Doctors in rural
ER's have a tremendously challenging job and I have the utmost respect for them. They often work twenty four or more hours at a time and are asked to see a lot of runny noses intermixed with horrific traumas from motor vehicle accidents or farming/logging injuries. In between there is boredom. It is a lonely job that of being an rural ER physician.
Yesterday I had to run down to our local critical access hospital to see a patient admitted the night before. I intended it to be a quick trip as I had a patient in labor at another hospital some thirty miles away. To my chagrin, my in and out visit turned into an hour long stay not because the patient had much to say, but the ER doctor kept on yapping.
He had the duty all weekend and for conversation he only had a nurse, desk clerk, a
CNA , the patients, and now me. As I had experienced this before with other rural ER physicians I've found that it's usually best to let them get it all out as their desperation for human contact is extreme. He told me about the new
EHR the ER was using and the stew that he made for the weekend (and offered me a bowl at 7am). He had researched the cost of generic
ondansetron (
Zofran )
ODT at the local pharmacies. He also seemed very interested in determining how close our houses were to each other.
As another patient came in to be seen I quickly finished up my business and left; and that is why I let him chat so incessantly. I could leave. He would be there for another twelve hours in his relative isolation. His job was far more difficult than mine.
The Country Doctor
Yesterday I had to run down to our local critical access hospital to see a patient admitted the night before. I intended it to be a quick trip as I had a patient in labor at another hospital some thirty miles away. To my chagrin, my in and out visit turned into an hour long stay not because the patient had much to say, but the ER doctor kept on yapping.
He had the duty all weekend and for conversation he only had a nurse, desk clerk, a CNA , the patients, and now me. As I had experienced this before with other rural ER physicians I've found that it's usually best to let them get it all out as their desperation for human contact is extreme. He told me about the new EHR the ER was using and the stew that he made for the weekend (and offered me a bowl at 7am). He had researched the cost of generic ondansetron ( Zofran ) ODT at the local pharmacies. He also seemed very interested in determining how close our houses were to each other.
As another patient came in to be seen I quickly finished up my business and left; and that is why I let him chat so incessantly. I could leave. He would be there for another twelve hours in his relative isolation. His job was far more difficult than mine.
The Country Doctor