First shift and EMS ride-along

Tuesday afternoon/evening (2pm-12am) was my first shift in the Mary Rutan ER. Mary Rutan is in Bellefontaine, OH, which is an hour away from Columbus, so with the commute, it make for a pretty long shift--and they might be getting longer, as Dr. Mackey suggested I work ten twelve hour shifts instead of twelve ten hour shifts, to cut down on my total commuting time. I'm still waiting for that to be approved by the clerkship coordinator.

The first shift went pretty well, although it was my first time using the computer system and their electronic medical record system, so I was a bit awkward and slow on my charting. I still did manage to see several patients pretty much by myself, and got to help Dr. Mackey (and by "help", I mean be an extraneous person while he taught me how to do it) put a splint on a five-year-old with a broken arm and suture a thirteen-year-old with a cut lip. And I ended up doing two pelvic exams by myself, which I was less than thrilled with. Overall, it was a good shift, and I think I'm going to enjoy, or at least survive, the month.

After that long shift and the long drive home, arriving around 1 am, I pretty much crashed and got a few hours of sleep before my ride-along with Columbus Fire Department Medic 2, which is the busiest medic in the state. I think we had more than ten calls in the eight hours I was with them, most of which were nonsense calls (only three had to be taken to the emergency room, and two of those weren't all that necessary). It was a lot of fun, especially having a day where nothing I did was graded or evaluated, but it was also really good to see what happens with the patients before they come through the ER doors. The paramedics seemed to enjoy having us along as well, and talked about how they usually have good relationships with the doctors, because most have gone out with the squad at some point and know what goes on. Nurses, on the other hand, usually don't, and so they don't have that same understanding.

Tomorrow is a full day of class (which I'm less than thrilled with), and then I scheduled myself Friday off (which, unfortunately, will be spent studying and doing some of the online requirements for the rotation). My next shift is Saturday at 10 am.