I’ll never get tired of new rotations making me feel like a chicken with its head cut off. After roughly 5 hours of EPIC EMR training (why must we keep doingggg thissss), my classmate and I proceeded to the ICU to meet up with our attending and fellows.
Our patients are incredibly complex and range from heart failure patients with left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) to those who require extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) to sustain life with everything sprinkled in between – pulmonary hypertension, right-sided failure, renal failure requiring continuous dialysis, social issues, delirium, GI bleeds… wow. 😯
Tomorrow I’ll be taking my first 24 hour call in this ICU, and truth be told, I’m a little uneasy about it. I’ve never had to resuscitate someone with an LVAD, troubleshoot an ECMO circuit or respond to airway emergencies without an attending holding my hand. Oh well, time to grow up at some point! 🙂
