Hey y’all! Happy 4th of July. In my last post, I told you that I’d be back soon to update you on orientation and my first week of residency. It’s been busy, but fun. Let’s start with orientation.
I still remember how I felt on the first day of orientation. I was slightly nervous because I didn’t really know what to expect. My day started with breakfast with my co-residents, program director, and program coordinator. Midway through the meal, the nerves were gone and the excitement took over. Several physicians at the hospital came to introduce themselves and give the new residents advice. They were all very supportive and eager to have us. My residency program is new and I, along with two other young docs, represent the inaugural class.
It is an honor to be a trailblazer at a new program. The hospital and community are so excited to have a residency program, but I didn’t know how excited they were until later that week. Part of my orientation included a welcoming reception. Many community and hospital leaders were there, along with state legislators and other politicians. It was a pretty big deal! My program director even received a key to the city, and June 14th became a recognized holiday in the small town.
My co-residents and I felt like local celebrities. News cameras were there, and I even got a few seconds of tv time. You can check it out here. Just to see how the people of the community came together to support us made me feel super proud to be a part of my program.
The remainder of orientation was packed with presentations from administration, medical records, coding and compliance, infection prevention, pharmacy, and many more. Three entire days were dedicated to ACLS and PALS certification. Although I’ve gone through ACLS training as a medical student, this time around sort of hit home. Realizing that I am now a doctor and will be in charge of running codes was exciting, but also a tad bit scary.
Another couple of days included EMR training. It was soooo much fun (sarcastic face)! Luckily the trainers realized that it did not take 6 hours in one day to learn how to use the software, and ended the classes early on both days. Besides, charting and using the EMR is best learned while “doing,” so I’m sure as time goes on I’ll be a pro at admitting patients, writing orders, and doing consults.
Once orientation was over, I had a nice weekend before work actually began. The following Monday I started my first month in the ER on nights. The 12-hour night shifts take a bit of getting used to, but I’ve been having a blast and learning so much. On my first night, we had a patient come through via ambulance in cardiac arrest. My ACLS training was quickly put to use. The ER attending who I was working with ran the code, but I was sweating like I was making the final decisions. After a good 30 minutes or so, the attending asked me if we should keep working or just “call it.” By this time, we had not been able to get a pulse back and there was no ROSC (return of spontaneous circulation). The patient’s family had asked us to do everything we could, and I felt like we should at least try for a few more minutes. So I spoke up and told the attending that we should continue working. We worked on the patient for quite a while longer, but unfortunately we could never get a pulse back.
It’s never easy when you lose a patient, and my heart went out to the family. I have seen many instances when physicians have become desensitized to death. I don’t want to be that type of doctor and I pray I never become numb to seeing patients die. On the other hand, I know that death is a part of life, and choosing this profession means that I will see it often. I took a few moments to get myself together, said a quick silent prayer for the family, then moved on with seeing more patients.
Although I lost one patient, my first week in the ER was great. One of the things I love about the ER is that you never know what you may see. I’ve seen a patient who dropped 315 lbs of barbell weight on his chest and broke his sternum. I have had an inmate from prison who overdosed on pills and slit his wrist, a teenager who fell and dislocated his knee, a truck driver who accidentally lacerated the entire side of his face with the buckle of his load straps, and a repeat ER visitor who was seeking narcotics.
So far, so good and I’m excited about what’s to come. For now, I’m going to enjoy my day off. I’m in Atlanta today and plan to do a bit of reading, find some barbecue, and watch fireworks at Centennial Park later tonight.
I hope everyone has a great 4th of July! Have fun, don’t eat too much, and be safe!
-thedoctorjb
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