Has Anyone Had This Experience

[osu2006]

I started my first day of hospital volunteering yesterday and they put me in the mail/flower room delivering flower arrangements. I was really enthusiastic about being able to do something and I went on my way to deliver the flowers. I delivered to about seven different rooms and all of the patients were different, but in really bad shape.

Has anyone ever been really "weirded" out their first time at a hospital in this role? I have been in the hospital before obviously, but when you're well and you're there to see people that you don't love and care for it's a different feeling. I walked in on strangers who were dying and I felt really bad for them. (Don't tell me that being a doctor is not like ER - I already know that- but I thought that atleast I would deliver one flower arrangement to someone who just had a baby or who just had another positive experience).

I thought for a while that maybe I just didn't have the stuff to be a doctor - good grades and book learning is one thing, but not being able to handle death is something entirely different.

I have decided not to give up - I think that it (the sights, smells and sounds) was a shock to the system and I requested to work at a desk answering a phone so that I can get eased into it a little more.

Can any one else relate to this?

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[finnpipette]

people respond to stress in different ways...in my first week volunteering in the ER, there was a young girl who tried to hang herself. It was terrible...I was shocked when I got the giggles and had to leave the trauma room...you just never know how you're gonna react.

 

[Rendar5]

I've had a few shocks to my system, and I'm usually very good with this stuff. The first day I was in a hospital I saw an absess drained. I got really sick because I wasn't expecting the smell.

The first time I saw a real serious trauma in progress (little kid with a horrible asthma attack). My mind kept going between panicked and frozen (luckily I didn't have to do anything but observe) until they finally managed to intubate him.

The first time I saw doctors losing a patient, I almost fainted (got really light-headed for a minute). It was an AAA (abdomenal aortic aneurysm), and he probably died that night, but when I was there the doctors were able to stop cardiac arrest the second time they gave him atropine.

 

[jayski2030]

Originally posted by finnpipette
I was shocked when I got the giggles and had to leave the trauma room...

I just began volunteering as an EMT. My first (and only, so far) night out we dropped a patient off at the trauma center. I rolled in with a huge kool-aid grin because I was all excited. I totally had to check myself because everywhere I turned people were in distress. I think it may have also been a natural reaction or defense mechanism to laugh off the stress of being in that new situation.

 

[EMPOWERurSELF!]

During my entire first week of my job working with traumatic brain injury pts in a rehab hospital I was definitely not prepared for what I saw and experienced. I used to walk to work, and for the first week or two I would cry the entire 4 blocks home to my apartment--nothing could prepare me for seeing pts who didn't recognize their own children or even know where they were. My advice is to stick with it--it will take some getting used to but you CAN deal with it!

I actually think that its a great thing to a certain extent to me empathetic towards patients--I promised myself that if there ever comes a day when I'm as apathetic and downright mean as some of the nurses, doctors, etc I work around I will find a new profession.

Good luck

 

[g3pro]

Originally posted by jayski2030
I just began volunteering as an EMT. My first (and only, so far) night out we dropped a patient off at the trauma center. I rolled in with a huge kool-aid grin because I was all excited. I totally had to check myself because everywhere I turned people were in distress. I think it may have also been a natural reaction or defense mechanism to laugh off the stress of being in that new situation.

how did you become a volunteer EMT???

 

[jayski2030]

Originally posted by g3pro
how did you become a volunteer EMT???

I called up the volunteer ambulance corps in my neighborhood and asked if I could volunteer, and if they pay for certification if you put in some hours. They said yes to both and the rest is history. Sort of. I still haven't begun the class, but they let me go out in the ambulance.

 

[g3pro]

I began volunteering at the admitting portion of the ER at the beginning of my senior year in high school. I planned on working 6 hours every saturday. My first experiences with trauma were traumatic.

Nothing can prepare you when you see your first mangled arm. Or your first severe head wound case. Nothing can prepare you when you hear the blood-curdling screams of a toddler with a broken humerus.

Has anyone ever dealt with patients with emphysema? An elderly woman came into the ER at around 2:00 PM complaining of shortness of breath. It turns out that she had been smoking her whole life and was in the late stages of the disease. First, she was sitting across the room from me and I could hear her having extreme difficulty breathing, like she was sprinting a race sitting down. I was listening to this for 20 minutes or so. She was then being checked out by the triage nurse and the nurse decided to send her for CT (or was it MRI?). So she gave me responsibility of taking her to the facilities. I wheel her around down to the imaging room. No one is there.

Long story short, I was waiting there with her in that room for 10-15 minutes ready to freak out of my mind after hearing her tell me that she knew she was going to die, not to leave her, etc... I was ready to tear my hair out after listening to that.

it taught me so much about stress when i relect on those experiences. it's been less than a year since i stopped volunteering, but am now ready to go back, ready to deal with pain and suffering.

I was certainly not ready for a year of that when i was 17.

 

[g3pro]

Originally posted by jayski2030
I called up the volunteer ambulance corps in my neighborhood and asked if I could volunteer, and if they pay for certification if you put in some hours. They said yes to both and the rest is history. Sort of. I still haven't begun the class, but they let me go out in the ambulance.

volunteer ambulance corps? how does that work out?

 

[drlexygoat]

To the OP:

You wouldn't be human if you DIDN'T feel something when seeing these patients. And, if you didn't feel anything I would tell you to run away from medicine as fast as you can!

Feeling a tug at those heartstrings is a sign you are compassionate. That's such a big part of being a doctor, I think.

 

[Amy B]

You have touched on the very reason medical schools want applicants to have some clinical experiences. Some people find out they just don't want to be there.

In the 3 years I volunteered at the free health clinic I saw many people who found out they really hated being around sick people. That is definetly the time to find out.... before you spend $$$$$$$ going through med school just to find out you hate it.

 

[XCanadianRagwee]

I have a weak stomach, and almost fainted during a routine procedure when I volunteered in the ER...but I"m still goign to med school.

 

[gibna]

I guess you guys are not fear factor material

 

[NE_Cornhusker1]

Originally posted by XCanadianRagwee
I have a weak stomach, and almost fainted during a routine procedure when I volunteered in the ER...but I"m still goign to med school.

that i have an iron stomach was one thing that got me thinking about medicine. i was an accounting major until my junior year.

 

[jlee9531]

its tough man...

i worked with ped. onc. kids and there was this one girl i was with for about 2 years. at the end she wasnt able to make it and i was just devastated...

it almost felt like losing a family member (another thing ive gone thru)....and for a while there i just had to sit down and just stay there....

but afterwards...you just gotta think about how even in situations like that...you still tried to put at least a little bit of joy in their lives...and try and do that for everyone you come across that might need you presence.

its human to feel like that man...
it just takes time to sink in and see how you feel and will take that experience and learn from it.

 

[jonb12997]

Volunteer ambulance corp

Most rural areas areas are served by volunteer ambulance squads. My dad and I actually work together on a rural volunteer ambulance and our squad does about 300+ calls a year. Kind of wierd to have your dad (who's a medic) telling you (a basic) what to do while working a code together... interesting to say the least. It's a great way to get experience! Good luck.