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hillarygayleI think I've figured out the balance between the two different emergency room settings, and because of that, I am happy that I get to work in both at different times.
Express Care is where triage levels 3 & lower go. These are people who need simple sutures, who have nausea, vomiting & abdominal pain but no vital sign changes, migraines, and other such stuff. People who come in complaining they've had leg pain since 1999. Seriously that happened to me. Main ER is obviously where all the more serious stuff goes. It's the thing you think of when you think of emergency.
I've decided the trade off is this: in the main ER, there's excitement and new things and adrenaline, but there's also uncertainty and self-doubt. I'm a "newbie" over there, and I ask a ton of questions. I'm learning all the things I realize my program didn't really prepare us for--mainly, the intial stabilization of a critically ill patient (we got much more experience managing critical patients when they were already inpatient and relatively stable). In EC, there's tedium and sometimes eye-rolling, but there's also comfort in the relative certainty that I know what I'm doing over there. I am far more confident in my diagnoses and ask fewer questions regarding workup and treatment.
So. Having sorted that out in my head, I'm quite happy that I get to work both places. There are major benefits to both.
Express Care is where triage levels 3 & lower go. These are people who need simple sutures, who have nausea, vomiting & abdominal pain but no vital sign changes, migraines, and other such stuff. People who come in complaining they've had leg pain since 1999. Seriously that happened to me. Main ER is obviously where all the more serious stuff goes. It's the thing you think of when you think of emergency.
I've decided the trade off is this: in the main ER, there's excitement and new things and adrenaline, but there's also uncertainty and self-doubt. I'm a "newbie" over there, and I ask a ton of questions. I'm learning all the things I realize my program didn't really prepare us for--mainly, the intial stabilization of a critically ill patient (we got much more experience managing critical patients when they were already inpatient and relatively stable). In EC, there's tedium and sometimes eye-rolling, but there's also comfort in the relative certainty that I know what I'm doing over there. I am far more confident in my diagnoses and ask fewer questions regarding workup and treatment.
So. Having sorted that out in my head, I'm quite happy that I get to work both places. There are major benefits to both.
