Student Nurse, prn

Friday, February 03, 2006

The Teaser....Reality ER vs Television ER....

Thought I'd set the stage a little in advance for next week in the ER, it's my only rotation in the ER and it lasts for just two days.

The ER is located in a hospital in a small mountainous Northern California town that has a population of 12,500 --according to the 2000 Census. The other two closest hospitals are 30 minutes in either direction (east and west). One of those two takes the local life fight trauma patients. They do not take life-flights at this smaller hospital. They have about 10 beds total in the ER not including the 3 they can put on gurneys in the hallways.


Today I took a tour of the place today it was suppose to last 30 minutes. It took only 15 minutes then I spent the next 15 minutes in a patient room taking vital signs of a patient with abdominal pain of 8 on a 1-10 pain scale (10 is the worst pain you can imagine).

I love procedural stuff and I multi-task well. I think I may like this experience. I am not a TRAUMA JUNKIE that lives off the adrenaline rush. So, I go into this rotation with open eyes and hope that I will enjoy it.

(and *pssst* I am not even going to mention the 'student syndrome' which is when students show up the department gets quiet and they have "the slowest days we have have in months" because that is not going to happen when I am there, not it will not)

4 Comments:

  • Hey, good luck in the ER. I hope you get to see at least some action, unlike the day of your visit. I am not sure if we will do an ER rotation in my radiography program, but I imagine that they will need portable x-ray periodically, so I may be involved some how.

    Anyway, good luck and I hope you have some interesting stories to blog about.

    Dustin

    By Blogger Dustin, at 12:49 PM  

  • Good luck on your tour of duty. Here's hoping there's no major disaster on your watch.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 10:49 AM  

  • Good luck with the ER rotation!! I hope all goes well and you come out of it in one piece!!! lol

    oh yeah...and what neil said! hehe (are they? lol)

    By Blogger Michelle, at 9:36 AM  

  • I'm jealous--they are still trying to get us an ER rotation.

    Hh

    By Blogger Milliner's Dream, a woman of many "hats"..., at 4:13 PM  

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