Part 1 – Life As A Peri Medical House Officer In Hospital Umum Sarawak | The Emergency Department
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Upon entering the Medical Posting, I was stationed into the “Peri-Medical Pool”. My “birthplace”, so-called.
Prior to entering the Medical Posting, many of my colleagues commented that the Peri-Medical pool is probably one of the worst place to enter considering that it is rather hectic, busy and messy, not to mention the joblist is never ending.
The working shift for a Medical House Officer is as such:
- Short Day (SD): 7am till 6pm
- Long Day (LD): 7am till 10pm
- Night Shift (ON): 8pm till 9am
The Emergency Department in Hospital Umum Sarawak is rather huge and consists of:
- Green Zone
- EDAU
- CSSD
- Yellow Zone
- Yellow Respi Zone
- Green Yellow Zone
- Red Zone I
- Res Zone II
- Decon
Usually a House Officer is allocated to take care of more than one zones.
For example:
- Green Zone / EDAY / CSSD
- Yellow Zone / Green Yellow Zone
- Red Zone I / Red Zone II / Yellow Respi Zone
When the amount of manpower is high, the job gets done quickly and keeping track of the patients is easier.
However, in days where we are stretched thin it is rather difficult.
The Day Shift
Photo by Laura James on
Pexels.com Since I entered the Peri Medical Pool on my Day 1 of tagging in the Medical Posting, my working hours were from 7am till 10pm every day till I offtagged.
I begin my day by first tracing the casenotes of the patients in the zone I am allocated to, snap pictures of the chest x-rays, any relevant radiological reports as well as to trace their bloods.
If bloods were not taken or not in the system, we would then proceed to “summon” the post-night team for help with their bloods.
After all the patients have been traced and the Google Lists have been updated (this is to aid us during our rounds as well as following up on their location later, to ensure that they are not being missed), then I would proceed with my morning reviews.
The morning reviews are just as usual as any morning ward reviews, rounds with the Medical Officer and Specialists and finally carrying out any active joblists.
Since we are in the emergency department, there is usually no afternoon reviews. It depends on the medical officer. Most of the time, rounds are just once daily.
After we are done with our morning joblists, we have to actively screen through the patients in our allocated zones as there is constant movement of the patients in both in and out of the emergency department.
Thus, this means assisting the current on-call team for the day with any STAT bloods or STAT radiological requests as well as updating their progress.
On most days, it is manageable despite the chaos. However, on days where we are lacking in manpower, the difficulty sets in.
The Night Shift
Photo by Photo By: Kaboompics.com on
Pexels.com The night shift begins at 8pm till 9am the following day or until we are done with our “summons”.
I was blessed enough to have gone through perimedical with a partner. Thus, there were two House Officers allocated for the night shift.
As night House Officers in Peri-Medical. We are expected to continue screening through all the casenotes for any new joblist or patients in all the zones in the Emergency Department as well as to assist in any procedures, take STAT bloods or request STAT radiological procedures.
In addition to that, we also have to cover the main building and the side building. This means, if there are any medical patients lodging in non-medical wards, we are in charge of them as well. Most of the time, it is just new transfer ins, sometimes, it is attending to any acute issues.
This is then followed by taking the “coming mornings” or bloods of the stranded patients in the Emergency Department of the lodging patients.
The amount of patients in the Medical Department is extremely high and thus, the medical patients can be stranded up to days in the Emergency Department which can even last till they are being discharged.
Thus, this ensures that the patients are being continued on their treatment irregardless of their location within the hospital.
The night shift as a perimedical house officer can get rather hectic if there are back-to-back influx of new patients in the Emergency Department, tons of coming mornings as well as acute issues in the ward.
In the morning, the “summoned” list can get rather extensive and chaotic as well and can be rather endless.
Hence, on top of the constant walking about the whole hospital, it can get rather tiring. But like I said, it is doable and manageable.
In fact, I enjoyed life as a perimedical house officer a lot.
If you are due to join Peri-Medical, fret not. Keep yourselves equipped with necessary forms and just work quick and as fast as you can.
On some days, one might get lost in the sea of chaos. However, stay strong and know that help is always within reach and that you are not alone.
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