A Blog Prop: ER Jedi

So, I thought that you must read this blog. I enjoy reading his fluid writing and I guess you would too.

His latest post set me thinking about how little the interns and medical students actually get to do in terms of real patient based procedures in the US of A. I have rarely learnt anything on a mannequin, and most of my procedural training has been, so to say, in the field.

Reading this post reminded me of the fact that there is more to procedures than just doing it. There is doing it right and we often do not get that when we are first starting out. I am pretty sure I am better at intubating or placing an NG tube than someone who has done it a handful times, that too on training mannequins who do not go into cardiac arrests and vasovagal shock and die ACTUALLY (I know alarms and shit, but that ain’t comparable to a real guy dying for real!). But the question is am I more likely to make this happen than him?

Nasogstric tube has been placed intra-cerebrally , and I guess the patient is not too happy about that. Cribriform plate fractures are a real risk for this kind of nightmare to come true. Thankfully, this has not actually happened to me, although I have seen a patient go into vasovagal arrest in course of an NG intubation that I was assisting.

What do my Indian readers (if there are any, that is), have to say?