almost over

I only have one more shift in the Phelps County Regional Medical Center Emergency Department and in truth, I'm a little sad. It has only been two weeks and I have had such a great time working here. Surprisingly, the twelve-hour work days have gone with amazing speed and I have learned so much every day. Everyone has been a great help and I learned a great deal from every member of the staff. It truly has opened my eyes to areas of medicine I had long closed the door upon. My previous experiences had biased me so much and it is such a relief to have new experiences to balance old prejudices. To be specific, the surgeons here have been some of the best physicians and teachers I have met. The ED physicians and staff have given me such great opportunities to practice skills I would have had to learn in my third year. It has been an awesome trip and I will never forget it.

In a less serious note, I also learned a great deal about the paperwork part of medicine. As part of our two-week rotation, we had to complete several patient encounter forms. These forms were completed on the internet and we were to assign a diagnosis code based on the International Classification of Diagnosis (ICD-9) guidelines. So tonight, I was searching for the code designated for "pelvic inflammatory disease." The following screen came up:

Sweet. Handgun. Who knew?

After a bit of research, the 900 group is designated for "Accidents or Injuries." I still think it would have been pretty sweet to diagnose someone as "Handgun."