The Emergency Room

“Code Blue, ER. Code Blue, ER”. I can still hear that calm, unalarmed voice over the intercom. Seconds later, John Doe, a 50-year-old male, is rushed in through the double doors of the Emergency Room with an EMT pounding on his lifeless chest. Although the medical staff had been preparing for some time, it still appeared like a scramble to resuscitate this man’s life. It was my first shift as a medical scribe; I had no idea what to expect. While paramedics shouted the jargon-filled report, the surrounding chaos was quieted by the physician who maintained the room's composure. The instant the pulse was obtained, I was overcome with a foreign feeling that can only be described as pure exhilaration as if the epinephrine injected into the patient manifested its effects on me.

The documentary The Waiting Room presents a safety-net hospital located in Oakland, California. In the film, director Peter Nix follows patients, doctors, and staff throughout a typical day. Furthermore, the film displays how the staff is overworked, causing an impact regarding how the American health care system is affecting millions of uninsured patients who try to cope with injury and disease. The film utilizes techniques from the observational mode such as long takes, crisis structure, and documenting unplanned everyday experiences to convey the cruel realities of Americans seeking hope and treatment.

A visit to the emergency department (ED) is usually associated with negative thoughts by most people. It creates preconceived images of overcrowded waiting rooms and routine long waits for treatment (Jarousse, 2011). From 1996 to 2006, ED visits increased annually from 90.3 million to 119.2 million (32% increase). During this same time period, the number of EDs has declined by 186 facilities creating the age old lower supply and greater demand concept (Crane & Noon, 2011). There are many contributing factors that have led to an increase in ED visits. A few of these key drivers include lack of primary care access, rising of the uninsured population, dwindling mental health services, and the growing elderly

Prominently featured in the mission statements of virtually of every medical school and medical institution in the world is the call for empathetic doctors. These institutions wish to train medical professionals that possess qualities of sympathy and compassion, and hospitals wish to employ health professionals that showcase similar qualities. The reality, however, is starkly different, as physicians, jaded by what they have seen in the medical world, lose the qualities that drove them to medicine in the first place. In Frank Huyler’s “The Blood of Strangers,” a collection of short stories from his time as a physician in the emergency room, Huyler uses the literary techniques of irony and imagery to depict the reality of the world of a medical professional. While Huyler provides several examples of both techniques in his accounts, moments from “A Difference of Opinion” and “The Secret” in particular stand out. Huyler uses irony and imagery in these two pieces to describe how medical professionals have lost their sense of compassion and empathy due to being jaded and desensitized by the awful incidents they have witnessed during their careers.

Mrs. Smith signs in the emergency room with chest pain. Several nurses rush to get her vitals, blood samples to send to the lab, and obtain an EKG. While performing an assessment on Mrs. Smith, the nurse inquires about the amount of time she has been feeling this way. Mrs. Smith replies " My sister passed away 2 weeks ago and I have been having this chest pain ever since". After the physician reviews over all of Mrs. Smith 's lab and radiology test results, he informs her that she is not having chest pain from a heart attack, it is simply the result of untreated anxiety.

With so many cases of unfilled position in the hospital patients is not obtaining great services. Patient not receiving proper cares leads to closures, because of prolonged postponements that have led to deaths. Patient complaints at the emergency room have increased in recent years. Numerous patients that were admitted to the hospital’s emergency room are at high risk of dying. Six percent of emergency rooms in the U.S. have closed. These closings took place in the inner-city and low-income areas, but with an emergency room visit increasing by nearly 51%, the overwhelming amount of closures.

Melvin Konner, in “Basic Clinical Skills”, uses a first person point of view along with some bits of humor in order to establish a more relatable narrator. He discusses several topics such as the relationship between doctors and their patients, the healthcare given in hospitals, and the role that the physician plays in different contexts of life.

I learned so much from this experience. The importance of insurance when admitting patients to the hospital, is key to all facets of health care delivery. In addition, the humanistic aspect of working in the medical field was a constant lesson. Speaking to a mother whose children were killed in a car accident was one of the hardest things I had to do. As I asked her for her children’s names and birthdays, all I could think about was that this mother would never get to hold them again. During my time working in the emergency room, I observed the composure of physicians in tough situations and have taken on that attitude when I face those same challenges. I have observed the formation of relationships, which are founded on confidence and trust. Creating and maintaining long-lasting relationships is something that I appreciate about my own doctor and mentor of ten years. I aspire to do the same when I become a

