Work Area One

New day, new place within Westmead. Work Area 1 does mainly Fracture Clinic (people with broken bones, duh) and a combination of inpatients and outpatients. Unlike Accident and Emergency, also known as Casualty, there isn't that much sense of urgency. The pace is slower, more managable and can be downright boring at times.

Yesterday was my last day at A&E, and it was probably the best day yet. I mostly helped with this PDY (a radiographer who has just left school and must do an "internship" so to speak) who was really helpful. Again I mainly observed but helped out where I could. Some people think that being a radiographer is a pretty cushy job and I guess it can be depending on where you work. But in A&E, it can be pretty taxing. On one occassion, we needed to do a chest and knee x-ray on this 80-year old woman wiht Alzheimer's. It was difficult because we couldn't use the DR system (she was too fragile to move around) and had to slide a cassette behind her back to do the chest x-ray. However, due to the Alzheimer's, she was very distracted and was never in the right position. In the end, we winged it a bit. The PDY set her into the correct position while I held down the prep button. As soon as he ran out, I pressed the button down fully to take the shot. It wasn't perfect, but it was close enough.

The A&E office happened to be right next to two rooms, 28 and 29. That's where the dead or dying go and the family can grieve. Well, that's where they usually go. Sometimes when we are short on beds, some patients go in there. But I'm walking back from an x-ray only to have this Asian family sobbing their hearts out just outside the office. It was pretty gut-wrenching.

Work Area 1 was different. For the first few hours, there wasn't much to do, expect the odd x-ray. But it was cool because I managed to go down to the mortuary on two occasions. One was a suicide victim, and the second was a jumper. The first guy had shot himself in the head, but the body had been cleaned up slightly, so there was only a bit of blood behind his ears. The second guy had jumped off somewhere high. The police were present during his death, so whether they were trying to talk him down, or whether he was on the run was unclear. X-raying cadavers is a lot different. And a bit difficult. By the time we got to them, rigor mortis had set in and it was difficult to move the body. But very interesting. Very, very interesting.

I managed to do another bunch of chest x-rays, and the PDY person assisting me was very frank, but that helped in my learning. He didn't bullshit, so to say. But I picked up a few tips that helped immensely.

I think Jimmy commented last time that this was I was learning something practical and directly related to my course. That's pretty much true. This sort of training is invaluable, especially in a public hospital where you get plenty of cases. Private clinics are alright, but you don't have that many cases.

Tomorrow is the last day!