Doctor: Day 1

I worked my first shift as a real doctor in the ED. It was a Saturday night...trial by fire kind of thing. My very first patient ended up getting admitted. HOW AMAZING MY FIRST PATIENT WAS ACTUALLY SICK!

My second patient didn't go so well. All through med school I heard stories about, "wait until your first night when shit's hitting the fan and the nurse is asking, 'what should we do doctor!' and you realize 'doctor' is you and that you don't know what to do." HA! I always know what to do.

Well, that is except for when it comes to sedating little crazy fat kids.

I hear this screaming, realize its coming from my patient's room (who is a crazy little fat kid) run in and see a scene from the exorcist. Five people trying to hold her down while she screams, curses and arches her body. I was waiting for her head to spin around and for her to projectile vomit (I was careful to stay out of the line of fire) but she never did. So the nurse is like, FUCKING GIVE HER SOMETHING as she takes a fat little elbow to the stomach! And I'm thinking, fuck I don't know the dosages for anything to sedate kids off the top of my head. I reach for my PDA and realize I left it in the Physician's Lounge.

Then, this big bald murse (murse = male nurse) comes up and is like, "Dude just give her one of Versed." I gambled on his age being an equivalence factor for experience and knowledge, decided it was at least double mine, and went along with it. I figured at the worst I would kill her respiratory drive. I decided that was a problem I could easily deal with and pulled the trigger. Later I regrouped and augmented my Versed with a little Ativan and Haldol, which were probably more appropriate due to their longer action.

So, on my first day, I had the "first day" experience that seemed too cliché to ever actually happen, but in retrospect, given my inexperience, now clearly could never have been avoided and was certain to befall me.