Let's continue with the next part. :)
This bingo is actually for my own memories, housemanship has its ups and downs, so, I treasure all experiences I had encountered when I was a houseman :) Maybe this post can be helpful for any new house officers trying to read around about housemanship - though there are lots of other people posting everywhere, hehe :)
10. Activate blue or / and red alert.
In the hospital I had practised as a houseman, blue alert means there are some emergencies going on in the hospital involving outpatients, family members or visitors.
Recently, there was a patient brought in to our ED after blue code activated. She was at the outpatient department, to be specific during the process on blood taking for her appointment date when suddenly develop fitting episode. With a known case of epilepsy, she was finally admitted for further management.
Others can be as family member who is taking care of patient in ward suddenly found unconscious. It is not that the ward cannot do anything to him... of course they will especially for basic life support. But the emergency team will be called to attend the patient and bring him to the ED for stabilization :)
While red alert can be found mostly in O&G department, involving pregnant women - eclampsia (sawan), post partum hemorrhage (pendarahan banyak lepas bersalin), should dystocia (bahu tersangkut masa bersalin), cord prolapse (umbilical cord di pintu rahim masa nak bersalin) - all of these cases are emergencies!
11. Send patient for xray by self.
This happened when I was in Orthopaedics. We were planning to get check x ray (means x ray that is done after operation) to see in formality if the operation is successful or not. The patient was put on some case (I can't recall the name) but it was a bit complicated to set it up. The radiographer need to remove the cast/sling first before shooting the x ray, but requested for Ortho team to be there to reset it back after the x ray.
12. Explanation letter.
Need to do this when in Ortho as well for some reason - actually I forgot details of this patient.
-_-'
13. Send specimens to lab by self.
It is a normal routine for housemen, despite we have PPK (pembantu perawatan kesihatan) but they could be doing other stuffs too, like sending patient for xray / to OT, taking food trays from kitchen etc. So, in daily life, sending specimens is our task too - especially in emergency cases in ward, like resuscitating patient.
14. Sleepless oncalls
To be honest, I don't fancy oncalls / night shifts. -_-' maybe that is one of the reasons I prefer myself to float in ED (other than I still can't decide which departments to go as I love all of them huhu). ED practices shift systems.
Oncall usually means, working for at least 24hours plus plus plus, for example going to work at 7am today and punched out at 1pm the next day. For some hospital, it can be up to 5pm the next day. I had no experiences with that shifts, as my previous oncall shift was different.
In O&G - 7am-5pm, go home to come back at 10pm and finish oncall at 1pm the next day - though we can be stucked in the ward / labor room between that 5pm-10pm.
In medical - 7am-12pm, break till 4pm, then continue working till 1pm the next day. The 4 hours break were totally UNPRACTICAL haha as the morning round will finish around 11am plus, and for sure it will be really hard to get all task lists done within 1 hour. Haha.... kalau bertangguh, tahan la telinga kena marah dengan family members sbb tak siapkan lagi surat-surat discharge semua. T_T
15. Meconium bath in LR
Meconium = najis pertama baby. Despite wearing plastic apron, our clothes / shoes can be soaked with the patients' meconium while we are helping the delivery. Meconium can be light / moderate / thick.
Stain in meconium means the baby already pooed inside the womb. This can be a problem later if the baby aspirate the meconium as it can pass through the lungs and cause the baby to have difficulty in breathing upon delivery. This is not a simple case - it can even lead to death!
16. Feed and took selfie with newborn in ward.
I really enjoy the feeding session in NICU (neonatal intensive care unit), you can see how eager some babies react to milk (be in expressed breast milk or formula milk). Usually if the babies need intensive care and monitoring, they will be admitted to NICU where they don't stay with mothers. So, the time for direct breast feeding will be limited and all mothers will be consented for formula milk.
Different situation in post-natal ward or special care nursery (SCN), where the babies can be still under pediatrics team's observation but they are stable enough to be left with mothers. :)
17. Belanja misi food.
Usually after end of posting :) Haha.
18. Mortality summary.
Haaaa, I don't like this one. First, it means our patient had passed away. Next, they need good documentation especially in cases that family members would like to have a formal medical report to claim with insurance company etc.
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Wow, suddenly I missed my housemanship. Haha, but like others, of course I don't want to repeat the phase again. Housemen leave home before sunrise, return long after sunset. Almost daily hehe.
Alhamdulillah. Thank you Allah for helping and guiding me through out the housemanship - with providing me good people around and experiences. :)
SM, Perak, Malaysia
200609
