Rotation Reviews: Emergency Medicine

Hello everyone, it’s been so long since I have posted! So much has happened this past month (‼️‼️) and I will write more about it in a different post, inshallah! Ramadan Mubarak to all those observing! Please keep our Palestinian brothers and sisters in your duaas, donations, and organized movements as they are truly suffering and it breaks my heart. 🤲🏾🤲🏾🤲🏾🇵🇸 

Anyway, I thought I was done with the Rotation Reviews, however, I recently came off Emergency Medicine and I wanted to write about this rotation. It is pretty much a core rotation and most medical students have to take it to graduate. Not gonna lie, it sucked taking it as a burnt-out 4th year but I learned a lot from it. So this will truly be my last Rotation Reviews as a medical student 🥺.

The Tasks: I did my rotation at one of the nicer hospitals near my school’s area. For this 4-week rotation, students only had to do 11 ED shifts which was amazing ngl. The shifts ranged from 6a-3p, 2p-11p or 10p-6a. As a student, my job was pretty much to follow a resident during the shifts. Whenever a patient would come to the ED, I would get a history from them, come up with an assessment and plan, and present that to the resident and/or attending. Sometimes I would follow nursing staff or physician assistants and help them with tasks as well. I have helped place sutures into deep cuts, attempted to get an IV, drained out cysts, and helped get an EKG. Honestly, my role as a student was not too bad.

The Patients: The patient population ranged from all ages and walks of life. This is the ED, which everyone will come to at some point in their lives. There were kids, teenagers, adults, grandmas/grandpas etc. All coming with their own concerns under the son. This included heart failure exacerbations, miscarriages, lacerations, abdominal pain, broken bones, lots of blood etc. There was a time when I even saw a tri-mal fracture (aka the bones sticking out of someone’s ankle) and that is something I hope I never see again.

Didactics: The didactics was probably my least favorite part. For our didactics, we had to do simulation labs which insisted on us working with a mannequin while one of our instructors voice acted as a patient. Ugh, those were so stressful I never knew what to do during those. We had different scenarios including heart attack, aortic dissection, multiple fractures, etc. Each of us were assigned a presentation for a topic afterward so after a group performed the simulation, the person whose presentation was based on the simulation had to present. 

There were procedure days in which we learned how to place central lines, perform basic airway maneuvers, and use an ultrasound. We also had didactics with the residents every other Tuesday we had to attend as well.

For this rotation, we had a final exam to take and pass or else we would fail the rotation 😱. So in addition to attending these 11 shifts, simulation labs, procedures, and didactics, I had to study for this final ☹️. They gave us practice questions and there was a quizlet I went through multiple times. Alhamdudillah I was able to pass the final but whew it was HARD. It’s definitely better to study for this sooner rather than later.

The Environment: Y’all the emergency department is crazy! There are so many things going on at once. Literally, all the residents looked like they were training for a triathlon. There were so many patients to see and so many things needed to be done. It’s definitely something that you need to get adjusted to and for someone like me who does not operate well in chaos, it was definitely not for me. Even though the shifts are less than your typical 12-hour shift, I would feel more exhausted because I was on my feet for a lot of it. I particularly did not like the night shift. Idk what it is about nights, but I feel like the most insane things go down for no reason. I just wanted to teleport myself home at some point because the environment kind of became unbearable for me.

Pros: The residents who were super kind, only 11 shifts to complete, no notes, quick presentations, and many different cases I saw.

Cons: DIDACTICS, the final exam, the crazy environment in the ED, the shifts taking me out, the night shift

Overall: I had a fair experience! I got to really understand what the ED was like and its role to rule out really scary diagnoses and help transfer patients to the place that is best for them. I have soooo much respect for ED physicians. They truly out here dealing with a lot so I definitely tip my hat off to them. However, it sure aint for me and I am glad I know that now haha.

Ranking: I would give this rotation a 5.5/10, even though I do not like emergency medicine I am grateful to have the experience.

That’s it, everyone! Be sure to look out for my next post which will be coming soon inshallah about all things ✨Match Week✨!