Worst experience shadowing / volunteering

[Overload]

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I was shadowing this general surgeon as I was in the OR watching, and then suddenly my stomach extremely began to hurt. At first, they ignored my pain since they were all too busy performing surgery, but then this nurse told me I had to wait outside. There I stood waiting in my scrubs, the pain increasing, and after a few minutes I fainted. Lucky for me I was in a hospital and in no time they found out I had an acute appendicitis. The same day they performed appendectomy on me.

Painful experience after all!

So what's your worst experience of shadowing, volunteering, working, research, or whatsoever?

 

[TexasPhysician]

Mine is pretty lame, but during my first shadowing experience in a surgical case, I came close to fainting. I had to take 10 minutes to recover outside the OR. Afterwards, everything was as easy as pie.

 

[BJJ]

I got lost trying to escort the blind man out of the hospital. He then gave me directions out of the hospital. I felt stupid.

 

[tommy pickles]

I'm a volunteer firefighter/emt in a relatively busy metro area and have had a few pretty difficult experiences, mostly on my medic unit. On one night shift, we were dispatched to a cardiac arrest for a middle aged man dead-on-arrival with his entire family present. That was the first time I ever responded to a call for a younger person that didn't make it.

About an hour after we got back we were dispatched to a two-vehicle collision, and got there at the same time as the rescue engine company. So we had to standby during the extrication, do our best to stabilize the driver of the worse-off car, and get her to the regional trauma center, which was close.

She ended up not making it. It turned out to be a grandmother and her grandson in the worse-off car and a single male driver in the other one. The grandson was miraculously stable, but the driver of the other car had to be medevaced to a bigger trauma center and ended up not making it, either.

Rough night.

 

[Andiamo]

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[Fedekz]

I'm a volunteer firefighter/emt in a relatively busy metro area and have had a few pretty difficult experiences, mostly on my medic unit. On one night shift, we were dispatched to a cardiac arrest for a middle aged man dead-on-arrival with his entire family present. That was the first time I ever responded to a call for a younger person that didn't make it.

About an hour after we got back we were dispatched to a two-vehicle collision, and got there at the same time as the rescue engine company. So we had to standby during the extrication, do our best to stabilize the driver of the worse-off car, and get her to the regional trauma center, which was close.

She ended up not making it. It turned out to be a grandmother and her grandson in the worse-off car and a single male driver in the other one. The grandson was miraculously stable, but the driver of the other car had to be medevaced to a bigger trauma center and ended up not making it, either.

Rough night.

Both of those are actually very common ... MVA where someone needs to go to a bigger/better hospital and dies? depending on where your at, that could be VERY common.

As for the middle aged code with the family on scene? that's kinda rough, but happens quite a bit ... better than a pediatric code!

What a really great experience would be is if you had a gang shooting, involving two injuries ... one from each gang. Then you don't get with the other unit (maybe another service, or they got rolled over?) to see where they are transporting to ... and you reunite the two victims at the hospital ... then all their friends/family come .... yeah GREAT times.

 

[apumic]

Both of those are actually very common ... MVA where someone needs to go to a bigger/better hospital and dies? depending on where your at, that could be VERY common.

As for the middle aged code with the family on scene? that's kinda rough, but happens quite a bit ... better than a pediatric code!

What a really great experience would be is if you had a gang shooting, involving two injuries ... one from each gang. Then you don't get with the other unit (maybe another service, or they got rolled over?) to see where they are transporting to ... and you reunite the two victims at the hospital ... then all their friends/family come .... yeah GREAT times.

My ED has metal detectors, armed guards, bullet-resistant glass, an RFID-location system w/ cameras similar to this one for our psych ED, etc. for just this reason. It's our metro area's main trauma ctr, so they've had this kind of problem happen before.

As for my worst experience, my volunteering has been great (no bad experiences). One situation I encountered, though, while working in the Psych ED was with a pediatric pt that had become violent w/ another Pt. This was a large, strong teenage male (~180 lbs, lean & muscular) who had gotten p*ssed off at another Pt for being too noisy. The pt began assaulting his noisy neighbor and there were only two of us there at the time. My RN began started to do a 4-pt on the guy w/o enough staff there, so, being relatively new to the psych ED, I jumped in to assist so she wouldn't get assaulted herself, assuming she had a plan. Instead, she panics as she realizes she doesn't have the backup to control this Pt, so after I've committed myself to holding him down for her, she lets go and just stands there. I successfully prevented the Pt from [further] assaulting the RN, myself, or the other Pt; however, I did end up with a decent back injury as a result and had to be on worker's comp for a couple weeks while I recovered. The worst part may be that that RN is still there. Hopefully, she learned from that incident. Fortunately, I haven't had to deal w/ a violent Pt while working w/ her since.

