In my final year of medicine, I was seriously considering Emergency Medicine as a career choice.
That was when I did my Emergency rotation at one of the foremost Emergency/Trauma Centre in Australia. It's the State Trauma Centre to begin with. There, even though I had not much opportunities to participate in trauma cases
Well, we were not allowed to be in the "cubicles" to begin with. We as in final year students and interns, 3rd years were off-limits. They even make lines outside the cubicles where we have to sit out of the lines. The constant presence of TV crews does not help our cause either. You know medico-legal stuff.
There, you see a lot of severe trauma, and you always have constant support of the high tech imaging, consultants, trauma surgical team who are always there 24/7, non stop.
Now, I'm finishing my Emergency rotation as part of my internship. Yes, it is indeed interesting but at the same time, it is taxing.
It is interesting when you see acute medical or surgical patient, work them up but the not so interesting part is that there is no continuity of care.
For example, I have once diagnosed a patient with bacterial menigitis who came with classic signs. We did all initial tests but then, I have no clue what happened to her eventually.
It is taxing because you feel that you're in perpetual "long cases" that never stop and sometimes, you can't stop wondering why certain patients came to.
For God's sake, don't ever come when you're constipated or drunk!
The other reality that when you work in rural area, you are not as privileged as your city counterparts in term of senior support, imaging and pathology. We don't have after-hour emergency consultants, imaging or pathology.
But hey, don't they say that which does not break you, makes you stronger. It may seem like a disadvantage but after a while, you will definitely learn a lot.
Now I can confidently say that I feel a lot more confident in making decision and synthesising my diagnosis.
I'm glad that I'll be to Frankston but I think I'd probably miss Warragul, most of all, the salary packaging bit! !
