This is a delayed post, but I have been really busy for the past two weeks. My internship officially ended one week ago, Tuesday July 24th, with a dinner for all of the Emergency Department members who a involved in research. Dr. Paz, the Dean of the College of Medicine and CEO of the Medical Center opened the dinner with a few remarks about the importance of research in Emergency Medicine. There has not been much research done in Emergency Medicine, and Dr. Terndrup is one of the world leaders. After an Indian dinner, we heard from Dr. Lubin, the head of LifeLion, and two other attendings who are active researchers. We also spoke briefly about our projects, and it was nice to see many of the students in my program last year return for the dinner.
My last week was very exciting though. We wrapped up our project for now by reaching our goal of retesting 52 residents, nurses and EMTs this summer. Peter, the medical student who I am working with on this project, will retest the medical students in September once everybody is on campus and a year has passed since their first testing. At that point he and I will collaborate on the statistics and paper writing. Hopefully we will have a paper to submit for publishing before winter break.
My last shift shadowing in the Emergency Department was my best. I worked with great residents and medical students, and they were really good about teaching me as much as they could. I saw several interesting patients, and I hope that I am never considered an 'interesting patient'.
The last two Tuesday morning resident lectures were some of the best too. We learned how to suture using pig feet during the lecture, and I later rotated through several stations in the simulation center, each of which focused on some aspect of airway management. I learned to intubate with a Miller glide scope, and was taught to insert a breathing tube. These rotations were for the first year residents and fourth year medical students, but they included me just like I was one of them. On my last day of work, this past Tuesday, I participated in a simulation for the residents. My job was to act like a nurse who needed an EKG read at that moment. I had to see if the resident would ask me to wait or read the EKG, and if they read it correctly. This was all done in the simulation center, and the resident directors were able to observe everything from behind one-way windows. It was a really cool exercise, and the residents were obviously flustered by the end of it. After the debrief at the end though, it was evident they learned a lot.
I had a fantastic summer internship with the Emergency Department. I really appreciate Dr. Terndrup allowing a JC student in the program each year. I also want to thank Nancy Campbell, the nurse in charge of ED research, and both of the ED secretaries. I'm grateful for the guidance the residents and other medical students have given me, and I wouldn't have gotten as much out of my experience had it not been for all these people. While I realized I want my patients to be my focus instead of research, it was a great opportunity to do human subject research in the hospital. Hopefully my project can be used to better train hospital employees in CPR, with the end goal of saving more lives.
