Residents Running calls?

[styphon]

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I have a question, in this "Code Blue" show they are at a hospital in New Orleans. They say that the chief resident is the head of every trauma call..I was just wondering, what do ER attending doctors do? Just hang and take the medical calls? Is the chief resident most of the trauma calls normal?

 

[Winged Scapula]

Depends on the program/hospital. We recently had a good thread going dealing with precisely this topic (ie, who runs Traumas).

At this facility, Level 3 traumas (ie, minor ones) are staffed by the Surgical Chief on call for Trauma and the ED attending. All Level 2 and above traumas are staffed by the Trauma Team (which is a Surgical rotation; we generally have 1 anesthesia intern on service with us, several surgery residents), including the Trauma Chief. Thus, Traumas here are run by the Surgery Department. The ED attendings either hang around and watch or just leave the Trauma Bay and return to the ED and handle the patients there. They are not involved in any other way except to write a brief note about the Trauma Call/triage. If the Trauma is especially bad, the Chief is in the thick of things, but generally the call is run by the junior HO (ie, we do the Primary and Secondary Surveys, draw blood, insert catheters, etc.) with the Chief directing our actions, deciding what needs to be done, etc.

 

[styphon]

Ok...If I understand correctly, that means the attendings just stick to the medical/less traumatic calls? What fun is that =<. This has really made me lose interest in EM..

 

[tedsadoc2002]

I think you may have missed what Kimberli mentioned, which team runs the trauma is program dependent. When I rotated through Maricopa's ED with the trauma team, our team and the ED's team were present. It seemed on that night, we shared (alternated, you take one, we take one) with the EM residents. When I was in the Bronx doing my EM rotation, the surgical team hung back as the EM residents did most of the procedures. You need only research the programs and you may find the one that matches your goals. 😎 😎 😎

 

[Winged Scapula]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by styphon:
•Ok...If I understand correctly, that means the attendings just stick to the medical/less traumatic calls? What fun is that =<. This has really made me lose interest in EM..•••••As tedsadoc noted, it DEPENDS on the program. It IS true that here the EM attendings and residents do NOT participate in serious (ie, Level 2 and above) traumas; these are run by the Trauma Team (and any other surgical residents in house after hours) and with Anesthesia stand-by. The ED Attending here does make the decision as to what Level the trauma is called at (and on occasion has upgraded something because he/she was understaffed or busy 🙄 ) but only Level 3 traumas (ie, pretty minor stuff) are staffed by them.

Hope this clarifies things. Should you desire a Trauma heavy EM residency, you need only to research the role that EM plays in staffing traumas at each program (programs without surgical residencies will be your best bet).