 

[Tappinfool66]

Mine is pretty lame, but during my first shadowing experience in a surgical case, I came close to fainting. I had to take 10 minutes to recover outside the OR. Afterwards, everything was as easy as pie.

Same thing happened to me. I think it was because I was overheating and I hadn't eaten anything though. Once I took a breather and had a sandwich, I was fine and really got to enjoy it 🙂

 

[Silverman780]

She ended up not making it. It turned out to be a grandmother and her grandson in the worse-off car and a single male driver in the other one. The grandson was miraculously stable, but the driver of the other car had to be medevaced to a bigger trauma center and ended up not making it, either.


Rough night.

From what i've seen kids bounce, look like they are doing good, then crash hard.

But I just had this really freaky/cool call where after a minor MVA the occupants all self extracted and were doing fine and only complaints were neck pain. A elderly man who witnessed it however walked up to my partner and said "I don't feel so good" then promptly collapsed and coded. We were able to revive him, but we found out later he coded and died in the ICU later on. The best part about this was the number times we had to explain this to dispatch/nurse/ER Doc/EMS supervisor/Medical director.

Worst experience I've had volunteering was what turned out to be a haz-mat call where I ended getting this burning fertilizer on my arm from touching the patient and having to be fully decontaminated by our department's rookies.

 

[ILikeDrugs]

Volunteering at UCI medical center for about a year. Lame as ****. Glad I stopped that several months ago.

 

[halethsonofhama]

On an 8-hour ride along for my EMT course, We sat around for 7.5 hours sleeping and watching Adam Sandler movies without a single call.

With only minutes to go before I leave, a call comes in and I hop in the Rig to finally 'see some action.' Turns out it was a case of going to one hospital to transport a smelly, ungrateful old woman, to another hospital because of insurance issues. 3 hours later, I got to go home.

The rest of my ride-alongs and ER experience has been fairly interesting though, so I can't complain. Now my work experience on the other hand.... lets just say family practice produces a lot of "worst-experience-ever" scenarios

 

[slammer922]

These are just kind of funny moments. One night, I blindly reached backwards to quickly open the ER lobby door for a couple. I ended up forcefully sinking my hand into a warm, soggy burrito that someone had partially eaten and then delicately tucked onto the door’s metal push bar for safe keeping.

At the same hospital, I always found really weird things hidden in the cabinets of the ER rooms that I stocked. On one occasion, I found a block of stale cheddar cheese. Cheese. I may never understand what exactly possessed some human squirrel to bury their cheese block in an ER cabinet full of gauze and alcohol wipes.

Wow, and I thought finding 4 year old (expired) equipment was bad.

 

[alwaysaangel]

Volunteering at UCI medical center for about a year. Lame as ****. Glad I stopped that several months ago.

Thats a shame. Where the heck were you? I know several of the volunteers in the ED and they stay pretty busy and seem to enjoy it.

 

[Overload]

Though not related in a medical field, I volunteer as a free counselor for inmates (suspects) who are awaiting their trial. This one time, this woman wanted to see her husband and three children. Due to the investigation at that time, the nature of the crime she allegedly committed, and the woman's mental state she was placed in a secluded room. When she asked to see her family, I told her she was not allowed to. Within seconds she grabbed my throat, slapped me, and scratches her (huge!) finger nails on my face. Finally it turned out she was also prosecuted with assault, and I had to show up as a witness. Scariest thing after all, especially considering the woman's husband's look on his face.

 

[mishaS]

Not mine, but I have to tell them. When my friend was doing her EMT training in the Trauma 1 ER, they had two incidents (don't know if they're actually true, but she isn't a liar from what I know). One involved two men who had been fighting (either gang or two homeless men). Apparently one of them wasn't completely secured to his bed, and wasn't stripped or searched carefully in triage. It turns out he had a knife duct taped to his leg, and he stabbed the guy he had been fighting previously (don't remember if the other guy died).

Another time, a man who had been arrested somehow got loose, and hijacked an ambulance. There were two EMTs inside, a guy, and an overweight women. The guy did the only noble thing he could, he bailed out of the back, leaving the women stuck driving this guy. I guess they had gotten away without the police chasing them, but the women managed to scare the patient/hijacker into fleeing by telling him there was a GPS tracker inside the ambulance, and the police would be on them in no time.

Well, I suppose mine doesn't compare to some of the above, but I train new volunteers at a children's hospital. It was an extraordinarily busy day and it was just me and a first day volunteer in the playroom for small children. We had our hands so full I had to call the other playroom but all they gave me was another first day trainee. I had no time to train them, we were basically going between playing with different kids and chasing toddlers on IV poles around trying to keep them from running off their lines. One very cute little toddler decided to run out the playroom (I think she got tired, cranky, and wanted to go back to her room for a nap), and by the time I got her to come back with me one of the trainees comes up to me and tells me a child did run off their IV. Not terrible, but after two years and that never happening, and me being in charge, I felt like I failed.

