Welcome to the CCU

Heart Hospital, 5:36 a.m.

Arrived at the Heart Hospital this morning with my heart pounding, a little. Aside from a security guard sitting just inside the front door, the hospital seemed deserted. After saying our goodbyes in the front foyer, Tanis and Natalia headed to the ER and I headed upstairs to the CCU. Deep breath.

I slipped inside the unit doors just as a body covered by a white sheet was being wheeled out. A couple of tall men in traditional white suits were following close behind, one wiping away a tear as he followed the stretcher out.

In the CCU, there is a 1:1 patient to nurse ratio because of the high acuity of the patients and there is only one person to a room. Glancing at the list of patients, most were in their 20s, 30s and 40s, admitted after a heart attack, often their first.  My patient, who also fit into this category, was scheduled for an angioplasty this morning. During this procedure, obstructed arteries are mechanically widened at the coronary catheterization lab on the same floor, down the hall. My nurse and I accompanied the patient there and they returned later that morning. Turns out this patient had an occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery, also called a "widow maker" according to one of our teachers in first year. I don't think I need to explain that one. 

OK, onto happier things....

The CCU is large, spacious and bright. Everything feels new and modern. No food or coffee in sight, not even at the nurse's station. Also, no clutter. Anywhere. What a difference! However, everyone wears perfume/cologne and talks on their cell phone often. All the equipment is different and the charting... ha! Don't even get me started on the charting! Everything is charted on enormous easel-sized pieces of paper full of grids and boxes organized according to date and time. There are separate boxes along the bottom that explain how to correctly abbreviate the data you put into the smaller boxes. I'm not saying it's a bad system, actually it's quite efficient, just takes some getting used to. Yeeesh! My nurse told me, quite confidently, that after one week I would have no trouble understanding this new system. I was (crazy) laughing on the inside.

I got to eavesdrop on some rounds today, which was pretty neat. I don't think doctors and nurses have the same kind of collaboration as in Canada. I definitely didn't see as much camaraderie although I did see some on the unit. But those nurses, boy do they know their stuff! My preceptor has worked on the unit for six years. But when she tried to explain an abnormal electrocardiogram or ECG (not actually the one below), I think I started to go cross-eyed. Hey, did I mention I had been up since 2:30 a.m?

At 11 we had a presentation from the hospital on infection prevention and control. That Middle East Respiratory Virus (MERS) you may have read about in the news? They've had five confirmed cases in Doha over the last few months. Tomorrow we're attending another information session, specifically about MERS.

We borrowed an empty resuscitation room to work out our hospital schedule over the next few weeks. Being the only area free of patients, we had to pose for a few pics, naturally. The day was: overwhelming but good.

Then we came home and watched funny Indian music videos by this guy:

Sure wished more singers made music videos like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuW53xh-gj8