Experiences in Washington, and Thoughts

Well folks, it's been a while since I've posted anything of substance. So here goes nothing!

I have a tendency to let my occupation define my existence - which may or may not be beneficial towards growing as a person. I've gained a lot from my foray into the medical field, and I feel as though this is the right path to be taking, at least for the time being. There are lots of interesting stories, patients, and occurrences to be had in an ER, as well as complete chaos. I work in a small (14-bed) emergency department. We keep track of which patients are in which rooms via little paper cards in slots on a wooden board. Some days, I am the only emergency room technician. Our EKG tech doesn't work nights, so I have to perform all stat EKGs in the hospital during night shift. We only have one physician in the department, and sometimes we get a midlevel (physician assistant or nurse practitioner) or two. All in all, it's a small and cozy environment. We get anywhere from 50-100 patients a day.

Like all ERs, we have our frequent fliers. Some of them, in a bid to get the narcotics they're looking for, will collaborate with a friend. One even called me today, posing as a private-practice psychiatrist calling ahead for his "patient".

"She's totally not going there to get drugs. I swear." was basically the gist of his conversation. I have to admit he was pretty smooth; must have run into questioning ERs before. I told the "psychiatrist" that the patient he was talking about had quite a lengthy history in the ER. A few hours later, he called again, this time pretending to be working at another ER.

In other news, I'm going to get some sleep now. I'll try to post a bit more often to this journal.