In the movie The Doctor they showed positive professional and negative behaviors. Some of the positive professional things are that Dr. Mackee told his interns to not call someone terminal if they aren’t dying or are already dead. Dr. Mackee talks differently to his patients now that he knows that he has cancer. Dr. Mackee became friends with another cancer patient named June Ellis. Dr. Mackee helps a patient that had a stroke and that has a lisp caused by having the secure and that patient is suing his practice because he blames them for him having the secure but Dr. Mackee sees that he needs help so he goes and tells him that he will have someone come and get Mr. Richards keys out of his car and that Dr. Mackee will have them left at the front desk. Nurse Nancy finally sang when Dr. Mackee went in for his surgery to remove his tumor. Dr. Mackee finally spoke after his surgery and told his wife that he loves her and then they were happy because they didn’t know if he would be able to speak again after having the surgery because the tumor was located in his voice box and they risked losing his vocal cords.

In the movies the only hospitals that were like this were the- the- . Mental institutions. And they only took they crazy people there, so I immediately started looking for an escape route. I couldn’t stay here, I didn’t belong here, I’m not crazy. In fact I even got an A on one of my test at Pency Prep. If I were crazy I wouldn’t- “Calm down Mr. Caulfield, your heart rate is quite high” I looked over to see this typical doctor, he had bald hair, thick rimmed circle eyeglasses, and a suit shirt and tie under his long white lab coat. “ There were two other nurses in the room, one of them was tall skinny and really resembled someone off of a movie. The other nurse was short and plump, and had on too much makeup, she reminded me of a blueberry. “why am I here, where am

During the year I have spent in the emergency department of Broward Health Medical Center, I have observed amazing cases and witnessed the dynamic qualities of a physician, such as being a critical thinker, showing compassion and expressing empathy. A competent physician must simultaneously function as a confident teacher and humble student to do well in the constantly evolving field of medicine. As I observed the bedside manner of the emergency department physicians, they were always concerned for the patient 's best interest and often went the “the extra mile” for their patients. I admired their dedication and will strive to treat my patients with a similar level of respect and compassion in my future practice.

I stepped behind the front desk of Spirit Medical Center’s emergency room to begin the night shift of April 23, 2002. Half of the rooms were already filled and my coworkers busied themselves moving throughout the sterile halls. If it weren’t for my pager calling me and two other nurses to take on a patient that would be arriving shortly in an ambulance, I would have been a part of the rush. Meanwhile, I observed the friends and families that occupied the uncomfortable wooden chairs in the waiting room. The majority of them wore a somber expression on their faces, but there were the few that had tears streaming down their cheeks uncontrollably as they took advantage of the conveniently located tissue boxes. My observations were soon distracted by the sound of approaching sirens.

We get to witness the real struggle of multiple different patients, all with different levels of severity for their visit. The first patient that stood out was a father who lost his job the previous year and didn't have any health insurance for him or his kids. He had to take his very ill daughter to the public ER , and because she was on the lower side of severity, they had to wait for hours just to get seen by a doctor. This story stood out to me because of the time a ill child had to wait just to get any treatment at all.

Millions of individuals worldwide are admitted to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) yearly after a traumatic, life threatening event. Family members keep a vigilant watch over their loved ones during their most vulnerable periods such as being restrained, sedated, and mechanically ventilated, resulting in anxiety for the family during the critical times of hospitalization and for the patient after discharge because they have no recollection of what occurred during these stressful moments. The majority of the patients admitted to the ICU are very appreciative of the medical staff for assisting them in their journey through the unpredictable days

The room was swarming. My heart raced as I watched. I had lost track of myself until the orders of a nurse brought me back. “Jack, grab the crash cart!” she exclaimed while performing compressions. I sprinted to the nurse’s station, grabbed the crash cart, and sprinted back. I retook my position and continued to watch. The patient regained her pulse only to lose it again minutes later. After an additional fifteen minutes of compressions she was back. Relief flooded my body. At the time I didn’t feel anything other than futility, the adrenaline seemed to have numbed most of my thoughts. Later that night I kept replaying the entire scene in my head. I could vividly remember the family crying outside, the efficiency with which the physicians worked, and a strong feeling of helplessness I felt at the time, wanting to help, but being unable to do so was infuriating. I could not stop thinking about. About a week later I came to the conclusion that what I had witnessed was something beautiful. Everyone in that room was dedicated to saving this person’s life. This was their job, and it was nothing short of heroism. Even more heartening was the humanity of it all. Witnessing those physicians, having dedicated their lives to be there at that moment to save this person’s life was truly inspiring.