Alhamdulillah finally I get a day off. I am so exhausted physically and mentally. Plus I've had to put off a lot of things. Thankfully hubby did the laundry and tidied up the house on his SICK day off. Had a happy surprise when I got home. Thanks, dear!
Emergency is really not for me. Some people may thrive on it. Living on continuous adrenaline rush. But I cannot handle it. Maybe 1-2 days a week but not more than that. And I haven't even done the late shifts yet. And I, as an intern, don't even see the sick patients (Triage Category 1 & 2). (NB: ye ye everyone is sick but when we say sick, it means dying or could die).
Our emergency department is a mess. I mean, literally it's a mess. For the past week also, the hospital was full. So there weren't any beds upstairs on the ward. That meant even admitted patients had to spend their hospital stay in the emergency ward in trolleys because they couldn't be moved upstairs. So the newcomers presenting to emergency were not able to be seen because there was just no room. The really sick patients were stuck in trolleys in the corridor, on the ramps, at the ambulance entrance and just seen there!
Remember I posted earlier that I'm working in DMU (interim ward). I've done that for 2 weeks and last week I had a few days in the actual emergency department itself. The emergency department is divided into a few sections. The RESUS area where the sick patients go. The main area is called the FLOOR. And another area is called FASTRACK.
But I put myself in the fastrack area on one day. Fastrack is where patients are sent if they need a procedure done or we think it's not going to take long to manage them. They're broken bones, foreign body in eye/ears/limbs, grazes, lacerations etc. There's high turnover and most cases are simple. Patients come, get fixed, go home. The day I was in Fastrack was the best day I've ever had at work for 6 months. I actually enjoyed myself. Helped people. Felt satisfied.
Then other days I was on the floor. I didn't really like it. Lots of complicated patients. By complicated I mean they have 4-5 problems that need to be addressed. And all patients need to be discussed with the consultant on the floor and get approval for my management plan. That takes some time. Like yesterday I had to wait 2 hours just to talk to the consultant about my patient because every time I started talking to her, she had to answer her phone and address the problem on the phone.
I think I feel frustrated & angry because 60-70% of the time, the patients I see don't really have anything wrong with them. They're honestly - wimps who don't even try to help themselves first. Those who have pain (who've probably never had any pain in their life) come in or brought in by ambulance (!!!) complaining of "SEVERE" pain but when asked, didn't even bother to take even PANADOL. We give them Panadol and the pain goes away. What a waste of our time/resources. Even a waste of the patient's time having to wait for ages.
And some have "SEVERE" pain but do not behave like they are in severe pain. Did you know we can diagnose appendicitis just by looking at how people behave? People who truly have appendicitis would not be able to even walk properly, will wince when they cough or are moved. They look really sick. They do not easily walk into the department, jump on the bed, scream bloody murder & writhe around just for getting a blood test done (with a small needle, might I add).
Sorry this is such a long entry but I had to get it off my chest. I cannot wait for this rotation to end. I'm so tired of patients (!!!).
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