Rotation - IV

Emergency Room/Ambulance ride-out

The ER is an enjoyable clinical rotation because it is as close to real-time action as we are going to get during our first year. Arguably the Physician Assistant rotations are comparable, but the ER and ambulance gets the edge, in terms of real-time involvement and interaction, while the PA rotations are beneficial because of the practical knowledge gained, and its immediate use in the classroom.

I personally find the ambulance ride-outs to be more pleasant than the ER. Watching the EMT’s work is quite fascinating. In some ways it is similar to the work of an Athletic Trainer, in their abilities to process situations and the information being given to them, decision making, and communication with patients through question asking.

My time there was diversified with various events happening from kids playing with fireworks, heart attacks, to a double homicide, which I tearfully missed. The Monday I was there had already been a quiet day, and it just continued through the night, which according to the men and women there was a “good thing.” We began with a few transfers, where the ambulance provides complimentary rides back home for discharged patients. We traveled some distance to the outskirts of town and instead of heading back to central station (Nacogdoches Memorial); we stayed at the South Station Firehouse where I got the chance to hang with some firemen. They noticed my SFA Sports Medicine shirt and we talked about…yep, you guessed it, SFA Sports.

The following day, there was a new EMT who had just found out he passed his licensing/certification (?) which made him a full-EMT, if that is the correct term, so he was being congratulated and being given a hard time from the veterans of the group. After all the excitement and energy subdued, there was a call about a woman, who according to the EMT’s was a “regular,” experiencing severe chest pains and thought to be having a heart attack. As we approached the housing community where she lived, the ambulance stopped as we had to wait for the police escort into the facility. I thought that was interesting as someone could be dying at the moment, yet, our safety doesn’t trump hers, but is just as important. There may be other reasons as to why that is, which I talked with the EMT about later that evening, but I didn’t think too much into it. They basically gave me the explanation that since there are sometimes a lot of children around, especially with there being a middle school next door, they tend to cut the sirens and hopefully preventing a crowd from gathering, and the police helps with that effort. Gotcha! They later joked about the projects being not as scary as some other parts of East Texas. This is when one of the EMT’s proceeds to tell me about the small-town communities off the loop, where the locals don’t wear shoes, and have been known to walk around on all-fours. The EMT’s continued to say, “Now in those places, we definitely need the police escorts!” When we got back to the ER, the woman was treated for ulcers on her hands and problems unrelated to heart attack signs and symptoms.

The very next day was the much-heard double homicide involving four men in what seemed to be a bad drug deal. The EMT’s gave me all the details and were very distinct in their descriptions. I am unsure if I would have wanted to witness that, but the story was definitely intriguing as this one man was outnumbered and took on three other armed men. The EMT’s speculated whether the victim was a former soldier of some sorts, because the fashion in which he took out one of the other men, and because of the army-issued weapons and knives that were found at the scene. It must have been a wild sight.

Overall, this was a very fun rotation. I think the best way to sum it up is with the words of most of the EMTs, “you just really never know.” I think I learned more about people and interaction than practical and useful stuff directly related to Athletic Training.