Kgothatso Legong, fifth year medical student at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University.
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As the name suggests, so the rotation was. The surgery department in SMU has a unit which is solely dedicated to saving the lives of patients and stabilising them. In the casualty and trauma wards, I met lot of patients who I can only imagine the suffering which they were in. I have to say, my emotions more than ever were affected as I couldn’t help it.
The following are some of the key things which stood out for me when I was doing my clinical rotation.
1. Life and death coexist
A lot of the times the patients I would see had suffered major trauma and required urgent intervention. From the time they would be brought by ambulances in the emergency room to be triaged you could see this patient was in tremendous amount of pain and needs to be assessed. I have clerked patients who were also responsive and verbalising well, only to come to the ward the next day and the very same patient is in ICU because he had complicated overnight. Four the next three days when we did ward rounds, the patient I had clerked was lying on the same bed with so many tubes coming from his mouth, nose, veins, and more. It was not a good sight to see. My worry was lessened when I spoke with one of the registrars in my unit who comforted me.
2. Medicolegal principles are important
I also assessed patients who were victims of mob justice. Patients who were brutally attacked by members of the community for alleged crimes. When asking the patient’s history, it was important that I did not judge but make the patient comfortable to open up to me as if they do not, they might leave out important information which could be vital to their plan of care. The ward also had patients who were victims of assault. Note taking and note keeping is very important in such instances as they could one day be entered into evidence in a court of law.
3. Confidence gained in assessing trauma outside the hospital
In first year, we were taught a lot about managing a patient who was a victim of trauma outside the hospital. Even though we had a great teacher, we did not do what was taught practically on live patient – we were given mannequins, for obvious reasons, we were still practicing. But the experience I gained this year makes me even more confident to help people in cases of emergency. Taking into consideration of the medicolegal requirements when assisting in a life saving procedure, and the fact that I am a member of the Medical Protection Services (MPS), I can practice with confidence as a medical student.
Rotating in trauma was nothing less of traumatic. I saw lots of suffering and pain, but I am glad to what I got exposed to. The skills learned will forever be tattooed in my mind, and one day I am very confident that they will save a lot of people’s lives.