After my nice break in Taiwan in Feb, I came back to RPA to do my nights/relief/anesthetics term!
I did my relief and nights in the Coronary Care Unit. I personally think cardiology a stressful career choice. Ischemic heart disease is one of the biggest killers in developed countries. Patients seem to flood in so quickly everyday, and turnover is very fast. These ischemic heart disease patients are real time bombs, especially when they develop arrhythmias. Ventricular tachycardia patients are very scary as they can arrest any time. Fortunately, the nursing staffs at the CCU at RPA are very well trained and generally know what equipments/meds to prepare for these patients.
Anyway, on my first night an elderly lady in her 80s was unwell after angio. She ended up arresting in the CCU… it was very sudden. She just suddenly turned blue, went into SVT and cardiorespiratory arrest. This was the first time I was actually actively involved in the CPR: actually actively pumping the patient’s chest! It was a strange experience… and sadly, the lady died. She ended up being a coroner’s case because she’s had angio done only several hours prior to the arrest.
My time with anesthetics is extremely short this year. During my one week with anesthetics this year, I met very nice anesthetists who were pretty keen to teach. It was pretty enjoyable, but too short. I also got to see how stressful anesthetics can be in the emergency setting.
Quite recently, one of the cardiologists died of a heart attack in his 40s. He is a nice man and he doesn’t seem to have any cardiovascular risk factors…. Or maybe mental stress itself is a cardiovascular risk factor??
This term has led me to think even more deeply about my future career. It made me realize that I really do not want a career where we have to do nights very regularly as it is particularly damaging to my emotions – not being in sync with the natural day night cycle itself gives me a depressed mood. It also made me realize that I really do not like to encounter too many high-stress situations. However, I also realize that it can potentially be a great achievement if I can become an expert at the resuscitations, and a career in anesthetics can potentially help me achieve towards that as anesthetists manipulate with the airways and the medications all the time. Such an achievement involve having to go through intense training where we have to face quite a lot of high-stress situations… and I am still trying to decide whether I should embark on such a journey or not.
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