"Daily Themes"

It is strange how days at the hospital seem to develop themes to the sickness, or chief complaints, of the patients. I have been recently focusing my time working in minor care, where we see a mix of bumps, pulls, lacerations, fractures, and headaches. The "major stuff", such as MI's, seizures, etc., go to a different area of the department. Each area tends to develop its own theme for each day.

Yesterday for me it was..."Staple removal." At the start of the day, I had never used this fun tool. By the end of the day I was an expert at it. Five patients-and most interestingly, the first one I did on my own was to remove staples from a C-section. When you get thrown into something new, I just feign confidence so as to not scare away the patient. The last thing a patient needs to know is that this is the first time you have done something. Same thing goes for observing while a PA or NP or DR does his thing. It's all about confidence. For the patient, that is. I watch, then ask my questions outside the room. That's a lesson I learned in paramedic school-you don't lie to the patient when they ask, "Are you good at IV's?" and they are looking at you with the "eyes." You say something like, "Oh YES I am.... (while thinking in small print...well, yes, I was good on my practice partner in class...)" I then realize after successfully completing the new task (in my head) that it really wasn't as big a deal as I thought it would be.

Other recent daily themes:
boils/abcesses
lacerations
fractured left pinky finger (yes, really)
pediatric major cases
"everybody gets a lumbar puncture" day of bacterial meningitis