| | alright whats been going on?
watched the doc excise a lesion from a patient's face, which i believe was pre-cancerous. the nurse let me help out, asked me to put on some sterile gloves, and here i am thinking.. what for? i usually just stand and watch. but this time i got to help dab the blood off, and trim the sutures. of course, not as exciting as doing the stitches myself, but i don't trust myself to suture someone's face up quite yet. perhaps on the arm or something would be ok, but i've got to practice some more.
i also saw a patient who i talked to for a good 45 mins or so, i wasn't bothered by it.. but the doc had a schedule to keep and he was waiting for me. i just didnt know what to do. i didn't want to be rude and the patient just had so much to say, i never found a good place to cut him off until the nurse came in and told me "the doctor needs to see you." oops. thankfully my doc is a really nice guy, didn't get on my case, but reminded me i need to try to focus the conversations. 15-20 mins per patient isn't a lot, but of course there are many other patients waiting to be seen.
and once again, i had a patient with all the risk factors for something serious, potentially fatal like a heart attack. this patient actually came in for aches and pains in her neck, back and extremities, but also had a history of intermittent chest pain and shortness of breath. she is also overweight, has a history of hypertension and elevated glucose levels, so it wasn't looking good. did an ECG, which actually looked ok at the moment. nonetheless, we are keeping a close watch on her heart.
it's weird to think.. if i had failed to ask her about chest pains and shortness of breath, she probably wouldn't have mentioned it. well boys and girls, it just goes to show how important it is to ask these questions, regardless of the patient's chief complaints. u can bet i'll be asking every patient about their heart and lungs.
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| | Posted 5/21/2008 12:40 AM - 2 views - 0 comments
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