ED Shadowing

Today I spent four hours shadowing in the peds ED, an opportunity set up by the peds interest group here. I love being in the hospital and seeing patients, even if as a first-year med student I don't get to do much. (Though I examined a fifteen-month-old today!) I'm also impressed by how much the attendings, residents, and even third year med students, seem to enjoy teaching. Every five minutes, someone came up to me and was like "Wanna see a lupus case?"

There were mostly what the attending called bread-and-butter cases, the sorts of things that could and should really be seen by a generalist. But a couple of True Emergencies, brought in on stretchers by paramedics. So... a nice mix, I suppose.

The atmosphere fairly crackled with adrenaline pretty much the whole time I was there, even during the slow moments. Emergency certainly attracted a particular crowd, I can say that. After just 4 hours, I'm not quite sure if it's my style, but I like the thinking-on-your-feet aspect of it. We'll see.