Yesterday was an experience, to say the least, at the ER. I was hanging out in our highest acuity area, all the staff were kind of joking around and there wasn't much going on, then BAM, we just got slammed, all within probably half an hour.

First we already had a patient on palliative care, which means we're making them comfortable as they die. We had an ambulance come in with a very obese patient, which caused everyone to have to pull together and brainstorm how they were going to treat him. Then we had a drunk driving motor vehicle accident, but thankfully only one person was involved (this was at 3 pm too). The driver, however, was belligerent, uncooperative and so disruptful that she had to have restraints and be filled with medications to calm her down.

Then we had a patient code on us (code means someone is going into cardiac or respiratory arrest). I literally was in there talking with them five minutes earlier, had gone to talk to the secretary, when their friend came and said that the patient was having problems breathing and was anxious. I went and found the nurse, and next thing I know, one, two nurses; one, then two doctors were in the room, and then they immediately began to transfer her to one of her trauma rooms. She wasn't even stable when they had to bring her for a CT scan, but one of the nurses grabbed me to help and I was able to watch that whole process. The CT tech was shaking his head and saying something's not right, looking at all the images, but I wasn't around when the final diagnosis was made by the doc. Unbelievable how fast that turnaround was.

Now right in the middle of all this happening, we had a patient come in near death from hypoglycemia, and when I was leaving, they had a younger head trauma patient coming in. I honestly could have stayed all night and be busy if I didn't have other plans. I am so impressed though with how well everyone worked together and stayed calm, how well the charge nurse (who is in charge of assigning patients to rooms) handled everything, how well they were able to problem solve, etc. I have so much to learn, as most of what they were doing was right over my head.

But when they say "death isn't pretty," they're right...death is ugly. The three patients we had knocking on death's door looked horrible and almost non-human like, the most poignant being the transformation of the patient I was taking care of who ended up coding. Wow.

So overall, a very bizarre and long day. My head is still a little in a daze about it.