We had a trauma come to us as a transfer from an outside hospital. Activated as a level one trauma as she had been intubated at the outside hospital. Intubated for combativeness. The trauma bay is a highly protocoled area, for both the patient's safety and the safety of the health care workers involved. Patient's, often intoxicated or drugged, blood coming from somewhere, but refusing to lay still or cooperate, often combative, and they get tubed. There is no patience in this setting for deviation from the protocols set in place for everyone's safety. A patient gets intubated and sedated, the trauma exam can then be completed isolating source of bleeding, and various injuries. This particular patient had avulsed half of her forehead, the laceration extending from her scalp in mid-forehead down to her left temple cutting her left eyebrow in half. We repaired her face before extubation, approximating muscle to muscle, dermis to dermis and eyebrow to eyebrow, etc. I worked with my Attending, one of the new ones, we all like her. But unfortunately, the rumors were already spreading of her moving on. I asked her about them. She looked at me surprised. Unfortunately, she could not negate the rumors, but wondered at their origin, as she had not yet even told many of her fellow attendings, and definitely none of us residents. I had been the first to even ask her about the subject. So sad to know yet another attending is leaving. I am so ready for this high turnover rate to slow down and stop.
Our daily lives on the trauma team have not gotten any better this past week. June continues to prove to be a very high trauma volume month. Thankfully I have multiple co-residents that have made themselves available and are willing to help if I ask, which I have from time to time. Our long hours have not gone unnoticed, and I've been told multiple times "I want you to leave the hospital at 6pm tonight" or "You have to be physically out of the hospital by 8pm tonight." That's all well and good. Unfortunately, they are only words. The same attending who tells me to leave at 6pm, also stands by and watches as I take the new incoming trauma at 5:45pm and with it any hope of leaving any time soon goes out the window. gone with the wind. Sigh. As hard as I try, I can't perform magic. Starting next month, our program rotations are undergoing a major renovation. Starting July1st, what is currently managed by our three person team will be taken over by two different teams and a total of 9 residents. I feel this is the main reason why words are not backed up with action. The change is in place, just not for another 14 days. Just 14 more days!
One good thing about being so busy is that my caffeine intake has reduced. Simply because I don't have the time to go and get any. I definitely could use it. On Wednesday's we dress up for our M&M, Grand Rounds and education hours. The other Wednesday I didn't have time to change afterwards, and one of the nurses in the ED has called me "ballerina shoes" ever since. You never know what's going to get spilled or splashed around in the trauma bay, and I think she was more worried I'd ruin my shoes than anything else. I didn't share her worry myself, they're just shoes. Whether I'm wearing danskos or ballerina shoes is not going to alter my ability to put in a chest tube if needed.
Much Love.
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