Written by: McMaster Medical School c2023 Student, Hamilton Campus 1. Where and how long was your placement?
4 weeks in Milton District Hospital ER 2. How did you get to the core? Did you need a car at this location? How did you park? Commuted from Hamilton or Etobicoke some weeks. I think you need a car to get to Milton from Hamilton. I couldn't find a bus route when I looked it up. The parking office, where you can get your staff pass, was only open Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I paid $20/day for my first two shifts because I worked Tuesday and Thursday. They ended up giving me a free month parking pass after I finally got to them on Friday -- that was a nice surprise. You can park at any of the lots and there were always a lot of spots (I preferred the one by the main entrance since it's closer to the scrub machine.) 3. What were your accommodations like? Did you get any funding from the school (MacCare etc?) I am getting MacCare for the commuting cost -- I can update how much once it goes through. 4. Describe a typical day at your core. ER core expects you to complete 12 shifts minimum. My earliest shift was 7-3pm and my latest shift was 5-1am. You also do one 2-hour triage shift. At Milton, there are 2 zones: blue and green. Blue is usually for lower acuity issues and green is higher acuity. My first two shifts were in blue zone. There were a lot of lacerations, minor injuries, flu-like symptoms, etc. The remaining shifts were mostly green zone with some blue coverage towards the end of shifts. Everyone is really nice and you slowly befriend the other staff. I was really fortunate to get Milton. Dr. Kargbo, the clerkship organizer for Milton, was really considerate and passionate about teaching. Sometimes I was scheduled to come in an hour early for teaching, which covered super relevant topics. My last shift was 12 hours because we spent a few hours for teaching/covering topics I didn't feel strong in. Everyone is also cognizant of you as a learner. The other docs will call you if they see anything interesting that they can teach. My first day, one of the docs called me to show a rhino rocket procedure. And this continued throughout my month there: I was showed various POCUS, red eye issues, pneumothorax, basilar stroke, other interesting cases, etc. I also got to do electric cardioversion and jaw reduction. In general, I found myself really tired after every shift since there's a lot of work to do and constant communication. Other things: there are scrub machines that work with your Milton badge and a call room to put your stuff. In terms of documentation, I never figured out access to Dragon and I didn't have access to the patient's past medical records outside of the new EMR system. I typed most of my charts and would just review past records with the attending. 5. What level of responsibility/exposure did you have as a medical student? I imagine my ER shifts are similar to most: you see a patient, present the case, you work together to formulate a plan, document, and repeat. You do as much as you're comfortable with and don't be afraid to ask for help! For example, I wasn't very comfortable with administering local anesthetic and digital nerve block, so my preceptor would show me for one or two cases and I would do the next one that came up. Towards the end, I was very comfortable with most lac repairs. Also be willing to take your own initiatives. I wanted to practice IVs so I asked the phlebotomist if I could learn from her. 6. What is your most memorable experience? I got to see a lot of cool things but my most memorable experience is definitely all the teaching. Dr. Kargbo and the other physicians really went out of their way to show me new, interesting things. They took time out of their busy lives to do dedicated teaching. I really appreciated all of their effort. Another thing I really appreciated is how much the physicians cared. I didn't have high expectations from ER docs because I have some experience with it in the past. But most of the docs at Milton genuinely care about their patients. 7. What was one thing you didn’t like? That the parking office was only open Monday, Wednesday, Friday. 8. Do you have any recommendations for things to do/explore/eat in the local area? I didn't really explore Milton at all. I know there's a McDonald's a block from hospital haha. In the hospital, there's a Tims and small food store across from it. 9. What’s one thing you wish you knew before doing this elective? One thing I would tell others is that Milton doesn't see a lot trauma compared to other hospitals like HGH or even Oakville. When choosing sites, I didn't mind not seeing a lot of trauma since I didn't think it would impact my learning by much. In fact, I think in Milton I gained a lot of learning. 10. Would you recommend this elective/core to current students? Definitely! Amazing people here who are really passionate about their work. I look forward to when I can return to Milton again. Only caveat is if you're really interested in seeing loads of trauma. Otherwise, you'll get to see a great breadth of cases.
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Milton District Hospital Front Entrance
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