I regained access and was back in action. I picked up my first ICU patient who was pretty straightforward but and interesting pathology that I hadn’t see before; hypertriglyceridemia-induced acute pancreatitis. It was a good one for me to get my feet back in the water, with a relatively straight forward course and minimal confounding comorbidities and stuff, but still a good learning case that I had to read up on.
I felt pretty confident with my presentation, event though we present a bit differently in the ICU compared to on wards, and I think I did pretty well. The attending and fellow asked some questions and I think I did a decent job of answering appropriately. Personally I felt like my presentations were on par with at least the interns, but that’s probably bias, and also most of the other patients were more complicated than mine. My seniors said I did a good job though which always feels good.
As far as first impression, while I like the acuity, complexity, and the turnover in the ICU, I don’t get to interact with patients as much or as directly simply because these patients are just so much sicker. They are either intubated or sedated (often both) or just straight up sleepy/ not mentally all there at baseline. That said I can imagine my self finding conversation with family and patients (in whatever capacity they are able to participate) regarding goals-of-care and just treatment plans, so we’ll see how much opportunity I get to see/ do that.
nANIMOv 