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just curious what's it like.
anyone ever work in a VA (veteran affairs) hospital ED?
- Thread starter Painter1
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bump
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Interesting population. Some are really grateful for the care, others not so much. Lots of bread and butter medicine (heart failure, MI, DKA, NKHOC, COPD exacerbation leading to respiratory failure, pancreatitis), ridiculous amount of psych and CD, and of course malingering. However, depending on your location, not much OB, so I wouldn't imagine it correlates perfectly to general pop ED.
Although, attending seems to have it nice because hours are 8-5 M-F, and no weekends because moonlighting residents cover.
Although, attending seems to have it nice because hours are 8-5 M-F, and no weekends because moonlighting residents cover.
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I staff the Washington DC VA hospital.
The ED can be rather busy for the resources available. It is a 11 bed ED with additional hallway seats. There are generally one to two attendings and three nurses. Simple equipment can sometimes be difficult to find as we do not have standard splinting material such as plaster or fiberglass, advanced airway equipment such as fiberoptics, or even slit lamp / tonopens etc.
The patients are chronically very ill but very few are acutely ill. They are almost universally very appreciative of the care that we provide and that makes it a nice place to work. Admission can take be time consuming some time as the VA moves slowly and beds are limited.
The computer system is nice in that it is used across the country and easy to follow patient care from place to place, but it has problems in that it is time consuming. There are frequently many clicks to do simple things.
As for the hours worked, the clinics are only from 9-5 but the ED is 24/7. Ours is staffed by Emergency physicians most of the time with an occasional moonlighter shift.
I hope this helps.
TL
The ED can be rather busy for the resources available. It is a 11 bed ED with additional hallway seats. There are generally one to two attendings and three nurses. Simple equipment can sometimes be difficult to find as we do not have standard splinting material such as plaster or fiberglass, advanced airway equipment such as fiberoptics, or even slit lamp / tonopens etc.
The patients are chronically very ill but very few are acutely ill. They are almost universally very appreciative of the care that we provide and that makes it a nice place to work. Admission can take be time consuming some time as the VA moves slowly and beds are limited.
The computer system is nice in that it is used across the country and easy to follow patient care from place to place, but it has problems in that it is time consuming. There are frequently many clicks to do simple things.
As for the hours worked, the clinics are only from 9-5 but the ED is 24/7. Ours is staffed by Emergency physicians most of the time with an occasional moonlighter shift.
I hope this helps.
TL
