On my way home at about 8am after a night shift, this is the short and not so revealing photo album from my 4th year Emergency Medicine clerkship at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, WA
Assembling outside the Medic-One office for orientation. This entire group is interest in going into Emergency Medicine for residency...
The ER at Harborview is under construction and just finished some renovations
This collection area is termed “The Fishbowl” although I am not sure why, there is very little glass. It is usually full (this is half empty!) of every doctor, consultant, student, etc... It is the main area where charting and giving report is done. In the hall you can see the “Surgery” patients in red on the whiteboard. To the left you can't see the “Medicine” patients board. We list all the people here with their chief complaint and what is happening with their workup. (Old School!)
Ben and I are on this rotation together, although he started on days and I started nights. We overlap about 30 minutes on our 12-hour shifts.
This is the ambulance bay... It can accomidate about 8 ambulances at a time... all through one small door!
As the patients are removed from the backboards they are cleaned and stacked in rows for each different EMS department. As you can see, there are a lot of trauma patients that come through these doors!
Students and residents in the hall awaiting some new patients. We try to carry at least 2-4 patients per student during this clerkship at the same time. The lofty goal is to handle 5 at a time but I am afraid I have not hit that goal yet...
As I mentioned, sections or going through a renovation. This is “Zone Blue” and further back a “Zone Green” is opening up. Newer, nicer, more workspace but still not really thought out that well. A lot of fine tuning still needs to happen.
This is inside the Medic One room... a sort of emergency service control room. Police, Fire and Ambulance services all call into “medical control” here. Every day a resident is the “Medic One” doc and answers all calls that come in. At 6am though it is the location of the famous “Copass Rounds” where Dr. Copass, the man behind the myth, goes through all our charts for the previous 24 hours and gives comments, criticisms and advice. He takes it easy on the students usually but the residents are really in the hotseat. As you can see, the studdent to the left along with myself have been working for 12-14 hours at this point and we find it hard to stay awake sometimes....
Leaving one morning with the nearby buildings surrounded by fog... thought it was pretty after a night of chaos.
Chris Schwartzenberg with some lead on...
Ben Constance with some lead on!
Dave Baker, one of the best attendings in the fishbowl!
ACLS lectures at 8am
The major trauma resuscitation room with 4 curtained bays and beds setup with chest tubes, trauma blocks, peritoneal lavage kits, central line, code carts and ventilators.... Just waiting for some business to roll in the door.
Peritoneal lavage tray...
Chest tube tray
Code cart & ventilator
The pedi cart with Broslow tape at the top...
