After what happened last time I said I'd try to stop going to the hospital at night. I said I'd stop, but there are only so many hours in the day, only so many days left in the semester to get it done, and only specific times the doctor would be on for me to shadow. I went anyway and I'm almost done. 1 more shift and 5 more hours should do it and conclude a great experience.
In these past few days I've seen so many laceration injuries and suture procedures, I can't even recount to you now exactly how many I've witnessed. Fingers, faces, thumbs, arms, legs, and ankles. As tough as the human body is (and the human skin in particular), sometimes it needs a little help.
While the lacerations were interesting, there was something else that's been standing out to me over these past few days...
"I want to help people." you say to yourself and to others as you announce your interest in medicine.
But what do you do when the person in front of you is a homeless person, on crack cocaine, who has Hepititis B, who's teeth are falling out of his mouth, had early stages of Pnemonia, and has come to the emergency room because he's been feeling an intense pain all over his chest area for the past 3 days. If there's one frustration with the doctors and nurses in the ER, it's knowing that some people return time and time again despite what they do for them that night.
Now this man clearly was in pain. But beyond some pain medication that the doctor agreed to administer to him in the ER and beyond some antibiotics for the Pnemonia, I'd say the most important thing the doctor could have done for him that night is to give him a swift kick in the butt (verbally).
Sometimes people need a kick in the butt. (Including myself.)
The way he was living, the fact that he was in the emergency room at 3:00am, the fact that he had no idea which type of Hepititis he had, all added up to one thing: He was killing himself and could potentially kill others. This was made very clear and made clear repeatedly. The doctor was being a bit of a jerk and he was doing it on purpose. This might seem over dramatic at first glance, but I don't think that you have to dig deep at all to see that it was absolutely true. It was time for some changes in his life that goes way beyond the moment he walks out of the emergency room doors.
If a patient (homeless or not) doesn't improve their situation outside of the hospital doors, they're just going to end up there again and again and again.
And if you don't take it upon yourself, as a medical doctor, to give people swift kicks in the butt from time to time, are you really doing any good?
