Entertaining Article on the E.R.

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Med students, depending on the location, can and do act just like (slow and cautious) interns. As a med student I took care of a fair number of patients, wrote my own orders, presented them directly to attendings, called consults and discharged. Of course, I did 5-6/shift at most whereas now I can do several times that amount.

I directly supervise med students and they range from useless to invaluble. A good med student will scut at least as much as I do, realizing that s/he makes everyone's life easier, do as much as possible for their patients, and make my life easier.

Unfortunately, most med students are like from the House of God: give me a med student that only triples my work and I will kiss his/her feet.

Also, some ER attendings actually DO a significant number of altruistic activities outside the ER, whether it's administration, volunteering for a local clinic, mentoring, etc. Some attendings actually follow up with their patients. Some actually VISIT some of their patients (very rare). We're not all just salivating to get back to our moutain bikes after the shift is over.
 
A med student?s role is basically to stand in the back, stay out of the way, and most importantly, keep his fool mouth shut.
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Where I attended medical school, we were there assessing, doing femoral sticks, and even doing FAST exams (with the resident teaching us). Even during major traumas.

I agree with beyond all hope... During my ER rotation at my school and a visiting rotation somewhere else, we did an H&P, ordered stuff, and presented directly to the attending. We were responsible for the patient as if we were interns. The attendings just watched us more closely. 🙂 (No residents saw our patients.)
 
Concur with above. When I rotated I managed all my own patients with attending supervision.

C
 
After reviewing the "article" I have come to the conclusion that Dr. Cloud is mentally handicapped. Be kind to him.

C
 
Cut and paste....from his website

"...The author and architect of CloudEmpire.com, Dr. Cloud, is not yet an actual physician. At the time of this writing, April 13, 2004, he is finishing his 3rd year as a medical student. His physician status will not be attained until May of 2005. So why then does he prematurely add the title of ?doctor? to his name? He does so mainly because he is a pompous ass...."
 
Medic13z said:
Cut and paste....from his website

"...The author and architect of CloudEmpire.com, Dr. Cloud, is not yet an actual physician. At the time of this writing, April 13, 2004, he is finishing his 3rd year as a medical student. His physician status will not be attained until May of 2005. So why then does he prematurely add the title of ?doctor? to his name? He does so mainly because he is a pompous ass...."
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yeah, but...you got to admit that picture was pretty funny!
 
I liked the lifestyle part of the article. ER sounds like a great career! 😀
 
darn it!

why is always that by the time i get to a picture, it's no longer working.

first the infamous "help! i think i broke my pubic bone!" and now this! 🙁
 
hey i agree on some notes with dr. cloud....the part about the level of skill and knowledge portrayed by the medical students on ER, especially Neela? She knows the EXACT size of chest tube for neonates & does SURGERy in the ER...her level of knowledge makes me feel like a complete idiot even if I am the same year as her! Half the time my classmates and I sit there and look at each other, and wonder, wow are we supposed to know that too?
 
Yep, I missed the picture, too. Seems the story of my life.

As for being useful (or at least getting to do things), I got to do a fair amount. I put in many Foleys (all without getting peed on, luckily), a couple of NGs, IVs, a thorococentesis, suture several lacs, plus lots of scut.

As opposed to the floor scut I did, I didn't mind ED scut because I felt like I was really a part of the team. Like others have said, I saw the patient and presented directly to faculty.

Sounds like "Dr. Cloud" didn't have all that good an experience, although from his writing style, I suspect he took several liberties with the truth to get the effect he was looking for.

Take care,
Jeff
 
Jeff698 said:
Sounds like "Dr. Cloud" didn't have all that good an experience, although from his writing style, I suspect he took several liberties with the truth to get the effect he was looking for.
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"The author and architect of CloudEmpire.com, Dr. Cloud, is not yet an actual physician. At the time of this writing, April 13, 2004, he is finishing his 3rd year as a medical student. His physician status will not be attained until May of 2005."

He wrote the article in May 2004.

Unless he's attending a school that allows a 3rd-year EM rotation (some schools do allow those), then it's doubtful he's even done an EM rotation. More than likely his view of EM physicians is based solely on his experiences while on call with medicine, pediatrics, surgery, etc.

"Dr." Cloud correctly sums it up: "So why then does he prematurely add the title of ?doctor? to his name? He does so mainly because he is a pompous ass."
 
southerndoc said:
Unless he's attending a school that allows a 3rd-year EM rotation (some schools do allow those), then it's doubtful he's even done an EM rotation.
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Not to take up for him at all, but my school is one that lets us do a 3rd year rotation. We have an elective third year and, as long as we've done IM and surgery, we can do EM.

I suspect you're right about his toolage, though.

Take care,
Jeff
 
Jeff698 said:
Not to take up for him at all, but my school is one that lets us do a 3rd year rotation. We have an elective third year and, as long as we've done IM and surgery, we can do EM.

I suspect you're right about his toolage, though.

Take care,
Jeff
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Yea, not many schools allow 3rd year EM rotations, but some do. Cincinnati and Case Western are two that come to mind.
 
I think more schools are starting to come around though. It's pretty hard to decide to match in EM, rads, derm, or any other specialty that you only get exposure to during fourth year before you ever do a rotation. Hopefully this'll keep changing... it'd be nice to have more students see EM before misguidedly applying to some other specialty.
 
We were allowed to take a 30 hr elective the spring of 1st yr.... i had plenty of opportunities to suture lacs, but looking back, i really wasn't qualified to do much more than that!
 
Anyone who uses the phrase "toolage" is obviously an obese virgin. Go to uptodate.com to find evidence based results supporting this notion. *****s.
 
