The beginning of intern year

Yesterday marked the beginning of my intern year at Pennsylvania Hospital. I haven't done anything clinical really since September when I was in Botswana. I guess I took a radiology elective, but really, I didn't work too hard. I had to get up at 6am! I know, it's a tough life. I'm hoping to be able to blog about life as an intern throughout this year with some stories and insights into hospital life, but this being intern year, we'll see how much time I have for that.

For these first two days we have ACLS training. That is, Advanced Cardiac Life Support. We learn to run codes, which are when somebody suddenly dies, and you go through the appropriate steps to try to resuscitate them. Have you ever seen an emergency situation on a show like ER? And they yell out orders and give medications, and maybe eventually shock a patient with electric paddes? It's like that. Exactly.

It's actually pretty complicated. Depending what's wrong with the patient, you have to give different medications, treat them differently, order different labs. CONTRARY to what you do see on ER, you don't shock every patient and not every patient gets epi (epinephrine, also known as pure ol' adrenaline). And everything is happening pretty fast - the patient is getting bagged or intubated (getting a breathing tube shoved down their throat), they're getting put on the monitor, somebody is inserting an IV or two into the patient, someone else is drawing labs, someone is giving medications, someone is giving CPR and doing chest compressions, someone is monitoring their heart rate, blood pressure, and a few other things. Not to mention all the bystanders there either just looking on, or trying to be available to help. So there are probably 10-20 people crammed into this small room with the leader yelling out instructions, and sometimes it can be pretty difficult under pressure to remember all the things you have to do, and to communicate effectively with all the people.

That's what all the new interns got certified in today. This is certainly not an unknown issue, but it's a little scary to think of new interns practicing a medicine, much less running a code. I don't think we would be bad, but almost certainly slower. But interns have a huge learning curve. I think by the second week, people are usually up and running, and while the knowledge base is still building, interns can get things done pretty effectively.

I think I would feel relatively confident running a code. Maybe not perfect, but ok, and I'm sure that will improve. I think many of the interns were a little worried or scared about running a code. Thankfully, usually it is a senior resident (a 2nd or 3rd year resident) who runs a code. The interns usually just help out, and when they have enough experience, then they run the code. I know this is a horrible thing to say - I guess that's why I'm in medicine - but I'm a little excited to take part in my first code! Look at it like this - I don't want anybody to die, I just want to help bring someone back to life! :)