God must have wanted to give the night team a break judging by the two consecutive quiet shifts that we had after that horrible Saturday night. Much to my relief, we spent those two nights gassing, downing quantities of coffee and crisps and generally taking the piss out of each other. A game of Resus Hockey was proposed but we eventually settled for a quiet game of guessing patients blood results. Not the most scintillating of pastimes, but takes a certain amount of knowledge, judging by the fact that it was won three times by the most senior doctor there.
A week of night shifts are always a good bonding experience. Or things might turn ugly and you end up hating the guts of the people you see night after night. I have been lucky so far that all the night shifts I've had have been with people that are reliable and I've gotten along with. It helps immensely, not only yourself and the healthcare team, but also the patient if the staff trust each other. Case in point was when we had three patients with chest pains in the resuscitation room, two of which were thrombolysed as they were confirmed ongoing heart attacks. Unfortunately, one nearly arrested and one went into cardiac arrest. The rest of the night went into dealing with the driver and passengers of a road traffic collision and one guy who had been stabbed in the neck. I have to say, the nursing staff were fantastic - not a moment of panic and not a raised voice anywhere. I've worked in departments where there were always an us-against-you attitude among nursing and medical staff. It helped nobody, least of all the patient you were trying to help.
I met a lovely ophthalmology junior doctor who sutured one of my patient's eyelid while I stitched up his scalp. He also very kindly sutured the cuts on the patient's nose and cheek, even though it was not his job and he could have easily left it for the morning shift A&E doctors to do. What a sweetheart. The orthopaedic SHO was also very lovely. She must have twigged onto how little experience I had, so she spent a little bit more time explaining what to look out for with the fracture that I had asked her to come down to see. Clearly the man needed to be admitted to get the various pieces that his elbow was in fixed, but it was great to have someone systematically explain the various complications and management of such a patient while awaiting theatre.
I think I would seriously miss this lot when I move on in just over two months time. Unfortunately, this is the life of a junior doctor. You spend a third of your time adjusting to your new surroundings and your new specialty and another third preparing to move on to another job. You will always feel slightly unbalanced, slightly out of depth and always the new kid on the block.
Anyway, there's plenty of time to angst about new jobs later. I'm going to bed.
A week of night shifts are always a good bonding experience. Or things might turn ugly and you end up hating the guts of the people you see night after night. I have been lucky so far that all the night shifts I've had have been with people that are reliable and I've gotten along with. It helps immensely, not only yourself and the healthcare team, but also the patient if the staff trust each other. Case in point was when we had three patients with chest pains in the resuscitation room, two of which were thrombolysed as they were confirmed ongoing heart attacks. Unfortunately, one nearly arrested and one went into cardiac arrest. The rest of the night went into dealing with the driver and passengers of a road traffic collision and one guy who had been stabbed in the neck. I have to say, the nursing staff were fantastic - not a moment of panic and not a raised voice anywhere. I've worked in departments where there were always an us-against-you attitude among nursing and medical staff. It helped nobody, least of all the patient you were trying to help.
I met a lovely ophthalmology junior doctor who sutured one of my patient's eyelid while I stitched up his scalp. He also very kindly sutured the cuts on the patient's nose and cheek, even though it was not his job and he could have easily left it for the morning shift A&E doctors to do. What a sweetheart. The orthopaedic SHO was also very lovely. She must have twigged onto how little experience I had, so she spent a little bit more time explaining what to look out for with the fracture that I had asked her to come down to see. Clearly the man needed to be admitted to get the various pieces that his elbow was in fixed, but it was great to have someone systematically explain the various complications and management of such a patient while awaiting theatre.
I think I would seriously miss this lot when I move on in just over two months time. Unfortunately, this is the life of a junior doctor. You spend a third of your time adjusting to your new surroundings and your new specialty and another third preparing to move on to another job. You will always feel slightly unbalanced, slightly out of depth and always the new kid on the block.
Anyway, there's plenty of time to angst about new jobs later. I'm going to bed.
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