So working on Ortho nights has really opened my eyes. It kinda shocks me. It shouldn't but it does. I've always heard those horror stories about the ER docs. The ones where they call consults without having seen the patient or ignore them to let the consulting docs take care of them. I always knew that maybe those things happened in the "bad ERs" or when that one really dumb ER resident who was so lazy was on.
But being on this rotation showed me that that side does exist and it happens in my home ER. And it happens often. Consults that get made before resident has even looked at the patients. I saw it.
I saw a patient who had a broken leg, but the resident had not yet seen her. She had fallen weeks ago. She was scared and dirty, unbathed. She said her husband wouldn't let her come to ER, she had been dragging her leg around for weeks. She said after awhile it didn't hurt anymore. And we asked how she broke her leg, she thinks it broke before she fell. Her xrays show weak bones, necrotic and dying. And after hearing she had leg pain and seeing the xray, no doctors and no nurses went in the see the patient. She was waiting for HOURS before anyone saw her. And it needed way more than just an ortho consult. And the resident he was one of my upper levels, someone I had once respected-- he in no way apologized or admit he made a mistake instead he acted like it was a normal occurance. And indeed it was not all that uncommon. THis is just one of many stories like this that I have.
Situations like this make me understand how the consultants can not take us seriously. And also made me seriously question the quality of my program. I hate that feeling.
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