Service (the service)
Formal Definition
Your assigned team and patient census — "being on service" means you're responsible for a set of patients.
How It's Used on the Ward
"Who's on service?" or "My service is full" — refers to the team you belong to.
Example
"Attending: 'I'm the attending on this service for the next two weeks. Same patients, same team. Let's round at 8am.'"
Clinical Context
"Service" can mean your team, your patient load, or your clinical area. You'll hear: "who's on service?" meaning who's covering this week, "my service is busy" meaning lots of patients, "admit to the medicine service" meaning to the medicine team.
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