Maybe I could be a trauma surgeon?
I've been damn steadfast about this nursing thing... maybe I decided too fast. I've been warned away from medical school from several friends who have been there, done that... but there is a certain appeal to cutting people open and actually fighting death rather than prolonging it as EMS does (which is of course a noble goal).
I'm the type that finds beauty in the biscuspid, awe in the alveoli, and joy in the jejunum. Anatomy is my God and physiology is my religion. At the cadaver lab, I was right up there... the first one to get my hands dirty... as others stood motionless in the back with a look of shock or left the lab dry-heaving. I'd probably make a good surgeon. I think on my feet and absolutely flourish under pressure. I am detail-oriented and catch things that others don't.
I like the idea of trauma surgery because they so often operate on cardiothoracic and abdominal trauma, which are my FAVORITES. Oh my God, it sounds so weird but I freaking love cardiothoracic injuries. They fascinate me. I think I have scared off more than a few people because I started excitedly discussing stuff like commotio cordis and tension pneumothorax like most women talk about the "Sex and the City" movie or chocolate or shoes. Just the mechanisms and physiological undoings are so intriguing.
Disadvantages... well I'm not so much into the whole medicine philosophy as the nursing philosophy, but from what I've seen trauma surgeons become much more involved in the long-term care of patients than surgeons of other specialties do. They also seem to be more involved in the health care team, working side-by-side with nurses and techs and the likes. But still. Also, most trauma surgeons do general surgery as well, which is like... meh to me. I'd probably enjoy it but yeah, I'm a trauma junkie. I guess I wouldn't mind doing Little Susy's urgent appendectomy at midnight, but you know...
Big advantage: putting in chest tubes. I know, I'm a nerd. I just want to stick a tube in between someone's ribs so they can breathe. Really bad. This is a such a big deal to me that guys from the SAR team call me "Chubs", short for "chubby for chest tubes".
about me
- Lucid
- United States
- I'm an EMT/CNA that just got hired as an ICU tech. I have a bit of experience in the PACU, OB-GYN, and as an amusement park EMT. I just finished my prerequisites for nursing school but due to financial situation will be working full-time for a while before going to nursing school. I live in a little house in the ghetto with the love of my life and two rescued puppies.
5 comments:
I don't have an answer for you, obviously, but I can tell you how I made my choice to go to medical school instead of staying with EMS or nursing school.
I chose medical school because I never wanted to be in the position where I could have done more if I'd just had more training. I want to know the absolute maximum amount I can so that I can be the most possible help in any situation I find myself in.
Now, nine months from the end of medical school, I'm honestly not sure it was the right choice. There are days when I adore it and am hugely excited about the career I can picture within the next few years, and there are days when I feel like I'm growing further and further away from what I loved doing. Four years is a very long time to be watching from the sidelines, studying textbooks, sitting in ophthamology and or diabetes clinics, etc. as opposed to having my hands dirty in the field and caring for people like I got to do in my EMS days.
On the other hand, I'm leaving with the skills, experience, and the knowledge to pretty much design my dream career and a deeper understanding of why we do things the way we do them in EMS.
Best of luck with your decision, I'm looking forward to following your journey. And who knows, maybe I'll see you in the ER some day!
I have been struggling with the same decision for a few years now. Even when I wasn't in school it was in the back of my mind. My dad is a MD, my mom a NP, grandma a RN, grandpa a , etc. I love medicine.... but what do I want to do!?!
In the end, most of my trusted mentors, including my father and other doctors whom I respect greatly for their intelligence, mannerisms, and balance, told me the same thing. In the end it is all about the lifestyle. Pick the career that will put you where you want to be when you're 40, 50, etc and have a family. There's joy to be found in all of them...
Don't be mesmerized by techniques and procedures. Sure, putting in central lines and chest tubes and all that looks like fun, but protecting those appliances and knowing how to troubleshoot them when things go wrong requires just as detailed an understanding of the body. The first time you see someone rip out their chest-tube and you're reaching for the petroleum-impregnated dressing to prevent the lung from collapsing, you'll have just as much fun i'm sure!
As cool as the science of surgery is, personally I could never be happy doing that as a job. Standing in an operating theater all day, trying to push out as many patients as possible to keep the hospital knee-deep in knee-replacements...meh. It's more of an assembly line job, from what I've seen of it. An extremely artful, highly skilled assembly-line, but one none the less.
Nursing offers scalability and flexibility, something you won't find in medicine.
couple things from a nurse cum anesthesia-phile:
1. You're enthusiasm is very motivating and you articulate yourself better than most grad students, I love reading your blog!
2. There is ABSOLUTELY NO JOY in the jejunum, i swear. Do you know what comes out of that thing when it gets perf'd? Do you know what comes out of the surgeon when he/she accidentally does the perf-ing? same stuff.
3. Talk to Emily over at crzegrl.net, She's a nurse who puts in chest tubes thousands of feet in the air!
4. I've seen an NP bust open the wires on a coding post-op CABG and do manual cardiac massage right there at the bedside, it's not reserved for docs.
5. Have you put in an Endotracheal tube yet? Watching your little piece of PVC slide through the pearly gates that only you can see, and then quite literally, breathing the life back into somebody, is not only fun, but kinda sexy!
6. I've only heard trauma surgeons talk about 2 things: 1. reimbursement, and 2. how much they work. Neither of which comes across as gleeful.
I'd say stick with nursing, there's a billion ways to tickle your adrenals there. And on the more pragmatic side, WannabeMD talks about lifestyle...please reference my comment on your 4/10 post about wanting to be a nurse....'nuff said.
I would say stick with nursing. It seems like there is more to it, and there is more person to person contact with the patient outside of the operating room than there is with surgeons, which it seems like you'd be good at.
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