Thursday, September 18, 2008

Fine Motor Skills

I enjoyed myself immensely tonight at work.

Partly because it started off with a code. Yay! A real emergency!

Not just the usual "abdo-pain-NYD-and-bed-4-is-waiting-for-second-trop-then-they-can-go-give-this-guy-a-tetanus-shot-and-a-migraine-in-bed-5" start.

Then one of my favorite docs let me suture a stabbing victim's wounds up.

Double yay!

This is a unique opportunity for me because when I am suturing in the North there is no one around to look at my technique or results to give me feedback and suggestions. It's great to have someone else watch and tell me what I am doing right or wrong so the next time I am in the middle of nowhere Northern community suturing someone up at 2 am I'll feel slightly more confident.

The best part was the fact that the feedback was "You did a perfect job. Don't be so worried about your work, you're obviously a perfectionist. Very well done."

Woot!

One of the other nurses said, "I suppose you don't wake the doctor up for sutures when you're up North hey?"

"Uhh...there are usually no doctors in the places I work...sometimes the nearest doctor is 4h away by plane..."

"Oh! Really?"

"Yeah."

I guess when I say that I work in 'remote' places sometimes the logistics aren't totally conveyed.

3 comments:

Benjamin said...

That's awesome, both your suturing AND when you're up north being 4 hrs away from a doc! I would need a constant supply of ativan to do that.

How long until you hear back about MCAT stuff?

Albinoblackbear said...

B--Thanks! But I have to be honest, most days up North are as mundane clinically as anywhere else: sore throats, back pains, coughs, ear aches...but there are some sphincter tightening moments from time to time.

I've been thinking about maybe going back to school for my ALS if I don't get into med. Was chatting with one of the paramedics at work who is currently doing it and he says there are a couple of RN's in his class. Something to think about anyway...

Wellll...my grades will be posted when I am somewhere between Vancouver and Singapore :( Which means I will be releasing my grades to the schools from some sketchy internet cafe in Delhi...all part of the adventure I suppose! :)

Rogue Medic said...

Congratulations on the suturing and the interesting work.