Clerkship Day 7: Pedia ER

 Assalamu Alaykum! (Peace be upon you!)

Alhamdulillah, my first week as a clinical clerk is almost over (as of this writing hehe). And I am done with one-fourth of my first rotation: Pediatrics Emergency Room (Pedia ER).  As I may have mentioned in my revious post, Clerks are supposed to rotate for one month under Pediatrics which is subdivided further into 3 departments/services: Wards 9 or 11, Pedia ER and NICU (Neonatal ICU). My group was assigned under PER for our first week.

I honestly enjoyed rotating in PER for several reasons. First are the Pedia residents. They are all cool and fun to be with, they always have time to laugh around and be happy with simple things even with all those toxicities they have; they are always ready help and teach us students with essential knowledge and concepts in pedia especially on resuscitation. We even had a session of QnA while resuscitating a patient! Awesome! They are always approachable ad can understand us clerks who are most of the time failing to do our procs that well on our first week :P

Second on the list are our awesome interns! They say your toxicity on duty will also depend on whose team of interns you will be working with. Fortunately we were with an awesome team on their last week at Pedia. Even though most of them only knew our names during our first duty, they were always ready to lend a hand without making you feel bad asking for one. They are also willing to help and teach us improve our procs. Really, thank you awesome BLOCK _ (Chu, Jess, Alex, Shaima, and the rest ^_^), you guys really deserved to be mentioned!

Patients in Pedia ER are so small you have to be so extra delicate in taking care of them

It's here when I finally understood what these mean! haha

Bata = Pedia
Bata lang po ang sa Pedia, bawal mga 19 above

And yep! Was finally able to use my trodat under "DOCTOR'S SIGNATURE AND TRODAT"

We also attend lectures and conferences every morning to further enhance our knowledge and skills

Of course, my awesome group-mates are worthy of mention as well: Karl, Lorvin and Byen. We are not always on-duty on the same days but having a team that tells you what to do and what not to do, who keeps you on tab on what’s happening around to keep your life easier is just a-w-e-s-o-m-e! Certainly, the field Medicine was never meant to be a one-man profession: it’s a field of team work! And it could never be more fun without a team this cool and awesome! ^_^ I will be working with these 3 for another 3 weeks. Looking forward to it!

MOst important as well, our dear patients. Thank you! For allowing us to serve you and for letting us learn to be better physicians of tomorrow… From listening to your stories, to catching you having seizures, from receiving your angry looks and noisy cries as we try to console you and say “wag na umiyak, di kita tuturukan…” to those sweet, silent smiles when you are asleep (while we keep ourselves awake)…from having all those (annoying) tantrums and to those chuckles and saying “bye-bye” when you finally get well… Thank you! I am deeply sorry if I made a lot of mistakes, of those numerous fails on getting the line for the first time! I know you hated it whenever we need to extract more blood from for another laboratory test. IT is not that we wanted to hurt you over and over again. I tell you, we hate seeing you cry as much as you hate those needles! But we are all doing these for you, my dear little patents… I am sorry as well whenever I try pushing those OGTs even though I know how uncomfortable they are to you… I am sorry yet I am thankful as well for allowing me to do it and improve myself. Rest assured that we are doing these for you and the other children that will become our patients one day. Remember that we are here not for ourselves, but for us to somehow serve you and find ways to make you feel better and free you from all those ailments through Allah’s help of course. One blood extraction at a time :P

And yes, to all the parents who gave their full trusts to us doctors and doctors-to-be. You are our greatest partners in making your children become better each day. Sorry if we keep on asking you all to do this and that, if we make you buy these stuffs. Rest assured, these are things that your child really needs. Just, forgive us clerks for our shortcomings. Huhu.

And lastly, to Elizabeth. The 2 day-old baby girl who died right before my eyes… I am so sorry :( Allah knows how much we tried to revive you when you went into code. Still, we cannot save everyone, we weren’t able to save you. I know you are now in good hands, I know wherever you are right now, you are under the care of the Most Benevolent, Most Merciful. That place you are now is far better from this world that you were supposed to be. Hoping that I would see you again and finally witness you smile, ameen. (see full story on my next post, hopefully)

So much was learned on my first 6 days in Pedia ER. And I know there is indeed a lot more to learn. Looking forward to it :D

Next stop: NICU. Will be catching newborn babies starting next week! (Gotta review those important infos again :P

Salamduwaa!

Ahmad Hajiri,

Clinical Clerk II, UP-PGH