Friday, May 30, 2008

TRACU

Thanks to the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), I have avoided blogging about my wonderful term of Legacy Emanuel's Trauma Acute Care and Recovery Unit (TRACU) these last few months.  I think I would have been too tempted to tell about the amazing patients and families that I have had the honor with which to work in details that might have compromised their right to privacy, so I will abstain from discussing my patient, but instead talk about the nurses.

TRACU nurses rock.  I worked with several nurses in the six weeks I was on the floor, and each one taught me something important.  I even had nurses who I never specifically had as a nurse mentor pull me in to either help with patient care or observe a neat procedure.  That's how I got to give my first intramuscular injection.  Not only are the nurses great, but the other disciplines are wonderful, including speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, wound care, transport, and the residents and physicians.  The way that the teams all came together to plan care for these patients reminded me of the real interdisciplinary teamwork I recall from hospice, instead of the loose collaboration of healthcare workers trying to just not get in each other's way that I have observed in other areas of healthcare.  I would love to work here after I graduate.

Ok, just a little about the kind of people who end up on the TRACU without a job application (i.e. the patients).  As far as I've observed, the majority of patients on this floor are one of two groups: elderly ground-level-falls and young men after motor-vehicle-accidents (often involving chemicals in the bloodstream, but sometimes that was the other driver).  I enjoyed working with both groups, plus some other patients with unique disease processes and complex wound care.

Things I was able to overcome while on the TRACU:
Horrid, gaping wounds - it's been hard for me to see the really nasty wounds, but after assisting changing a few, especially when it wasn't painful for the patient, I came to appreciate the art.
Sputum - before this term, I'd've traded my trach patient for your colonostomy patient in a heartbeat.  While I'm still readily available to help with colonostomy care, I came to appreciate sputum on the TRACU.  Especially when I can suction it out and give the patient some relief.
"Difficult patients" - although I know I will get frustrated again and again over demands on my time and the patient who always seems to take more time than the others for no real reason, I learned about the service/charity relationship first-hand.
My own timid nature in choosing patients - since we have the opportunity to choose our patients (which we will mostly lose once we're getting paid), I had developed a habit of choosing "not too complex" patients in previous terms.  This term, I specifically chose complex patients and learned so much more!

Oh, I can't summarize everything I learned, but I'm just so grateful that I was assigned to this floor instead of "post-op," like I had wanted!