@everyone,
hello, I am scheduled for trauma rotation startin may 30th at cook county, freashclay and mordecai both of you have done your rotation; I have certain queries:
(1) what books are required for the rotation?
(2) what is the routine like? timings etc
mordecai, your rotation must be coming to an end..please share your experience! hope your having a nice time there
As far as books are concerned, you can actually get by without them, since the Cook County Unit follows their own trauma protocols which can be found on the Stroger Hospital intranet. However if you want to shine and actually have an understanding of what is happening to the patients you are seeing..
I would suggest the following:
1.ATLS student handbook
2."The ICU BOOK" by Paul Marino
3."Essential Emergency Trauma" by Shah, or "Emergent Management of Trauma" by Bokhari.
(Bokhari is one of the attendings at county and may soon become chair of trauma)
Students are expected to do 7 calls over the 4 week rotation. At least 2 of these must be on the weekend. Calls last in general around 24-30 hours during which you will stay in the unit. The call starts at 0800 with the handover from the previous team and is followed by a round of the resus, the obs room and the Trauma ICU. Then you wait for the hits to come in, until you hand over the next morning at 0800. Post call you are required to attend the round and any post round activity like lecture or meeting (which can be really hard as by then you will be very tired). You leave the hospital in general between 1200 and 1300.
Calls will end up being Q3 (every 3rd day) with one or two Q2s to pick up the required numbers for your 7 and your weekend 2.
On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays you will need to present your ICU patient. (Each student is expected to pick up an ICU patient either from resus when they come in OR as a handover from a leaving student). You are expected to follow your patient's treatment and report on those 3 days. This means coming in early on the days when you are not on call to round on your patient BEFORE the 8am meeting. Liaise with the primary resident and nurse in charge of the patient- this is essential.
There are weekly lectures, a fornightly journal club and mortality and morbidity meeting as well as presentations by pharmaceutical companies. There is a once monthly trauma/ER joint lecture as well.
Students are also required to spend 3 days in a row on the burn service.
Your job on call is firstly to ensure that the history and physical exam sheet is filled out and secondly to help with resus and treatment. How much you get to do depends on how sick the patient is, how friendly the resident is and how much effort and enthusiasm you have shown, and how much knowledge and ability you have. Expect to do some "scut work". You will get to suture lacerations, and help splint limbs. I've been here for close to 6 weeks now and have been able to help with 2 chest tubes, I've done CPR 4 times, I've been in "charge of the head", removed 2 superficial bullets, irrigated lots of bullet wounds, splinted a half dozen limbs with ortho, dressed a dozen burns, ... I am sure I am forgetting. And May will be much busier than March and April have been.
You get as much out of this rotation as you put in. And the more you put in the better your evaluation at the end.
Hope that helps.
Are you Australian?
M.