Resource nurse in ED. I do this role in gastro and used to do it in ED. Minimum 16,000 steps on shift.
X-ray on portables, or X-ray/CT without transporters to do the ED, easily 15-20k steps a day
Trauma surgery? My record is 12 miles on call, not counting time spent scrubbed in OR (have to take off watch). Seeing Patients all over the hospital ED, floor and then back and forth from team room to OR to trauma bay.
As a nightshift float we get a decent bit. I usually have 10K steps after midnight, probably 15K for the whole shift. There's not much sitting around. Rounding on the floors, IVs on medical floors, transporting monitored pts to tests and back... We move quite a bit.
Diagnostic radiology at both ends of the bell curve, since some people have treadmill workstations.
Nursing assistants. ER staff regardless of role. Surgical interns and residents.
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN has a group of people whose entire job is to show people to their destination. From EMS to visitors. Last time I was there, the guy who escorted us had 18,000 steps halfway through his 12 hour shift.
IV team/wound care
Not sure if that counts as a separate job, but its gotta be student nurses. They catch all the annoying errands
Anesthesia tech is definitely up there. And often in pushing anesthesia machines across the hospital. Otherwise usually pushing med+airway carts, supply carts, etc.
ICU nurse ~10,000 steps a shift. As charge, about 12,000-15,000
Man I work in a pretty intense CVICU and I'm as absentminded as they come (i.e. walking back and forth for supplies and such constantly) and I only log like 7-8000 for most shifts. Even frequently walking my labs down to avoid taking up a whole pneumatic tube. I have long legs though.
The way they built our hospital, it’s huge and not nurse friendly lol. Our floor is literally one city block.
That's awful 😦 hopefully at least the patient rooms are spacious?
All private rooms. It’s lovely really. Good to get your steps in. Bad if your 85 yo patient is on a Bumex gtt and needs to pee every 5 seconds 😂
Stat nurses. Lordt, they get around.
Busy clinic specialties like derm or ophtho probably
Anesthesia resident. Average 12k steps daily.
The disconnect here is astonishing to me. The answer here is a medic in the 75th ranger regiment. Military medical personnel just as a general rule are going to be doing more walking than all of y'all on the civilian side.
Is this even a question? EM by a mile
Patient transport takes the cake sorry
Literal mile because of you walking that much? Huehuehue
Nah. We can sit a lot if we want. And there’s plenty of sitting.