#ed scribe

[texanforevermd]

Glad I stumbled upon your blog! I'm also taking a gap year as an ED scribe? Did you enjoy scribing?

I loved it!!! Looking back, I got exposed to a TON of things that I now understand much better. At the time, even when the doc was willing to teach, it didn’t make a ton of sense to me but now looking back I’m like oh yeah I did get to see a patient that had x or like this is what the physical exam findings are for y. I worked with whatever doctor was on shift so I got exposed to a lot of different styles of physicians and how they interact/interview their patients. It was also just good practice learning how to adapt to what is going on around you and it definitely improved my typing skills! I think my experiences will be especially useful third year as they helped me figure out how to be useful to the team and less in the way. It also help me figure out that I think I need more of a longer-term interaction with patients and it killed me not knowing what happened to them when they were sent upstairs. And when patients were “frequent fliers” it was never a good thing to see them again because it meant things were still not better for them. I ended up only scribing for approximately six months because my commute ended up being killer (45 minutes - 1 hour and a half drive each way depending on traffic). Best of luck! It’s a steep learning curve but you’ll be surprised when one shift you look up and realize you know what you’re doing! 

Here’s a little bit where I talked about scribing ( 2 years ago omg it feels like yesterday) 

http://texanmdtobe.tumblr.com/post/113391688459/what-i-have-learned-from-scribing-in-the-emergency

[dankscribememes]

[howdoiadultagain]

59 Year Old Pregnant Female?!

*Getting history of trauma patient found on the sidewalk*

EMS: This 59 year old pregnant female-

Everybody in the room:

Doctor: Wait, what?

EMS: That’s what she says.

Patient: There’s a baby in my stomach! I can feel him in my belly button!

Everybody:

Spoiler alert: she was not pregnant. She was, however, noncompliant with haldol

[howdoiadultagain]

difficult historians

doctor: do you smoke

patient: i don’t smoke. i used to smoke a pack a day but i quit 2 years ago. now i smoke half a pack a day.

doctor: so you do smoke.

patient: no i mean at most one cigarette a day or even one cig a week. or a pack a week. 

doctor: on a day to day basis how much do you smoke? typically, in one day?

patient: i don’t smoke.

me scribing this encounter:

[texanforevermd]

I'm entering my senior year of undergrad and have decided to take time off before applying to med school. I'm considering applying to be an ED medical scribe, so I was wondering, what was your experience like scribing? Thank you!

I really enjoyed my scribing experience in the ED! I am so glad I did it. I’m sure @ermedicine and @medschoolmanic can attest to how awesome it is as well. I am pretty sure I don’t want to do emergency medicine with my life after scribing but it still was a very valuable experience (for ermedicine and medschoolmanic, I think it made them both more interested in it!). For me, I learned that I want some continuity with the patients I see and don’t want to only see them once (and if you see a patient more than once in the emergency department it’s definitely not a good thing). 

I learned a ton of different things (that now later on make more sense in context). For instance, we saw somebody one time with Bell’s palsy (his left side of his face was drooping compared to his right) and I remember my doc telling me that it was due to a problem with his cranial nerve VII. I had no idea what any of the cranial nerves were (never took any neuro classes in college) but when I learned them in med school I remembered that patient. It’s easier to learn something if you’ve seen it before (even without a lot of context). 

I was exposed to a lot of medical terminology which has made it a bit easier in med school since some professors forget that students haven’t learned some of the terms yet and use them anyway. I got a good feel for how an ED operates and all the different team members that are involved. I got to see a ton of patients with my docs and learn a little bit about all the different workups. I am now decent at using an electronic medical record (where I scribed we used Epic). I never knew what was going to happen every time I got to work. It was very fast paced and it was a bit of adjustment to start (I always felt behind) but it was the best feeling once I got comfortable with what I needed to do. It also further cemented my goal to become a physician. 

I wrote a bit more about my experience here: http://texanmdtobe.tumblr.com/post/113391688459/what-i-have-learned-from-scribing-in-the-emergency

Also yay for gap year(s)!!! Best of luck to you and let me know if you have any more questions :) 

[theultimategoalworlddomination]

Concept: me, NOT HAVING TO GET UP AT THIS FUCKING HOUR I have a love/hate relationship with my job. It's mostly hate rn

[theultimategoalworlddomination]

It would probably be really good for you if, once in a while, you said, “What would I do in this situation?” And then did the exact fucking opposite.

My favorite attending, at 1:45 this morning.

[theultimategoalworlddomination]

Life’s too short. If you spend your entire life trying to prove to everyone else how smart you are, you’ll never win. Happiness is learned, just like medicine. You’ve shown you can learn medicine. Now learn happiness.

My favorite attending, at 1:30 this morning.