Notes from the Emergency Department

Things I have learned in my two weeks of Emergency Medicine:

1. Four hours' sleep is not enough between two 10 hour shifts
2. there is a cupboard with sterilized bolt cutters, wire cutters and a grinder. Pray you never need them.
3. "Hold my beer and watch this" episodes never end well.
4. Scalp lacerations bleed and bleed and bleed and bleed.....
5. People often decide that the niggling problem that has been bothering them for 6 weeks gets scarier at 2 a.m. at home. Either that or they are bored.
6. metal and eyeballs are NOT friends
7. If you feel that you are dying, that may not be your imagination. That's what ED's are for.
8. the ED is halfway to a mental unit on most nights. The other half is Coronary Care Unit.
9. Be nice to nurses. They pick your cannula and catheter sizes.
10. Waiting at Emergency is good. Waiting means you are not dying RIGHT NOW. 
11. ED staff at the Prince Charles Hospital are wonderful, dedicated people who are fun to work with, even if they have short attention spans.