For the last two weeks I've been back in Loma Linda completing my required Emergency Medicine rotation of 4th year. It has been an interesting change of pace from the last 6 months which was filled with Internal Medicine and IM related fields. The pace of the first day in the ER was a bit of a jolt but it's been a good two weeks. I've seen quite a few interesting patients. The first patient I saw was a pretty classic presentation of acute appendicitis. CT confirmed the appy and he went to surgery that night. Some of the other stuff I've seen in the past two weeks includes...
1. Multiple fractures including a patient who had a complete transverse femur fracture.
2. Multiple patients with chest pain, none of whom were having a heart attack.
3. A patient without chest pain who was having a STEMI (heart attack.)
4. Parkinson's disease decompensation
5. A needle stick injury to a healthcare worker
6. Crohn's disease exacerbation
7. A kid with the flu
8. Cervicitis
9. A kid with an asthma attack
10. A kid with croup
11. DKA
12. A good number of patients with various pains without obvious diagnoses.
6 comments:
Looks like you are getting to see quite the variety of miladies...what a great learning experience! Glad things are coming along for you and hoping you continue to love what you do; God bless you always. =)
~A.J.
I work p/t at a medical center, presently to provide medical coverage up to my family's needs. I entered the hospital system 5 years ago as an on call night chaplain - so I spent many nights and early a.m.'s in the ER. Was in there once when they had to drive a shiny tube into a chest cavity to drain blood away from the lungs of an accident victim. Told my wife "That's more blood than I wanted to see."
But more memorable than the shocks were the amazing nights of praying while the staff wrestled someone back from death to life. The moments beyond words when the team was able to give a child back to distraught parents - the life and hope coming back into them more dramatic than the child's flesh coming back from blue to pink.
So I praise God for what you are doing and all who do that work. These days my p/t stuff is days in the communications center, so I just call codes and send others to the ER. But I am thankful for having had the experience to appreciate what that means.
Hi Matt,
I admit, I'm a little jealous;) I absolutely love ER and am always flirting with switching to it. I was privileged to do a double externship in emergency medicine while completing my BSN and loved every minute. At SWMC and Legacy, the peds division is almost entirely staffed by PAs, allowing the MDs to be in the main division. Was your ER divided? What was the staffing situation?
Have a wonderful weekend! (No crazy solitary hikes!!)
Love from
Scarlet Pimpernel
Hey A.J., Thanks for the comment. God bless you too!
Hey TLF+, Sounds like you've seen a lot of interesting in the ER. I'm glad you've gotten to be a blessing to many families down there. I only got to pray with one patient during my two weeks. I guess I wasn't as proactive in that department (asking people if they want to pray) as I should have been. May God continue to use you for His glory and the good of those around you in the healthcare setting! God bless you and your family!
Hey SP,
Yeah, ER has been fun. The ER here is divided so some days we're assigned to adult ER and some days to peds ER. One night I was on peds though we had pediatric patients spilling over into the adult side and the adult staff helped out. When it comes to staffing, I never worked with any PAs down there. There are two attending docs on the adult side and usually one on the peds side. Usually 3-4 residents on the adult side and 2-3 on the peds side, plus us med students. All the nursing staff has been great to work with by the way. No nurse has gotten mad at me yet when I asked a stupid "med-student" type question =) I'll think about the no solitary hikes thing. God bless you!
TLF+, you are so right-nothing feels better than to see a patient returned to health and/or brought back to life. I've been in and around the health-care setting ever since graduation, for about 9 years, and some of the stories that I've heard medical staff tell are pretty astounding. Keeping communication open between the patients and staff is such a key element and praying with and for those people we come in contact with on a daily basis is wonderful, bless you for what you do!
Haha, you're funny Matt! Going through nursing school the instructors always told us "no question is a stupid question", so feel free ask away...if you don't ask, one sometimes misses things. Have fun and enjoy these awesome, enriching experiences! I'm excited for you, you will do great things. =)
Couldn't stand it myself.
Post a Comment