Today was a pretty interesting day. I'm really lucky to have been attaced to the nurses at the cardiology day ward for the shift with a nurse day. Rather than actually shadowing just one nurse (or the nurse that the list that we were given had put me down for), I was shadowing practically the nurses working in the cath labs overall.

I had no idea that minor surgeries would be done that closely to a ward. Dunno why but somehow I thought that hospitals were separated into surgery, ward, outpatient and emergency. Each in one building. Though now that I put it out in front of me, I realised that I would have laughed out loud if anyone said that to me. *shrug* Pa-bo.

But I observed stuff that not many others of my class would have had a chance to see. I had fun helping out the nurses with some little chores. I saw angiograms being done. Some going onto angioplasty. I saw one pacemaker being put in (after the first few incisions and as the surgeon was digging in trying to open a space in the pectoral area, I stopped and realised I was hyperventilating - wonder how many people do that?? :S And it was hard trying to slow my breathing down simply because it was really gross seeing him pushing and tearing at live flesh like that... though I managed to think less of it afterwards.. until sewing up time lol). Before I left I saw an 'acute' come in. Most people came in for angiograms though. 95% of what I saw were angiograms probably. Not that it made much improvement in my skills at looking at the angiograms. How the surgeons and nurses accomplish the spot the lesion game so quickly is simply beyond me. I actually need someone to point it out to me. Unless it was seriously bad to the point it was almost occluded. Lame-o. Sad.

I'm pretty surprised at how quickly and efficiently the nurses work as well. And how diverse their roles are. And they work really well together too. They seem more like a little community themselves almost. It's how they rotate their shifts and do their handover and what not. Not to mention that they were more open and ready to help and teach than others in the surgery. They were very keen to explain things and it's surprising to me how much they know about pharmacology and anatomy and what not. It seemed pretty detailed. My knowledge about the arteries there start at L and R coronary arteries and end at LAD. Intricate details ... diagonal this artery and that... huh?

I got to wear scrubs too. Haha. Somehow it made me feel less an outsider with them on. Not to mention this odd sense of joy... like I was promoted somehow from being a lowly student to something of worth. Lol. And while in there I had to wear lead jackets and a thyroid collar as well. As one of the surgeons put it, for the sake of my future generation. *raised eyebrows* Perhaps I should have said I didn't want any and therefore cared not an iota for them and stood nearer to the xray machine, I would gotten an even better view of everything? :P The sterilisation would be the bonus kekekekeke. But they seriously weren't fun to wear for long. A while maybe. But with the jacket weighing at 6-8kg, my feet got pretty sore after some time. Not to mention my shoulders too. I'm amazed at the nurses and surgeons who have to wear them everyday. The short breaks in between the surgeries where everyone quickly took off the jackets were not really much of a help. To me at least.

Time to sleep. Hopefully the day with a doctor would prove just as interesting.