Trauma rotation

Last week I had one of the most interesting rotations so far. That, not surprisingly, was the trauma department. But it was interesting for some unexpected reasons. I learned all the differences between levels I, II, III, and IV. Hillcrest is a level II trauma department, which means we have a trauma surgeon and a neurosurgeon on-call 24/7. Most people associate trauma with the Emergency Department and they don’t realize that they are two separate departments. Yes, trauma patients come through the ER, but they are treated by the trauma team. But I digress… I got to shadow the director of the department for several hours, including morning rounds. This is a very interesting meeting where the whole team gets together and talks about each of the current patients, what their condition was when they came in, what their condition is now, the treatment plan, and the prognosis. Then I followed one of the nurses up to see a couple of her patients and talk with the families. Later on, the director talked to me about some more details about the department and everything they went through to get the level II designation. I also got to participate in a meeting for CLIP (commonly know as Lean Management everywhere else) where they were trying to improve the process of transporting patients from the ER to the OR (operating room). I can’t really go into more detail, but it was definitely fascinating and something I’d like to learn more about.