A WHOLE day at the hospital
The reality of a day in the life of being a doctor hit me (HARD) just last wednesday. I was the only student on my emergency department run that had to do a back-to-back shift i.e. 16 hours of work! Yup, I knew it had to come some time so bring it on!
Friends offered to change shifts with me (thanks guys) but I was actually pretty excited about it, being given the experience to see what it takes to get through a day like that - a day totally normal when your a doctor maybe but territory unventured and foreign to a medical student.
Wearing scrubs always gets me on a bit of a 'high' cos I feel like I'm on the set of a TV show hehe (yes I still had time to take a pic..ooo looking so doctor-like harhar). My shift began at 8am that morning and what a hectic morning it was - I didn't get a break till 1pm! Being in the ED (emergency dept) is really where all the action is - with people coming in thinking they've just had a heart attack or who have been in a motor vehicle accident, had an asthmatic attack, collapsed...you name it.
By 2pm, I was getting sleepy. I look at my watch and think 'oh...only 10 more hours to go *sigh*'. One good thing tho is that public hospitals here are equivalent to private hospitals back in Msia so it's all good =) .
In the evening, I managed to work in the paeds dept and was told this offhand fact by the registrar I was attached to - he told me to look out for children with names like 'destiny' or 'miracle' cos most likely their parents were 'doped up' when naming their child ;) (no offence to anyone with the names destiny/miracle reading this blog k?) And sure enough I saw a child with the name 'destiny' on the children's ED list hehe and all I could think of was how her parents were like.
Finally, 12am came and I could practically feel the comfort of my bed...I was dead tired. It was definitely an experience to be remembered (but prob not repeated any time soon hehe). ED is a pretty good department to practice your skills with the challenge of having to do it rapidly but surely. And yup I've claimed my bragging rights to having lasted a whole day at the hospital hehe.
Friends offered to change shifts with me (thanks guys) but I was actually pretty excited about it, being given the experience to see what it takes to get through a day like that - a day totally normal when your a doctor maybe but territory unventured and foreign to a medical student.
Wearing scrubs always gets me on a bit of a 'high' cos I feel like I'm on the set of a TV show hehe (yes I still had time to take a pic..ooo looking so doctor-like harhar). My shift began at 8am that morning and what a hectic morning it was - I didn't get a break till 1pm! Being in the ED (emergency dept) is really where all the action is - with people coming in thinking they've just had a heart attack or who have been in a motor vehicle accident, had an asthmatic attack, collapsed...you name it.By 2pm, I was getting sleepy. I look at my watch and think 'oh...only 10 more hours to go *sigh*'. One good thing tho is that public hospitals here are equivalent to private hospitals back in Msia so it's all good =) .
In the evening, I managed to work in the paeds dept and was told this offhand fact by the registrar I was attached to - he told me to look out for children with names like 'destiny' or 'miracle' cos most likely their parents were 'doped up' when naming their child ;) (no offence to anyone with the names destiny/miracle reading this blog k?) And sure enough I saw a child with the name 'destiny' on the children's ED list hehe and all I could think of was how her parents were like.
Finally, 12am came and I could practically feel the comfort of my bed...I was dead tired. It was definitely an experience to be remembered (but prob not repeated any time soon hehe). ED is a pretty good department to practice your skills with the challenge of having to do it rapidly but surely. And yup I've claimed my bragging rights to having lasted a whole day at the hospital hehe.
