MY FIRST DAY AT WORK!
By Chidiebele Samuel
I cannot hide my excitement! This is my first day at work as a doctor and I am to start my rotation in surgery department. As a house officer, I am the most junior doctor in the profession and meant to work under supervision for a period of one year. I set out to meet the chief resident of surgery to get assigned to a unit. “You are going to be in my unit”; the Chief resident told me when I introduced myself “We have a call from emergency room to attend to some accident victims”, he said “I am on my way to the place. Please, join me”.
“…but sir”; I said slowly, stammering in the process, “I am just resuming today, sir. I don’t know anything, yet. I think I need an orientation”.
“Yes, you deserve to have one, my dear .Unfortunately, we can’t have one today. Your formal orientation is scheduled for the end of the week when a significant number of new doctors would have resumed. For now, you just have to learn on the job”, he replied.
With that, he proceeded towards the emergency room and I followed him.
At 10pm, I was still on my feet. I haven’t sat down since I came into the hospital around 7am toady. I have helped with resuscitation of the accident victims, helped set drip for them and collected samples for investigations. I have also helped secure the blood units that were transfused to those patients in addition to making sure that essential materials for their surgeries were ready and available for their surgeries.
My team has operated on 6 of the patients already, currently working on the last victim. Hopefully all the patients will make it. I just secured two more units of blood for the patient in surgery and about to take it to theatre for transfusion to the last patient.
It is 1.30am and the surgery just concluded. He is being sent to ICU to improve his chance of survival through this critical period. He is also expected to make it with the right support.
“Finally, My first real opportunity to rest”, I said to myself. I sat down in the surgeons’ common room in the theatre hoping to get some of my strength back after a very exhausting day. Or so I thought. Didn’t even know when I dosed off
I could feel a hand nudging me back to consciousness. I opened my eyes to see, Dr Samiu , my Chief resident gazing down at me. “We have another call from the emergency room. Please, make haste lets go over to the place”.
I looked at my watch, it was 2.10am. “I have been asleep for about 15 minutes” I thought to myself. I immediately stood up and started walking with him towards the emergency room.
“Congratulations on your first day as a doctor”, he told me as he patted me on my shoulder. “You did a superb work. I know you are tired but we need to continue going. That’s the spirit of being a doctor. We always make efforts to give our patients the best possible care. This job does not pay half as much as the stress involved”
“…in the end, what you hold onto is what impact you have had on lives of your patients. This is why we are doctors-To save lives at whatever cost to your well being”.
“Just think of the 7 patients you have given a chance of survival today. Those are the kind of things that keep us going”.
“Thank you, sir”: I replied.
As we moved to Emergency Room, I thought about what I just heard from the chief resident.
“He is right, you know”: I thought to myself. “I have contributed directly to the potential survival of 7 people today. These are peoples’ husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons, daughters etc.” A gradual wave of good feeling and internal excitement ran through me. “This is really a good way to see the job.” I said to myself.
“I think I will like the job,sir ”; I said to him as we walked into the emergency room.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental
©2018
This is dedicated to our very hardworking House officers who are the engine that ensures efficiency of our clinical care in tertiary hospitals. Without them, our tertiary hospitals will just “be buildings with big names,” only. You guys are truly phenomenal.
