Well officially we have all now passed (thanking the power of the rubber NGP stamp on my otherwise mediocre assessments.)
Went and spent a day in the ED for kicks. Apart from further appreciating my lack of knowledge, I had an interesting time. Got to watch my first proper resus. I was amazed and also strangely relieved at my emotional detachment. It was only a 20ish year old guy, who had managed to combine overdosing and drowning in to one serious misadventure. I watched them work on him for awhile, and as it was a slow day in the ED a plethora of doctors stood around and pointed things out to me with a vague disinterest.
An alarm went off, someone had collapsed in the waiting room, unconscious. They dragged her in to the room next door. A heroin overdose, nothing exciting. At least not to them. Once again the doctors stood around with vague interest that comes only through experience. A prolonged contemplation on whether to administer the antidote or just let her come good with time. She was still breathing, a fact that they made me make sure of. They asked me to reposition her head so her airway would be more open. I began tilting her head back only to have her eyes spring open and for her to begin grumbling.
Even I, a humble second year knows that a talking patient isn't having difficulty breathing. And that was the extent of my good deeds. I left the ED, walking past a tearful family, waiting for news on their son. Weird, but distant.
I could work in the ED I think. People are only your problems transiently, none of this forming a relationship business.
An interesting thought indeed.
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