Ecuadorian ER - part 1
So I began working in the ER this week and I really enjoy it. It´s amazing how poor it is in the ER but the physicians are actually really good. It´s a large ER in a public hospital and serves as an ER for the poor in Quito. When you walk to the entrance it looks incredibly run down, with paint falling off the building in places and anywhere from 20 to 50 paitents just standing around outside the waiting room or in the waiting room to get in. To enter you have to get through a closed glass door that has a guard stationed by it on the inside. The guard has a bullet proof vest, a sidearm and he wraps a heavy duty chain around the inside door handles to keep it locked. So unless a patient is being seen they are literally locked out of the ER.
When you enter, it´s ridiculously dirty and shabby. Paint falls off the walls, syringes and old medical supplies just kind of little the floors and under patients beds. There are some patients just kinda of wandering around with an IV in place and holding onto an IV bag in one hand. The ER is divided into a number of medium sized rooms probably 10 yards by 5 yards in size. There will be anywhere from 1 to 5 patients in each room. Each patient is normall on a bed or stretcher of some sort with no sheet, pretty much nothing with them. Maybe one will have an IV in place. When you´re working patients just kinda get rolled into the room without notice. It might be someone with a broken leg or arm, someone who what shot in the neck or back, someone run over by a car... You don´t really know until you grab the piece of paper they are rolled in with and read it.
In a room of 5 patients there will be a resident and maybe a med student and thats it. The nurses sometimes take blood, but more often its the resident. The doctors take all the vitals themselves and pretty much do everything and they are actually quite good. I´ve been working a lot with one and he is very intelligent and a great teacher.
The rooms are barren, there are a couple sinks, a lightbox and some broken out windows along one wall and maybe a blood pressure cuff and one IV pole. There is no monitoring equipment save one heart monitor that literally is the oldest piece of medical equipment I have ever seen. It looks like it belongs in the TV show mash.
When you enter, it´s ridiculously dirty and shabby. Paint falls off the walls, syringes and old medical supplies just kind of little the floors and under patients beds. There are some patients just kinda of wandering around with an IV in place and holding onto an IV bag in one hand. The ER is divided into a number of medium sized rooms probably 10 yards by 5 yards in size. There will be anywhere from 1 to 5 patients in each room. Each patient is normall on a bed or stretcher of some sort with no sheet, pretty much nothing with them. Maybe one will have an IV in place. When you´re working patients just kinda get rolled into the room without notice. It might be someone with a broken leg or arm, someone who what shot in the neck or back, someone run over by a car... You don´t really know until you grab the piece of paper they are rolled in with and read it.
In a room of 5 patients there will be a resident and maybe a med student and thats it. The nurses sometimes take blood, but more often its the resident. The doctors take all the vitals themselves and pretty much do everything and they are actually quite good. I´ve been working a lot with one and he is very intelligent and a great teacher.
The rooms are barren, there are a couple sinks, a lightbox and some broken out windows along one wall and maybe a blood pressure cuff and one IV pole. There is no monitoring equipment save one heart monitor that literally is the oldest piece of medical equipment I have ever seen. It looks like it belongs in the TV show mash.
posted by Fried Guinea Pigs at 10:43 AM
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