This is not the glamorous side of medicine that you see on TV.This is the real ward.
Look at the trolley.It is loaded with files.Blue ones,green ones.Each file is a person.Each file has a fever chart,lab reports,drug timings and a family waiting outside the door asking "doctor, how is he now". The trolley does not stop moving from morning to night.
The walls are pink.That is supposed to be calming.It does not work when there are lots of patients in the ward and the beds are full.Some patients are on oxygen.Some are post-op.Some just came in from emergency with no history and no attendant.You take the history while checking the pulse and while the nurse is shouting for the BP cuff.
Emergencies do not send a text before they arrive.One minute the ward is noisy but stable.Next minute there is a call from the emergency. "We are sending a patient. Unconscious.Low BP." You run.You check airway.You check vitals.You write orders.You come back and there are three more patients waiting with files in their hands.
Monitoring is the part that never ends.The fan above is spinning the whole day.The lights are on the whole day.Someone needs insulin.Someone needs antibiotics at 2 pm sharp.Someone’s saturation is dropping.Someone needs to be turned in bed to avoid bedsores.You look at the monitor,you look at the patient,you look at the file and you write.Then you do it again in one hour.
The chairs are empty for five minutes and then they are full again.Relatives sit there and cry.Relatives sit there and argue.Relatives sit there and pray.The weighing machine in the corner has not been used in days because there is no time.The shelves have folders that are never up to date because the priority is the living person in the bed,not the paper.
It is exhausting.It is messy.It is loud.It is also the place where you learn the most.You learn to think fast.You learn to stay calm when everyone else is panicking.You learn that a signature on a file means someone is trusting you with their life.
This trolley with all those files is not just paperwork.It is proof that we showed up.That we checked.That we tried.Even on the days when there are too many patients,too many emergencies and not enough hours.
This is ward life.It is heavy.It is real.And we keep going.
