So here I am, playing around on SDN when I'm on trauma call. They told me, "go to the ICU, or the ER, and ask to do things... being on trauma call can be a great experience." Yeah, no doubt. Well, the resident in the ICU pretty much told me to take a hike and the nurses have nothing going on and get irritated when I stand there for very long. The ER is dead and no traumas as of yet. Not that it matters, there's another surgery student on call with me so if there is anything to do, we'll have to draw straws or something. Having two students on call is completely pointless unless there is a lot going on... and this place just isn't busy enough for that. Oh well. Guess I should study or something.
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Surgery Trauma Call Blues...
Started by CaptKirk
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Go around to a couple nursing floors and ask to start IV's. If you've never done it before, tell the nurse you want to watch and learn. I'm sure you have a pager so if there's a trauma you can just take off.
Go around the ICU and read the charts of the patients on your list. Find something in their list of problems that intrigues you and master it.
Do as many pushups as you can.
Learn the grades of splenic lac's.
Learn how anticoagulants work.
It's hard when there is nothing going on...it really drains me, personally.
Go around the ICU and read the charts of the patients on your list. Find something in their list of problems that intrigues you and master it.
Do as many pushups as you can.
Learn the grades of splenic lac's.
Learn how anticoagulants work.
It's hard when there is nothing going on...it really drains me, personally.
Sleep while you still can. Most of our traumas come in after 1 am.
This is a stupid pre-med question, but when you're on-call are there on-call rooms for students or are those just for interns/residents? Do hospitals have a gym by any chance?
if u stay overnight, there is a place for u 2 sleep
Here, the med students are basically trained to get the H& P 's on the traumas as they come in, we follow the interns and seniors around like puppy dogs and do whatever they tell us to do as the traumas proceed. Then we also get to clean up wounds and sew them up. At first this is really cool. Then the patients all start to stink REAL BAD like helicopter fuel and Etoh and they puke on you and/or make you feel for them-and even more so the people they hit in their drunken MVA sprees. My last night on trauma call, I helped out in 6 traumas and never went to sleep at all. I left the ED at 0530 to round on my patients and then I went in on a cholectomy (w/a cancer patient who also had some really really stinky bowel infection). I was awake from 0400 on a Monday 'till 1315 Tuesday. I was absolutely covered in trauma smells meets bowel surgery smells. I am actually jealous of you because slacking or being cut sounds completely wonderful to me now. But at least I have had the chance to do & see enough to feel this way.
