Week 5

Switching over to the trauma service required a little bit of adaptation, but I really like the team. The interns are really nice to me, the PAs teach a lot, and I feel like I'm appreciated for helping out. I take as many patients as I can handle, and I get a bit of freedom in deciding what I do. Though it's mostly floor work, I get to do things I think are exciting like taking out staples and chest tubes (really less exciting than it sounds). I've been taking care of patients with post-operative ileus, open book pelvic fractures, spinal cord injuries, and acute abdomen. I got to see an appendicitis from start-to-finish which was cool; I dictated the history and physical and scrubbed into the surgery to see the "lap appy." The only other surgery I saw was a peri-rectal abscess drainage. I'm learning a lot about tib-fib fractures and gun shot wounds and chest tube management. Interestingly, compared to elective surgery, trauma has way more male than female patients and a younger population. Despite the chaos, I like this service, and I feel like I'm contributing something unique to the patients.