A Real-y 'un-Real' Experience

The immunology exam is tomorrow. It makes me want to cry. Very much. Right now I’m banking on the fact that it’s pass/fail. Sigh…

On the more exciting side of things, we un-quarantined ourselves again today! Why at the 11^th hour did I decide to go out? You see, a couple weeks ago, we were given the opportunity to sign up for these ‘patient simulation’ experiences. Basically, it was a chance for us to practice our “clinical-decision making skills” on a robot – or SimMan as he is called.

I was scheduled to go into the robotics department at the hospital at 8:15 in the morning with three other people in my class. So I went up to this really swanky, modern office to sign in (clearly there’s some bucks going into this area). One of my group members was just behind me, so we went up together to the next floor where the simulation was to occur. Right away, it was very strange. Lots of computers, lots of medical equipment…essentially lots of expensive looking stuff with buttons that made me afraid to touch them for fear of breaking something. Stuff & computers don’t exactly mix. Anyhow, one of the admin people came to talk to us about the ‘case’ we were being given, as well as the introduction to SimMan. After watching a video, we were told we were going to be dealing with a trauma case, and were handed trauma/isolation gowns and gloves (ooo, how Grey’s Anatomy – I felt very Christina Yang-ish). Gloves! I didn’t know it would be that realistic. Then we were led to the ‘simulation’ area where the ‘patient’ was lying. Our facilitator, who was a doctor in real-life, was acting as nurse in this case. So first impressions? Extreme confusion. I had no idea what to do. And yea it was pretty dang realistic. Blood? Check. Patient talking? Check. Breath sounds, pulse? Check, check.

The ‘nurse’ right away asks us what we want to do. Uh….I gots no idea man! Luckily, some people in the group asked for IV lines, some EKG leads. And we were underway.

Throughout the experience, I had this weird urge to laugh. It was pretty realistic but at the same time, kinda artificial. I think this really was because I was completely LOST, and if this was truly real-life, we’d have killed the guy 5 minutes in. For example, the ‘patient’ was bleeding, and really tachycardic (fast, fast heart rate). When prompted how to deal with this, one guy answered – “um atropine.” Atropine? Guys, atropine actually has the exact opposite effect. We tried it out. The ‘patient’s’ heart began to beat faster and his blood pressure went down even more. So, atropine not such a good thing in this case. Another thing? I have no idea how to give meds. The ‘nurse’ got this syringe for morphine and told me to ‘administer’ it. I thought, yea, I can do this. So I happily started pushing down on the needle, giving the patient the FULL dose. Again, not the best idea. Basically, the whole thing was a lot of trial and error. And lots and lots of time outs.

But we weren’t complete dolts. When we were giving the blood transfusion, I noticed that two of the units had different names and ID numbers than our patient’s. Ah-ha! Can’t fool Stuff! Caught it in time so that we didn’t give SimMan a major haemolytic reaction. Hehehe…no, no. Truffles, wouldn’t Dr. RBC-transfusion be proud?

In the end we didn’t kill the patient. We actually managed to save him, I think. I thought it was a cool experience. I’ve never ever done anything like that, so it was sort of good to have done this before we actually try it out on a real-live person. A lot safer for the patient too I guess (uh, atropine?). It was sort of like throwing us to the sharks, considering I had NO IDEA what to do 99.999% of the time, but it’s part of the learning curve. I only wish it was longer…and not right smack in the middle of exam time. Anyhow, wish us luck for tomorrow! The bacteria are calling out to me.