Craziest thing you've witnessed while shadowing?

[Hass_Love_Fitness]

While shadowing I had to debride multiple foot ulcers from a diabetic patient, rub collagenase into the wounds, and bandage it up.

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[LizzyM]

While shadowing I had to debride multiple foot ulcers from a diabetic patient, rub collagenase into the wounds, and bandage it up.

Did you have any credentials or was it merely under the supervision (and license) of the provider you were shadowing? Was this in the US? Unless you are a licensed professional, you might want to omit those details from any description you write of the experience.

 

[Hass_Love_Fitness]

Did you have any credentials or was it merely under the supervision (and license) of the provider you were shadowing? Was this in the US? Unless you are a licensed professional, you might want to omit those details from any description you write of the experience.

In the US, I was being supervised by the doctor who was there too, and working along with a 3rd year medical student.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

In the US, I was being supervised by the doctor who was there too, and working along with a 3rd year medical student.

Wow remind me to never go to that doctor.

 

[deleted953743]

When I was in UG, I volunteered at the front desk of a hospital. Since another person was at the desk with me, I snuck up to the in-patient floors one day to see if I could help the nurses with anything as long as I didn't touch patients. First thing the head nurse had me do was put on gear and head inside a room labeled with "infectious disease" or something like that. The patient was dying, and the family refused to sign a DNR apparently. The nurse pointed out to me all the signs of death really nonchalantly, like "look at her urine bag, it's empty" and "quiet, do you hear her death rattle". Then we had to change her "poop pad", as the nurse called it. They had me wipe her butt and change the pad as two other nurses held her legs............. I continued going up there every week lol

 

[stayathomemom]

I don't have much yet, but this has stuck out to me:

The very first day I ever shadowed a doctor, we introduce ourselves to each other and he tells me the first task is to have a family meeting to tell the family of an ICU patient that he probably won't make it. It was one of the physician tasks that I've always worried about not being able to handle, but actually he was really great at it and the family, while devastated, appreciated his honesty and care to take the time to explain everything well. It left a big impact on me. The patient did end up dying a few weeks later.

The second thing was that he and I were walking somewhere, and we were near the ED. As we went down this long corridor, I noticed a gurney near the wall at the end with a human torso, arm dangling off the side, with some other stuff piled on it. The doc must have read my face, because he was quick to point out as we approached that it was a training dummy. It wasn't so obvious from far away!