Day 3

Today was PAINFULLY slow. No exciting patients in the trauma room, no doctors to follow around and ask questions, not even any gurneys to clean. Very few patients went to X-ray and CT. The technician who let me help the physician on the first day was there. He recognized me, and I went with him to see how an EKG is set up. It was cool because earlier that day in my physiology lab we worked with EKGs and analyzed the traces, so when the traces were printed I knew what I was looking at. The tech didn't know what he was looking at. I thought that was weird - he does that kind of stuff for a living, wouldn't he at one point be curious about what kind of data he's printing? Ever? It's so mundane without actually knowing what you're trying to get.

I took a patient to X-ray, and I told the radiologist that the patient was there. I called the patient by name; he was a Latino patient and I pronounced his name properly and the radiologist laughed at me. Weird guy. Though I suppose amusement would come easily to me too if I had to be there late every night looking at X-rays.

One weird thing about today was that I saw my PI in the emergency room. He was there for chest pain, poor guy. He had been there since 8 PM and was there when I left. I hope he gets better. When I left, they still didn't know exactly what was going on with him. Hopefully it's not too bad.

I left 45 minutes early because I was exhausted and there wasn't anything for me to do. I will make up my time another time. That's Day 3.

Day 2

Today was slower than last week. As always, I learned a few things here and there. The staff was mostly the same as the staff I encountered on my first day, although very few of them, if any, seemed to remember me. I wonder how many volunteers they see from 4 AM when I leave until 12 AM when I return the following day. I need to find a way to distinguish myself... a letter of rec from someone from there couldn't possibly go against me sometime down the line, and additionally it is nice to be remembered.
Paramedics in training are kind of like lazy doctors. I talked to a paramedic intern for quite an extended period of time and I didn't really like his attitude. He maintained professionalism with the patients, but when he wasn't with them he told me, "You know, sometimes they ask you for stuff like a pillow or something, if you don't feel like getting it for them, you can keep walking it's no big deal." How sad is that? As if the patients are there just to give the staff a hard time.. I didn't like his outlook at all, rather, in my downtime I made it a point to talk to the patients who were awake and ask if they were comfortable.

The lady in CT remembered me. I took a lot of patients to and from CT for scans, and while they were being scanned I asked her questions and she told me stuff. She told me about a couple of conditions that, while often observed, will never be taught in a course or officially documented. I thought that was really interesting. One of them is called "throckmorton": when a man has an injury in his torsal/pelvic area, his penis will lean towards the side of the injury. Pretty crazy; it happens so much there's a term for it, and often enough for the woman at CT to tell me that it happens every time, no joke. The second condition she told me about is called "sun downing." It's when senior citizens get eccentric after the sun goes down and they're just completely neurotic and restless. She told me she tried writing it in a report here and there and was reprimanded for it because it's not an official condition, and her question was, "How am I supposed to say why I couldn't scan them at night?" A valid question in my opinion. I think it's strange that there hasn't been a definite cause for these symptoms given their frequency.

Day 1

My first day wasn't nearly as draining as I anticipated. Perhaps that's because I didn't go to my first two classes on Tuesday, though I was still running around all day. I drank a grande frappuchino from Starbucks with an extra shot of espresso before going to the hospital.

I arrived 20 minutes early just to leave myself time to find my way and introduce myself to the right people. The head nurse, or at least the woman who I think is the head nurse, showed me around the place and showed me the supply room and whatever. As we were walking, a woman came in crying profusely saying, "Please don't tell me no bad news, is he alive?" She was talking about her baby (I don't know how old). Heather, the nurse who I was walking with, told me that that was the second baby death in three days. She told me that she felt like crying.

It was at this point that I realized no matter how much a person sees pain and death, he still feels it. I thought that people who worked in hospitals might have made it into such a science that they were desensitized to the passing of life. I guess that's only true for looking at blood and lacerations. I also realized at that time that I had no idea what to say to her in response.

Not long afterwards I learned how to transport patients on gurneys. I took them to and from CT scans and x-rays. I was scared that I wouldn't be able to steer the gurney well and bump patients into walls, or that I would be too slow, or that I'd forget to put the brake on and the patient would roll away.

I made it a point to learn the names of the patients I was transporting. I remember seeing in shows and movies that doctors and hospital staff are too impersonal with patients and I don't want to be that way at all.

I spoke to one patient, Michelle, while she waited for the x-ray technician to attend to her. She was there for a lot of pain following a surgery. It had been weeks since her surgery and she was still in excrutiating pain. I told her that it was my first day volunteering at the hospital, and she said, "It must be nerve-wrecking." This surprised me for two reasons. One, despite her pain she thought to speculate what my mental state might be, and two, if I was in her position and the person responsible for transporting me said that she had never done it before, I would be terrified but it seemed to be the last of her concerns.

I went back and forth from x-ray frequently and the technician there was very pleased with me; she said I was a huge help and she thanked me. It was nice to receive some positive feedback on my first day.

For awhile I had some down time where I really had nothing to do. I think I need to work on finding ways to be productive on my own.

I got the opportunity to help a physician put a splint on a broken shin. The patient was in a car accident and his leg broke. He had to go to the OR to have it surgically corrected anyway, so the splint was a temporary but necessary arrangement. My job was to hold the leg still while Dr. Patel wrapped it up. I was surprised when his foot fell a little bit as I tried raising it - his shin really was totally broken. I was also a little surprised at how heavy legs can get after awhile. Thankfully I didn't get grossed out by looking at his wounds or at the blood washing away. Dr. Patel was also sure to tell me that I was doing a really good job and thanked me for my help.

I had a really good experience. I'm so glad that the UCDMC is a teaching hospital so I can ask questions shamelessly without worrying about being a pest. Everyone there was so pleasant and helpful and patient with me. I'm really looking forward to spending more time there.

Introduction

Fall Quarter 2005 marks my first experience in a hospital as something other than a patient. Earlier this year I made the decision to pursue medicine without ever having set foot in the field as part of the staff, or even as a spectator.

This quarter I received the opportunity to volunteer in the emergency department of the UCD Med Center in Sacramento. Here I can interact with everyone: patients, doctors, nurses, technicians, administrative staff, family members of patients, and of course other volunteers. When signing up for my internship I missed my pass time so I was left with the only remaining shift: Wednesday mornings from midnight to 4 AM. Thankfully I have no class on Wednesdays so I'm able to sleep in before going to work.

Since the hospital environment is so new to me, I have decided to record my experiences in this log so that later on, I may track my progress and perhaps find any pivotal points that completely alter my perspective. Here goes.