E
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My observation takes place in an Emergency Room in a rural county hospital. The ER is a thiry-by-forty room with white walls and a dusty rose counter. Beneath the counter there are several cabinets containinf instruments such as wire cutters, bone cutter, skin hooks, knife handles, and needle holders. There are also two bookcases containing various kits and trays such as IV trays, lab trays, cricothyrotomy kit, emergency delivery kit, pacemakers, and chest tubes. In the middle of the room there is gurney covered with a white sheet and a pillow. Surrounding the gurney are various machines such as IV infusion system, oxygen saturation and pulse rate monitor, vital signs monitor and a crash cart for people whoes heart has stopped.
All of these life-saving machines make many people nervous. And if given the oppurtunity, these people will fidget constantly, from running their hands through their hair to rapping their IV tubes around their fingers. Fidgeting is a helpful stress reliever for many patients. Fidgeting oftentimes helps take their mind off from why they are there in the first place. For example, one patient, holding an insurance card in his hand, constantly turned his card in his hand until he ripped it. Men's nervous stances often include folding their arms, then unfolding their arms, putting them in their pockets only to refold them again. Men when speaking to a female nurse, talk softly and even make a joke once in a while. But upon a male doctor entering the room, their voice deepens and sounds almost threatening.
Female patients often cross their legs when they're nervous, then uncross them only to repeat the sequence over and over again. Females tned to always be replacing something, for instance, a woman put her purse in her lap, then placed it beside her on the gurney, then moved the purse to the end of the gurney away from her only to place then purse in her lap again. She repeated this sequence nearly twenty times.
Fathers, when bringing a chold to the emergency room, tend to be overly concerned, telling anyone that will listen what they should be doing and how to take care of his child. Fathers tend to sympathize withtheir children by telling them about theor own scars and bruises.
If a mother brings a child to the emergency room, she is usually totally engrossed in the child, rarely, if ever leaving the child's side. Mothers tend to sympathize with their children by crying right along with them or nearly fainting.
Post delivery female patients can be very aggressive and hostile to the doctors and nurses, and are often overly protective of their offspring. One post delivery patient came to the ER witha fever after having a C-section. Naturally the doctor wanted to examine her. When she heard this, she became extremely hostile. During the examination she actually struck the doctor several times.
Children, for the most part, are difficult patients. In my thirteen hours on the ER, I saw only one child that didn't cry hysterically when she had to have her finger stitched up. Male children, from the age of four to six, tend not to cling to a parent, especially when a father figure is in the same room. But a male child does tend to cry louder and longer. A female does tend to cling to a parent, and when the parent is not in the same room, will cry hysterically.
My observation of the doctors and nurses is one of wae. Their years of schooling and work in hospitals have made them well trained, knowledgeable professionals. They have incredibly difficult job, that are both mentally and physically draining. A long sleepless night awaits most of the nurses and doctors, but they rarely complain. Many people come to the ER battered, beaten, and dying. The doctors and nurses in the ER have the incredible task of deciding who lives and who dies. This daunting task would drive most people insane. Loving their work hour by lonely hour, they tirelessly try yo help whose who cannot help themselves. Unlike most peopl, they have a very important skill: the skill to save lives.
Frankly, I would trust them with my life.