I've not done a medical firm for a while and it was a bit of a shock to the system when I started my new firm this week. I've been used to the relatively relaxed surgical specialties for a while. Surprisingly I'm loving it! Although its only been 2 days, I'm already getting quite into it despite the long days that I'm not really used to.
Yesterday was my first day, the registrar is off on holiday, the SHO was off sick and the consultant was busy. It was left to the F1 to do a ward round so I tagged along with him. The F1 is really nice, I learnt lots and found it really interesting. There weren't too many patients on our list though each one had their own complex issues. Its supposed to be a gastro firm so why one of our patients is a myeloma patient i've got no idea, it was certainly interesting the two of us trying to take care of this guy (neither of us know much about myeloma) trying to arrange an MRI for query cord compression was a challenge, and I ended up getting shouted at down the phone by a neurologist who didn't want to do his MRI. I left at 5pm, having not even had a 2 minute break all day, I was knackered, god knows how the F1 was feeling, he didn't leave till 7 and he'd done a 14 hour shift the day before.
This morning, I arrived promptly and helped out the F1 by doing some of his jobs, before 9am I'd done all the blood forms and spoken to a nursing home to find out the normal condition of one of our patients. The SHO turned up shortly after 9 and I'd been forewarned about her by the F1, he wasn't wrong, she wasn't the friendliest person in the world but there is always one bad egg isn't there? The consultant came along and it was decided that I should just shadow the F1 for most of my time on the firm which I'm really happy to do as I've already learnt plenty, including lots of tips about being an F1 which will come in handy. I enjoyed the ward round and after lunch (fortunately we had time for lunch today which was kindly bought for me by the F1) I stayed and helped with the jobs. To round the day off, I did an ABG on an old lady with annoyingly mobile arteries, fortunately I hit it, which is surprising as I've not done it for since early in 3rd year!
I'm really enjoying this medical firm, despite yesterday's 8 hour ward round. I'm even surprising myself. I'm looking forward to getting stuck in over the next 4 weeks and getting some really good experience shadowing the F1. I just hope when the F1s change in December that I get a decent replacement...
Tuesday, 20 November 2007
New Firm, New World
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
that sounds really good...is it at all similar to that in 3rd year (i'm expecting a no, but would really love a yes...). sounds a bit like this summer, so if i got to do that for 3 more years, would love it lol
amib - You could make 3rd year quite similar to that if you put plenty of effort in. For me 3rd year was nothing like that. One of the main reasons for that is i'm now on my own so get 1 on 1 from the team which is much better
Sorry I'm not from UK, I was wondering who an F1 is?
fh - sorry about that, its a junior doctor. Used to be called a pre-reg house officer. The first year of being a doctor after medical school
Oh so then he knows what it feels like to be a med student, and wanting to learn things. That's really good then right?!
And SHO is?? The older doctors???
:)
This sounds fantastic - exactly what I signed up for rather than oversubscribed, often cancelled teaching sessions and the learn-nothing-by-osmosis which some know as PBL. I see you're not a fan either, it's a shame that it's too late for any of us for anything to change. I too suspect we're from not a dissimilar place: if so there surely are others who feel let down by the system from time to time?
Mx
Post a Comment