Long time lurker, recent poster. A little about myself, I am a senior resident at a tough, but awesome, emergency medicine program. I see constantly the doom and gloom posts, exacerbated by the recent COVID pandemic, and there seems to be a prevailing sentiment of dread, failure and hopelessness on this board.
I just wanted to talk about a recent case and hopefully give some hope to you guys with it! I was recently covering a resuscitation unit shift, and had a pt with multiple GSW to the thorax come in. Surgery wasn't down there yet, and just sort of thoughtlessly I opened the left chest while the second year vented the right chest. We had left chest open, R chest vented by the time surgery was down, and were opening the pericardium. Surgery took over, I then helped throw in a subclavian sheath, and in 5 minutes the patient had pulses back and was being taken to the OR! That same shift I diagnosed a sprained ankle, and explained to a patient not from america with no insurance an ovarian cancer diagnosis over an interpreter phone.
These are the things I sort of pictured EM as when I was a medical student, but while I didn't think about it at the time, it was truly incredible. This is what we put up with the misery of first and second year constant studying, the stress of boards, and the boredom and frustration of rounds during clinical rotations. The opportunity to do multiple, incredible and even slightly mundane things we have as a physician is so truly great and fulfilling. I urge you to be strong, hold onto hope that despite the challenges of medical school, it truly and profoundly does. get. better.
I just wanted to talk about a recent case and hopefully give some hope to you guys with it! I was recently covering a resuscitation unit shift, and had a pt with multiple GSW to the thorax come in. Surgery wasn't down there yet, and just sort of thoughtlessly I opened the left chest while the second year vented the right chest. We had left chest open, R chest vented by the time surgery was down, and were opening the pericardium. Surgery took over, I then helped throw in a subclavian sheath, and in 5 minutes the patient had pulses back and was being taken to the OR! That same shift I diagnosed a sprained ankle, and explained to a patient not from america with no insurance an ovarian cancer diagnosis over an interpreter phone.
These are the things I sort of pictured EM as when I was a medical student, but while I didn't think about it at the time, it was truly incredible. This is what we put up with the misery of first and second year constant studying, the stress of boards, and the boredom and frustration of rounds during clinical rotations. The opportunity to do multiple, incredible and even slightly mundane things we have as a physician is so truly great and fulfilling. I urge you to be strong, hold onto hope that despite the challenges of medical school, it truly and profoundly does. get. better.
