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Hanging On...Barely
Sep. 10th, 2011 03:17 pmToday will be my third day offtag, and I can safely say that I'm hatin' the shift system.
From what I could see from my two days' worth of experience, the department doesn't have enough House Officers to work in shifts. In the morning, there are only at most 3 or 4 HOs in each ward, but that's before they get called to the OT, to the clinic, to review the patient(s) in the first class ward. And because the clinic always demands for as many HOs as possible, yesterday my ward practically had zero HO around - until the second shift person came in, who was stuck doing the discharge summaries.
As for me, yesterday I was called down to the clinic before the morning round was barely halfway, and as I attended to the patients in the clinic, suddenly I was informed that I had to enter the OT to assist. And so I ran - at one point I even got lost, but let's leave that aside - and because the OT staffs who had no work was busy with some Raya feast, the people lining up at the table kind of blocked my way.
Sigh. Fortunately though, a colleague managed to brief me on what a HO is supposed to do in the OT, so I suppose I got the gist of it - missing only one or two duties. Anyhow. It was a case of closed fracture of proximal third of right femur - in fact, one of the first cases that I clerked in the ward - and so the operation was interlocking nail of right femur.
The problem? Because I'm of (below?) average height, and the MOs who were doing the op were tall people, the OT table was at least at the level of my chest. And when I had to retract the muscle upwards, I had to do it while standing on my toes. Because we're talking about retracting the anterior thigh muscles, which are strong like whoa, this morning I woke up with aches all over my body.
Ortho can be fun, but maybe I'm just physically not built for it.
As for the oncall the night before - it could get pretty hectic with handling new admissions, post-op reviews, keeping a straight face as a post-op patient in pain scolded me when I advised him to elevate his lower limb in view of his swollen foot, a certain nurse's rudeness and possessiveness over an injection trolley (I commend my self-control for not yelling out "What the hell is your problem, woman!?" there and then), further blood-taking procedures...and people's branulas keep on leaking and/or being pulled out.
I must have inserted at least 8 branulas on that day alone, but I'm pretty thankful that the veins of Melaka people are easier to find and poke than those of Kuantan.
Suffice to say, my first oncall was all right - although the sleep that followed was anything but restful, as I still dreamt of being in the ward and talking to a colleague *coughcough*, causing intermittent disruptions in my sleep.
And so, the saga continues. I'm on oncall duty tonight, from 10pm until 10am tomorrow morning. Here's to praying that it will be an uneventful one, because I don't think my body is ready to handle too many serious cases at once.
...I need to get a proper life, and proper food. Surviving on a cup of Nescafe for long stretches of hours can be damaging in the long run. And my heart...my poor heart.
...After a certain point, I don't know what to think anymore, and just let the waves of Life push me to the shores, as He Sees fit.
At least I can look forward to my parents' visit tomorrow, if He Wills it.
From what I could see from my two days' worth of experience, the department doesn't have enough House Officers to work in shifts. In the morning, there are only at most 3 or 4 HOs in each ward, but that's before they get called to the OT, to the clinic, to review the patient(s) in the first class ward. And because the clinic always demands for as many HOs as possible, yesterday my ward practically had zero HO around - until the second shift person came in, who was stuck doing the discharge summaries.
As for me, yesterday I was called down to the clinic before the morning round was barely halfway, and as I attended to the patients in the clinic, suddenly I was informed that I had to enter the OT to assist. And so I ran - at one point I even got lost, but let's leave that aside - and because the OT staffs who had no work was busy with some Raya feast, the people lining up at the table kind of blocked my way.
Sigh. Fortunately though, a colleague managed to brief me on what a HO is supposed to do in the OT, so I suppose I got the gist of it - missing only one or two duties. Anyhow. It was a case of closed fracture of proximal third of right femur - in fact, one of the first cases that I clerked in the ward - and so the operation was interlocking nail of right femur.
The problem? Because I'm of (below?) average height, and the MOs who were doing the op were tall people, the OT table was at least at the level of my chest. And when I had to retract the muscle upwards, I had to do it while standing on my toes. Because we're talking about retracting the anterior thigh muscles, which are strong like whoa, this morning I woke up with aches all over my body.
Ortho can be fun, but maybe I'm just physically not built for it.
As for the oncall the night before - it could get pretty hectic with handling new admissions, post-op reviews, keeping a straight face as a post-op patient in pain scolded me when I advised him to elevate his lower limb in view of his swollen foot, a certain nurse's rudeness and possessiveness over an injection trolley (I commend my self-control for not yelling out "What the hell is your problem, woman!?" there and then), further blood-taking procedures...and people's branulas keep on leaking and/or being pulled out.
I must have inserted at least 8 branulas on that day alone, but I'm pretty thankful that the veins of Melaka people are easier to find and poke than those of Kuantan.
Suffice to say, my first oncall was all right - although the sleep that followed was anything but restful, as I still dreamt of being in the ward and talking to a colleague *coughcough*, causing intermittent disruptions in my sleep.
And so, the saga continues. I'm on oncall duty tonight, from 10pm until 10am tomorrow morning. Here's to praying that it will be an uneventful one, because I don't think my body is ready to handle too many serious cases at once.
...I need to get a proper life, and proper food. Surviving on a cup of Nescafe for long stretches of hours can be damaging in the long run. And my heart...my poor heart.
...After a certain point, I don't know what to think anymore, and just let the waves of Life push me to the shores, as He Sees fit.
At least I can look forward to my parents' visit tomorrow, if He Wills it.