 

[apumic]

Though not related in a medical field, I volunteer as a free counselor for inmates (suspects) who are awaiting their trial. This one time, this woman wanted to see her husband and three children. Due to the investigation at that time, the nature of the crime she allegedly committed, and the woman's mental state she was placed in a secular place. When she asked to see her family, I told her she was not allowed to. Within seconds she grabbed my throat, slapped me, and scratches her (huge!) finger nails on my face. Finally it turned out she was also prosecuted with assault, and I had to show up as a witness. Scariest thing after all, especially considering the woman's husband's look on his face.

What does that (secular place) have to do w/ anything? You mean solitary (S&R)?

Did they not properly train their volunteers and keep staff w/ you during your interactions w/ her? I'd never let a non-staff member be alone w/ what sounds like a psych pt (essentially). Even our evaluators at the hospital have security and/or a tech within a few ft and I've definitely been known to step into a room and forcefully (with due moderation and care not to harm) shove and pin an aggressive pt into the bed or a wall when s/he became threatening/violent. The moment one of my staff (or another pt or volunteer) is threatened, things should get ugly (obviously, we try to deescalate prior to the physical threat becoming significant).

 

[Overload]

What does that (secular place) have to do w/ anything? You mean solitary (S&R)?

Did they not properly train their volunteers and keep staff w/ you during your interactions w/ her? I'd never let a non-staff member be alone w/ what sounds like a psych pt (essentially). Even our evaluators at the hospital have security and/or a tech within a few ft and I've definitely been known to step into a room and forcefully (with due moderation and care not to harm) shove and pin an aggressive pt into the bed or a wall when s/he became threatening/violent. The moment one of my staff (or another pt or volunteer) is threatened, things should get ugly (obviously, we try to deescalate prior to the physical threat becoming significant).

With counselor I actually mean a free pro deo lawyer. In law school you get trained in clinics to deal with this, however, you don't really learn how to deal with psychologically ill people. A secluded place is a solitary room. She was placed there because of the continuing investigation, and she wasn't allowed contact from the inside (with other inmates) nor from the outside (family, children, etc.) due to the nature of the crime. I've dealt with dozens of suspects over the past year, but this one turned violent. Usually, (and especially at the beginning) you have a supervisor, but since I'd already completed the clinic course, and I could do more volunteering, they gave me more freedom in terms of interacting with inmates awaiting their trial. I'm still doing this volunteering though, and I enjoy it. The situation with that woman was actually the only situation where I felt harshly intimidated. After all she got sentenced for six years, and for the assault she got nine months.

 

[apumic]

With counselor I actually mean a free pro deo lawyer. In law school you get trained in clinics to deal with this, however, you don't really learn how to deal with psychologically ill people. A secular place is a solitary room. She was placed there because of the continuing investigation, and she wasn't allowed contact from the inside (with other inmates) nor from the outside (family, children, etc.) due to the nature of the crime. I've dealt with dozens of suspects over the past year, but this one turned violent. Usually, (and especially at the beginning) you have a supervisor, but since I'd already completed the clinic course, and I could do more volunteering, they gave me more freedom in terms of interacting with inmates awaiting their trial. I'm still doing this volunteering though, and I enjoy it. The situation with that woman was actually the only situation where I felt harshly intimidated. After all she got sentenced for six years, and for the assault she got nine months.

Interesting they call it "secular." In the hospital setting, it's called an S&R (seclusion & restraint) if it's total seclusion/restraint. Otherwise, it's simply restrictions. That's good you haven't had other violent "clients." I'd still think they'd want security nearby, though, since even the most seasoned staff member (or volunteer) can be taken by surprise and injured in but a few seconds. I'd say the main key to dealing with someone who is mentally ill and potentially violent is to have others nearby. You can't really expect to deescalate an enraged person on your own and even if you could, it wouldn't be safe to try and do so alone.

 

[Overload]

O wait, you're right, it's called seclusion instead of secular. That's what you get when English is not your native language 😀

 

[LEUNIT]

O wait, you're right, it's called seclusion instead of secular. That's what you get when English is not your native language 😀

Not gonna lie -- I googled "secular" just to make sure I had the right definition.

 

[ILikeDrugs]

Thats a shame. Where the heck were you? I know several of the volunteers in the ED and they stay pretty busy and seem to enjoy it.

I was in the CCU and MICU. Sit, stare, watch TV in the patients room from the desk (I couldn't hear anything of course), wait for the printer to make a sound to I could file the paper, wait for the tube to make a sound so I could give the medication to nurses, and chair warmer for the resident/fellow/attending that would take the seat if I happened to get up to do something. I tried to get into the ED but the slots for the time that I had available were always taken.