Hospital Experience

Hi everyone,

It's Fei Fei again. I'd like to take a moment and explain the overall gist of the hospital internship, much like Singer did with the government one.

Dra. Marta is the one who is officially in charge of coordinating the Atlantis Project at the hospital. However, she has been out since we've been here, and she will not be back until May 30th. Instead, Dr. Claudio, a resident in internal medicine (but who really wants to become a surgeon) is the one who has helped us get organized and set up. He's amazing and has done so much for us.

Essentially, we each shadow a doctor, resident, or intern in a department for a few days. The ones that we have had to pick between so far are Cardiology, Pediatrics, Gastroenterology, Surgery, Internal Medicine, and Emergency. Schedules are variable and very flexible; we usually switch amongst ourselves every few days. For example, this week we have had 2 people in Gastroenterology, 2 people in Internal Medicine or Emergency, 2 people in Pediatrics or Cardiology, and 1 person in Surgery. We usually begin the day at 9 or 9:30. Sometimes the doctors finish all the procedures in their department by 11 AM or noon, and we have the afternoon off. Other times, like when we follow people in Surgery or Emergency, we are given the option to stay as late 8:30 PM. Usually, we're done by 2 or 4 PM.

Now I get to talk about my personal experiences so far. This has been my first experience shadowing in a hospital, so everything has been new for me.

I followed Dr. Claudio for 4 days: 2 days in the ER and 2 days in Internal Medicine. One of the days in the ER was more relaxed, and Dr. Claudio had more time to talk to each patient. We saw a great range of patients, from tonsillitis to an attempted suicide to coughing and trouble breathing. Dr. Claudio took the time to explain to us in English what was going on and why he was prescribing what he did, or ordering the tests that he did.

The second time I followed him in the ER, there were many more patients. Sometimes he would have 5 files in front of him at once, and he would be juggling 2 or 3 patients in different rooms. Therefore, he had less time to explain what was going on. It's interesting how doctors are held in such high esteem here that the patients were ok with him interrupting consults to talk to me, talk to other doctors, see other patients, or answer his phone. Yet I can still tell how much he cares about his patients and really wants to help them. Even so, sometimes he argues with patients and tells them to find a family doctor, especially when they come in with issues like "sore throat for 2 months" or similar non-emergency conditions. They have a big problem

In the Internal Medicine department, some days were more boring. Again, Dr. Claudio tried to explain things to me in English, but there were long periods of time where I would just be standing and listening to a conversation between doctors or between a doctor and a patient. It was still great seeing the interactions though, and seeing what doctors actually do in terms of paperwork and work as a team to decide how to treat their patients.

I also spent a day in Cardiology. Here, I witnessed a cardiac infarction and a death, for the first time in my life. That scene, with all the doctors and nurses rushing about doing CPR and injecting drugs and doing everything they could, is now burned into my mind. I felt helpless standing at the edge of the room, watching them putting in IVs, pumping on his chest, putting a line into his femoral artery... everybody was working together as a coordinated team, and I could do nothing. I have felt amazingly at-home in the hospital, and for the first time in my life, I have realized that I want to work in medicine, where I can interact with patients. I also want to have skills in the hospital. I do not want to stand there helpless again; even if I can't save people I want to have the training to do something.

Finally, I spent today in Gastroenterology and watched 5 endoscopies. We'll get to see a colonoscopy tomorrow, and a brachioscopy (is that the proper term in English? Sometimes we're told the Portuguese and we try to figure out the English). It's amazing that all of these are done under local anesthesia here, unless there's a special case with a particularly anxious patient or something. The nurses in this department are amazing at explaining things to the patients, joking with them, and generally making them feel comfortable for the procedure.

Boa noite!