I'm sort of getting the hang of things....
I have decided that being the House Officer is a really awful job. My first 24 hr shift was last Sunday...and it was CRAZY busy. We were actually slow all day long until about 7pm...when things starting picking up. I ended up not having ANY sleep. In fact, I couldn't sit down for more than 2 minutes at a time. Tons of people got admitted...and I was in charge of all of them. I had people seizing on the floor at the same time other crazy things were going on. It was overwhelming and awfully tiring.......
I learned quite a bit though...and I figure that is the whole point!
Outside of house officer shifts, it has been a little busier on my Orthopedic service. In fact, they let me scrub in on a Total Hip Replacement and Total Knee Replacement last week. That's right.....little ol' Emergency Medicine intern got to scrub some big ortho cases! I learned that the scrub nurses don't get to see outside interns too often....only the general surgery, OB, and orthopedic people....so they liked having me around. Especially having a female around. It was pretty fun to get back into the OR....I really do like blood. Is that sick?? =)
The rest of the month should go pretty well. I have learned what is expected of me during this month and I feel like I'm doing a good job right now. The best thing is that all of my house officer shifts are done for the month....WOO HOO!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
First HO Shift
I had my first job as a HO today. Never thought of myself as a HO.
Actually, HO stands for House Officer...meaning I was in charge of everything going on in the hospital from 7am until 7pm today. Not everything I guess...but I was in charge of admitting all patients, giving verbal orders to the nurses (and remembering to go to the floor to sign those orders), changing bad orders, writing prescriptions for the doctors who had forgotten, etc. Basically if the nurse needed something done, I was the go-to person.
My day started off with a patient who needed "pre-medication" orders before getting an MRI. I asked the nurse politely, "Well, what do they normally write in this instance?". To which she responded, "Normally we'd just give a little Valium....but this patient has a heroin problem and we probably need to give them more. Plus they have chronic pain and are requesting morphine."
Great. Real great. Just what I needed for my first call.
I did exactly what the nurse told me to do. Then I ran down to the ER (my favorite spot) and was able to run my order by the doctor there. He laughed that I was having to deal with this....but said it would probably turn out okay and I probably wouldn't over-sedate the patient to the point that someone would be calling a Code Blue. I felt a little better after that.
Actually, it was kinda fun being large and in-charge. I got to write my DEA number 3 times today! Yippee!
Actually, HO stands for House Officer...meaning I was in charge of everything going on in the hospital from 7am until 7pm today. Not everything I guess...but I was in charge of admitting all patients, giving verbal orders to the nurses (and remembering to go to the floor to sign those orders), changing bad orders, writing prescriptions for the doctors who had forgotten, etc. Basically if the nurse needed something done, I was the go-to person.
My day started off with a patient who needed "pre-medication" orders before getting an MRI. I asked the nurse politely, "Well, what do they normally write in this instance?". To which she responded, "Normally we'd just give a little Valium....but this patient has a heroin problem and we probably need to give them more. Plus they have chronic pain and are requesting morphine."
Great. Real great. Just what I needed for my first call.
I did exactly what the nurse told me to do. Then I ran down to the ER (my favorite spot) and was able to run my order by the doctor there. He laughed that I was having to deal with this....but said it would probably turn out okay and I probably wouldn't over-sedate the patient to the point that someone would be calling a Code Blue. I felt a little better after that.
Actually, it was kinda fun being large and in-charge. I got to write my DEA number 3 times today! Yippee!
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Treading Water
Well, I'm treading water.
I didn't get "pushed in" and I didn't "drown"...yet....but I jumped in on my own will and have been treading water for the past two days.
Actually, my first two days have been quite uneventful...quite boring in fact. I haven't gotten to scrub for surgeries (since I am an emergency medicine resident, it means that I don't get to scrub in....only the ortho residents do). It also means that I am at the paging will of the people above me. And since the ortho service is pretty slow, I haven't been getting paged. I've been down on two consults in the ER....and they have turned out to be my favorite parts of the past two days. The rest of the time I have walked around the hospital with the other two interns on the service trying to figure out what we are supposed to be doing. Now that I'm getting paid, it feels like I should be working...not walking.
The people on the service have been really nice. I like the senior resident with us - he is really laid back - and even apologized for not having anything for us to do yesterday (even though I had to stay still 6:45pm!). Today was not quite as bad...they finally told me to leave around 3:30. I've got to round this weekend though.....and it is the 4th of July. BUMMER!
Hope everyone has a good 4th!!! I hope rounds don't last too long!!!
I didn't get "pushed in" and I didn't "drown"...yet....but I jumped in on my own will and have been treading water for the past two days.
Actually, my first two days have been quite uneventful...quite boring in fact. I haven't gotten to scrub for surgeries (since I am an emergency medicine resident, it means that I don't get to scrub in....only the ortho residents do). It also means that I am at the paging will of the people above me. And since the ortho service is pretty slow, I haven't been getting paged. I've been down on two consults in the ER....and they have turned out to be my favorite parts of the past two days. The rest of the time I have walked around the hospital with the other two interns on the service trying to figure out what we are supposed to be doing. Now that I'm getting paid, it feels like I should be working...not walking.
The people on the service have been really nice. I like the senior resident with us - he is really laid back - and even apologized for not having anything for us to do yesterday (even though I had to stay still 6:45pm!). Today was not quite as bad...they finally told me to leave around 3:30. I've got to round this weekend though.....and it is the 4th of July. BUMMER!
Hope everyone has a good 4th!!! I hope rounds don't last too long!!!
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