Do NOT panick!

what happens when you insert your IV cannula or needle into what you thought was a vein and saw no flashback? what happens when u push in the urinary catheter and no urine comes out? what happens when u encounter a patient who suddenly went unconscious and unarousable? what happens when you try to take the BP and you hear absolutely NO korotkoff sounds?

one sentence: do not panick!
otherwise,
1) your brain stops clicking
2) your hand starts tremoring and you drop everything you try to hold
3) you look flustered and unprofessional
4) murphy's law comes true

i'm not kidding, all the above scenarios happened to me in the past 3 weeks of SIP. freaky... especially the lady who went unconscious n unarousable. she scared the hell outta me... for that first 5 minutes, i was alone with the nurse. it felt like 30 min... cos i din know what to do, except order someone to call HO/other doctors, go through ABC... airway patent, breathing spontaneously, pulses present, regular and normal rate... but couldn't get BP!! i panicked... why no BP?!?! i pumped up the BP cuff 10 times but still no sounds! arrgghh!!

luckily soon a registrar came and she knew what to do. heh... she also couldn't take her BP. patient had takayasu arteritis and epilepsy apparently. great right... stupid system of the hospital. the HO belongs to the endo team and takes care of 17 patients in the ward which includes gastro and endo patients. when he types discharge summaries, he gotto read through the whole file to find out what the heck is happening. tt's still not too bad... when an emergency comes, he won't know anything about nearly half of the patients! how to react?

oops... i digress...

anyway, yeah... not panicking during dire situations is one of the valuable lessons i learnt during this posting. can't learn tt in textbooks!