I have completed 3 weeks at the Emergency Department! Tuesday is our last day and I’m really sad to leave. I’m just getting used to being in the hectic environment and getting to know the doctors well. I’m starting to become a productive member in the department and getting really good at restocking. In my first week in the ER, I was appalled to see how often doctors take blood from their patients. It makes sense for them to do it, but I never thought about it, considering how little I get blood drawn at home. I thought I wouldn’t be afraid of seeing blood drawn (of all the other scary things I could see in an ER!) but I was a little scared of how doctors would push needles into the thin arms of patients who would resist and pull back. I hated seeing them in more pain when they already came all the way to the ER to address other pain. By week 2, I was used to seeing the needles and blood and didn’t turn away anymore. Reflecting on my past fear, I think it’s kind of funny that a lot of people don’t choose a career in healthcare because of their fear of blood. It had only taken 2 weeks to get over my fear of needles into other people and now I can observe without looking away. I can feel my threshold of discomfort improve every day in the ER. I wonder what else I could do if I wasn’t afraid of anything.
I’ve also done a night shift at the ER on a Friday night. We were told that weekend night shifts are more poppin because people get drunk on the weekend and start getting violent. The shift ran from 8pm – 8am and things were somewhat quiet until 2am where many patients came in to the ER for all sorts of problems: Gunshot wounds, stab wounds, abdominal pain, seizures… the list goes on. We had at least 5 patients admitted for seizures alone. The ER at this hospital, like many other hospitals in South Africa is grossly understaffed. The ER is split into two sections, majors and minors, where majors handles the more serious cases and minors takes care of simpler cases. For the Friday night shift, only one doctor was working in majors and one doctor in minors within the help of a few medical interns (who are equivalent to a resident in the US). Doctors don’t have time to take a break within the 12 hour shift because patients continue to roll in. During this shift, I’ve developed an immense respect for doctors who are forced to do their jobs well without much financial support from their government or understanding from the community for long waiting times. However, it is super cool that South Africa provides free healthcare in public hospitals, meaning that all drugs and consultations are completely free.
Landing pad for helicopter emergencies!
The ER where I am stationed for my internship is a state of the art facility, newly renovated, and well-stocked. Doctors show up when they are scheduled, which is rare for South Africa. The doctors have been eager to teach me how to triage a trauma patient and let me fill out paperwork for them, like lab and x-ray order forms. I’ve been able to comfort patients when they were in pain by asking them questions. My small talk has really improved! It’s only a little painful now. One day, I asked a patient how long he had been waiting to see a doctor and he said, “3 hours, so not bad today”. Time moves slower in anywhere that is not the United States so we really take for granted how good we have it back home.
I’ve gotten really close to some doctors, who are also natural-born teachers, and I am sad that our time together has been so short. I wish that we had more time together! I’ve learned so much and have grown so much from the start of my internship and the start of my semester here. I guess that just shows how fleeting time can be. People and places come and go and you’ll miss them (a lot) but you’ll remember them forever. Study abroad has made me sentimental!
