"Down Time"

Thankfully, this winter has been somewhat slow so far for the ER. That is a great thing for the men and women of our military that we serve! It has also allowed for some time pursuing other interests, especially while on duty for 24 hours straight in the trauma ED. I have already explained in other blogs my manic workout addiction while not at work. Here are some examples of us using our time while at work during "down time."

Lieutenant Z helps to train our corpsmen, showing them the finer points of using the McGrath fiberoptic laryngoscope, used to help make it easier to place a breathing tube down a patient's throat (trachea). You can also see that my corpsmen Sean and Wil are musically-inclined, playing their guitars and singing one day. It ended up being like "Life in the ER- American Idol Style." Finally, my trauma team occasionally gets to attempt to watch a movie. I say "attempt," as 90% of the time when we do that we invariably get a patient. So, it is safer for our service men and women when we don't have "movie nights."

Leadership must have heard about my workout mania and figured I had "too much time on my hands" (like the song by STYX for those over 35 out there), so they made me the Department Head of the ER, at least for the next few months. I will have the opportunity to help train up some new staff coming on board. It will actually be a very good experience that I am looking forward to. I have made the decision that my workouts must not suffer, so I may not get quite as much reading in and/or sleep over the upcoming months:) One MUST have priorities!