TonyMontana said:
Anyone who uses the phrase "toolage" is obviously an obese virgin. Go to uptodate.com to find evidence based results supporting this notion. *****s.
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Are you perhaps the infamous "Dr. Cloud?" Your feelings seem to have been hurt.

Q, DO
 
joaquin13 said:
hey i agree on some notes with dr. cloud....the part about the level of skill and knowledge portrayed by the medical students on ER, especially Neela? She knows the EXACT size of chest tube for neonates & does SURGERy in the ER...her level of knowledge makes me feel like a complete idiot even if I am the same year as her! Half the time my classmates and I sit there and look at each other, and wonder, wow are we supposed to know that too?
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you only need to know that much if on tv AND going for a top derm spot like she did :laugh:
 
I'm not sure what the medical student who wrote the article was trying to achieve. To point out that TV doesn't reflect reality??? It seems to me that HE watched too much ER before going to medical school and is disapointed with reality. Does this happen a lot to physicians? Do they go into medicine thinking they'll be the next George Clooney of the ED and reality smacks them in the face, thus they become bitter?
 
maybe I'm immature, but I think that article is funny :laugh:
 
Sessamoid said:
That webpage is a waste of good electrons.
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LOL :laugh: :laugh: I hope people don't go into a specialty b/c of a TV show. I had an orthopod tell me once "my wife watches ER (she's gyn/onc) but I hate it - the medicine's all wrong." I also hope people aren't trying to learn medicine from ER! Heck, just watch the soap opera & enjoy 😍
 
ATC2MD said:
LOL :laugh: :laugh: I hope people don't go into a specialty b/c of a TV show. I had an orthopod tell me once "my wife watches ER (she's gyn/onc) but I hate it - the medicine's all wrong." I also hope people aren't trying to learn medicine from ER! Heck, just watch the soap opera & enjoy 😍
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The medicine's not all that bad. If you think ER's bad, you haven't watched many medical shows from the 70s and 80s. Now that was bad. One glaring exception in yesterday's episode was when one of the physicians called for in-line traction to intubate a trauma patient in c-spine immobilization. AAaaaaaghhh!
 
Not counting the surgeries, cracking of the chests, and C-sections that are shown on "ER," is the practice of emergency medicine that different than what the show depicts, ie the mix of people bringing in a multitude of different ailments?
 
rotty1021 said:
Not counting the surgeries, cracking of the chests, and C-sections that are shown on "ER," is the practice of emergency medicine that different than what the show depicts, ie the mix of people bringing in a multitude of different ailments?
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The patient mix is pretty accurate for a county trauma center, though you really do get like a week or a month's worth of interesting cases jammed into a one hour episode. And they have some real zebras on the show too. Last episode they had one patient die from serotonin syndrome due to an interaction between Demerol (another good reason not to use that medication) and an MAO-I. Everybody here who has ever seen a patient on an MAO-I please raise your hands. Medical school, residency (including a month of psych), and several years in practice, I've never seen one patient on an MAO-I. I wonder if they're even still manufactured.
 
everyone needs to realize that the show is ENTERTAINMENT for the average population. by the way, scrubs isn't medically correct either, but it's the most ENTERTAINING show that I've seen in a long time. everyone needs to get a sense of humor.

elfman
 
A little elf said:
everyone needs to realize that the show is ENTERTAINMENT for the average population. by the way, scrubs isn't medically correct either, but it's the most ENTERTAINING show that I've seen in a long time. everyone needs to get a sense of humor.

elfman
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I think everyone here realizes that, but the question was posed as to the accuracy of the show. For someone not in the field, it's a reasonable question. Just because we discuss the cases on the show doesn't mean we don't have a sense of humor.
 
what's wrong with inline with c-spine? are you saying it's not needed b/c the pt is already in c-collar? would you not do inline + c-spine if you're really worried about the c-spine? or are you scoffing at inline traction vs. stabilization? what's the difference? thanks!
 
whasupmd2 said:
what's wrong with inline with c-spine? are you saying it's not needed b/c the pt is already in c-collar? would you not do inline + c-spine if you're really worried about the c-spine? or are you scoffing at inline traction vs. stabilization? what's the difference? thanks!
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inline traction vs. stabilization. In-line stabilization is the standard for trauma intubations. In-line traction can cause para-quadra/plegia in a c-spine injured patient. It's common sense really. If there's bony and/or ligamentous disruption of the c-spine, you don't want to pull the patient's head off via in-line traction.
 
I think the point of the article was not to degrade the show based on its inaccuracy but rather to shed light on it for people NOT involved in the medical field. it did a good job of doing that and entertaining at the same time. the fact that you people took such offense is testament to how the field of medicine is overrun by creativity lacking, socially ******ed, humorless nerds.
 
TonyMontana said:
I think the point of the article was not to degrade the show based on its inaccuracy but rather to shed light on it for people NOT involved in the medical field. it did a good job of doing that and entertaining at the same time. the fact that you people took such offense is testament to how the field of medicine is overrun by creativity lacking, socially ******ed, humorless nerds.
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Socially ******ed? That's rather harsh isn't it? 🙁
 
Sessamoid said:
Everybody here who has ever seen a patient on an MAO-I please raise your hands. Medical school, residency (including a month of psych), and several years in practice, I've never seen one patient on an MAO-I.
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I have seen a handfull of pts on MAOIs. I always have to look them up to see what they are. They are usually Rxd by docs who did residency during the Johnson administration or earlier. I shoulda put this in the dinosaurs thread.
 
That picture is friggen hilarious. Most of the time on ER they don't show med students doing any knd of SERIOUS stuff. I think one time Abby did a trach as a med student, but that time with Neela was a huge exception. Usually on ER you see the med students taking care of people with colds or bandaging wounds and generally staying out of the way. Also, that job description for ED doctors? Is awesome.
 
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