So I'm back to working in emergency again. I finished my internship at the start of this year and was fortunate to gain employment as a general trainee. The medical equivalent of the dogs body. And that means time in emergency. But I'm not complaining. I actually really like being in emergency... most days anyway.
I'm working at one of the smaller hospital. It has the distinct advantage of feeling slightly like a country hospital, but that anything overly complex gets sent to one of the big hospitals, or never even makes it to the door because they are too sick. But there are a few gems that turn up under their own power.
The thing that I like about working in emergency is that it's so varied, and there is the opportunity just to give things a go. Now obviously there's a difference between recklessness and well supervised learning, so I don't perceive that I'm doing anything overly nuts. But at times I get to go out of my comfort zone.
One of the hardest things I've had to start doing is putting IV drips in to children. It sounds odd I guess, but children are a protected species in tertiary hospitals. Certainly you don't get to stick needles in to them as a medical student, and rarely if ever as an intern. But then the time comes at three in the morning, on your third consecutive night shift, when you have a two year old child who is sick, hot and sweaty, hasn't drunk anything for a day, heart racing and looking feeble. Their worried mother has dutifully brought them to ED because Nurofen and Panadol isn't working - and it falls to you to do your first ever cannulation of a toddler.
And then bam, the nurses pin the child in a bed sheet, one arm held out tight, and you take out a tiny needle that you have never used before, walk up to the kid and deftly slide it in to the tiny vein that you can just feel somewhere in the nook of their elbow. Bam (again). You're everybody's hero. Except, you know you were fortunate that time and hope all the next times will be that easy.
So yeah. That's why I like the adventure of emergency. But also hate it. But mostly like it.
