Back in the days of rotary phones and pencils, messages in the clinic were taken on pink slips, written by people with welcoming voices. In the staff room, covertly, we would compare the quantity of our pinks with our neighbor’s. Admittedly, it was childish. When slips were replaced with voicemail, you no longer knew who was popular.

These days, residents are even busier than we were, working in multiple locations at once. There are no pink slip phone messages. Often, there isn’t even voicemail. Contact is through the beeper. Beepers have been around for generations, but it’s different now.