I laugh at the thought of trying to describe a typical day in the life for this rotation.
First, because my shifts were random hours of the day and night.
Second, because sometimes I would have a shift full of non-emergent cases and other days I'd have multiple life-threatening cases.
The emergency department was full of anything and everything, and just what you think would be "slow" hours (1am-4am) mine never were. We would have a wide range of cases from fevers in infants, diarrhea, vomiting episodes, back pain, heat exhaustion, hives to heart attacks, drug and alcohol overdoses, massive brain bleeds, dog and cat bites, broken bones, appendicitis, newly diagnosed cancers, and cutting stuck rings off people's fingers.
I was able to practice many skills such as removing objects from eyeballs with the tip of a needle, suturing (lots and lots of stitches) and stapling, intubations (inserting breathing tubes), CPR , cardioversions (shocking the heart for arrhythmias), many rectal exams, and making casts.
We used multiple anesthetics on this rotation, from local anesthesia before stitches or over the eyeball to small nerve blocks to the anesthesia needed before intubation to the time we used ketamine to snap a woman's foot back into it's correct location. I also did a lot pain management.
It was a great rotation full of so many different experiences. Med Students - if you have the chance, definitely rotate through the ED!