Trauma-Like?

[DMO]

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According to many posters at SDN, NBC's ER is nothing close to actual reality of real ERs. Can you guys tell me what specialties in medicine that are close to the frenetic pace of the tv show ER?

 

[paramed2premed]

Network Television Consultant

 

[quideam]

Hehe... hope you're not basing your future on a TV show 🙂. I really love ER too though....

I would say that although nothing is quite as frantic as what you'll see on TV, the closest thing you'll get is trauma surgery. The majority of the procedures you see the ER guys do (chest tubes, thoracotmies) are typically done by trauma surgeons. From what I've seen/heard, ER docs don't do too much in the way of surgical procedures, although at some residency programs they do get to assist with tracheotomies and the like.

If you want to get a realistic idea of what truama surgery is like, check out TLC's "Trauma: Life in the ER". Also, they have a new show called "Residents" where they follow around a bunch of residents in different specialties; one of them is a surgeon.

Hope this helps!

- Quid 😉

 

[ent_doc]

Originally posted by DMO
According to many posters at SDN, NBC's ER is nothing close to actual reality of real ERs. Can you guys tell me what specialties in medicine that are close to the frenetic pace of the tv show ER?

Emergency medicine and general/trauma surgery at busy urban hospitals can both get pretty hectic. I did my internship at a county hospital and it hopped quite a bit. I remember 6 level I traumas coming in over a period of 15 minutes, two with penetrating trauma. We had gone red (closed to trauma) after the first 4 but what can you do when the cops drop off a GSW to the chest at your door?

That being said--there are a lot of threads on SDN about people being interested in trauma surgery. Hey, more power to those people who do it; personally, after a year of general surgery internship I was filled to the brim with trauma and felt that any need to see and experience trauma had been "fulfilled."

I still see trauma in ENT, but it is mostly facial trauma (ZMC fractures, nasal fractures, LeFort fractures, frontal sinus fractures, facial lacerations, ear lacerations) and if the patients have other issues, the trauma surgeons or other surgical specialists handle them.