Trauma ICU: how to survive?

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buffywannabe

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Hi everyone,

I just started my trauma/SICU intern rotation and feel completely lost. The attendings just seem annoyed by my presence and the residents are too busy to really help me which I understand. Anyway our suggested reading for this block is from tintinali which has some good trauma readings but nothing about ICU. Any tips in survival or high yield books I could read to stop looking like a dumba$$?

Thanks!

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Coffee in AM. Beer in PM.

That's how I got through.
 
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Your question is clever. "How to SURVIVE? " lol
 
Step 1) Don't let pissy surgical residents and attendings get to you. Their lives are awful even if they say they aren't, and they just take it out on you (and each other).

Like kmb and hobbes mentioned:

Step 2) The ICU Book is great. Easy to read, but big. Try to select certain topics to read through that you feel you need extra help with.
Step 3) For everything else, use web resources like ccmtutorials and fastlane. Those helped me out a ton!
 
Oh, and my actual helpful answer is The Little ICU Book. It's the pocket sized version of The ICU Book.

Just know that nothing you're going to do is going to be right. A ton of what surgeons do is institutional and a lot of it is personal preference and not necessarily supported by strong evidence. The only way you'll learn it is by being around long enough....i.e. you're not going to learn it, lol. Sorry.
 
My experience: how you are perceived in SICU has to do w/ only 1 thing - how prepared you are for daily rounds. I go there earlier and earlier each day until I was ready for these. Ask someone senior about any controversial things you might be presenting. Make sure you understand everything you're presenting. In the afternoon - divide up work and try to get some good procedural experience.
 
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