tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83193822956595906742024-03-13T09:07:26.744+00:00Life as 1/2 a doctorA blog about what it is like being the lowest on the clincal medicine food chain: a medical student. We are the ones trying to keep out of the way, answer questions correctly when possible and performing our one true clincal role : pulling the curtains around the patients bed...Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.comBlogger78125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319382295659590674.post-29845444506392218472017-04-16T21:30:00.002+01:002017-04-16T21:30:56.021+01:00Where am I now?To anyone out there still with this blog on their reading list..<br />
<br />
Hi there! I fell off the blogging wagon a good few year back and its been a long old while since I posted... But heres a quick upshot of where my life has taken me:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>I'm now a paediatric trainee with a few years experience under my belt. Remarkably this means I stuck to the speciality I thought I would be interested in right back when I started medical school which is probably pretty unusual. I do love paediatrics itself and the kids crack me up (although occasionally some of the parents send me nuts - a fairly typical paediatrics problem!) but the current state of the NHS, our new job contract and challenges of the "modernising medical careers" pathway certainly add a degree of stress to things.</li>
<li>Personal life is pretty good! I got my first house and got married last year plus got a couple of lovable but crazy cats! </li>
<li>Husband is also a paediatric trainee which is an interesting and unusual dynamic - good side is we can empathise with each other about all things paediatrics and revise for exams together but bad side is because we are exactly the same grade we have to compete against each other for jobs in the area we want. The upshot of this is that for our next job rotation husband has my dream St3 job whereas Ive been lumbered with a 1.5hr one way commute (as I said, joys of modernising medical careers type training plus an oversized + underorganised deanery). Still the secret to a good marriage is not seeing each other right??</li>
<li>I'm considering sub specialising in neonates which is an area I never ever thought I'd be interested in until my last job which was tertiary neonates and I absolutely loved. </li>
<li>Passed my last proper exam this year so have got my paediatric membership now - Halfadoc is all grown up!</li>
</ol>
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Thats the brief upshot for now , hopefully I'll post more soon before busyness of life makes me fall of the blogging wagon again...</div>
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<span style="color: magenta; font-size: large;">Halfadoc</span> xxx</div>
Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319382295659590674.post-53078630143152134882014-07-29T14:40:00.001+01:002014-07-29T14:42:32.607+01:00Unpublished elective posts: My first solo ward round! <b><u>Unpublished elective posts part one</u></b><br />
<br />
<i>Foreword</i><br />
A few years ago I published posts from my medical school elective in Tanzania whilst I was out there (see 2011 around september time in archives). I used to write them in the evenings on my PDA and then publish them as and when I was able to get access to a computer. As my elective was in a very rural village this was quite sporadic - the hospital did have one computer but being the only computer for a hospital of 120+ patients it was frequently in use and even when you could get access to it (usually late in the evenings if you could find the key to the computers room) the internet could be outpaced by carrier pigeons and power cuts were very frequent meaning I often lost blog posts and emails halfway through trying to send.<br />
<br />
The upshot of this is that there are several partial or fully written blog posts lurking on my computer that I never published. Its difficult now to publish the partially written ones as the me that would complete them now already feels like a remarkably different person to the wide-eyed enthusiastic fourth year medical student who was getting frustrated by the level of care given at the hospital and the memories of that frustration have already begun to fade. But, I will try and slowly publish these posts and stay as true to the thoughts I had at that time because my elective remains my most enlightening medical experience and so the most worth blogging about in my opinion. I will say with each post whether it has been partially written in recent times so you can decide for yourselves how accurate to my experiences at that time the blogs are. I won't delete bits of the blogs however much they make me cringe now!<br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">My first solo ward round!</u> (minor additions to first paragraph only)<u style="font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">5.10.11<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Accidentally ended up finshing up a male ward
round by myself today because the clinical officer had to go to opd and asked
me to see the last few patients. Pretty
strange having two nursing students </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">plus 1 qualified nurse</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;"> following me and pushing the notes trolley; I
am used to being the ward round follower or notes trolley pusher! This entourage was definitely useful though
in terms of taking a history when I do not speak swahili! This translation
service wasn't completely useful however as clearly there are boundaries out
here that we wouldn't feel were appropriate within a medical setting in England. For example the nursing students refused to
translate "When were your bowels last open" and giggled at the very
suggestion. Unfortunately this question
wasn't really something I could charades-style act out...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">In total
it was only a few patients that I had to see on my own, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">but think I did manage them correctly and even
noticed that a patient who appears to have had a stroke secondary to
hypertension has not actually received his prescribed antihypertensives for the
last 3 days, something which has not been noticed in the last 3 ward rounds! So
feel pretty proud of myself really, maybe I will make a doctor yet!</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Rest of day was pretty full of responsibility
as well. In maternity ward there was a
patient in the labour room with poor progress of labour who was on an oxytocin
drip which was supposed to be given at an increased speed every half an hour,
however despite the fact that there was 3 midwives about plus an insane number
of student nurses, every time I popped into the labour room from ward rounds
the increase in speed would be massively overdue and still not done! So had to
do it myself as well as go on two ward rounds - multitasking skills!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">While I waited for the doctor to come and
review this patient after the oxytocin had failed to increase the strength of
her contractions, I watched the nursing students being taught how to perform a
vaginal examination of a pregnant woman.
Craziest teaching of a pv exam that I have ever seen!About 20 students all
round one patients bed whilst the teacher performed an examination this
intimate examination on her! Poor patient! Talk about intimidating! Also some of the
smaller girls standing at the back clearly couldn't see so I'm not sure how
much they learnt from the experience. Very,<b>
very</b> different to how this is taught in England!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivtFY1AlVYrtqL4l2UsphUPprdBhPd3nEub-zr8lqJy1vjl1sDE38pVWjidcrawEgqKVP_8DvVKc5QTKiNsK65NTO4nvVBT4mSNVV0PAMTZCegp3FA_rZ0zgA-twZq8sRoSLaAvyp91w/s1600/halfadoc+elective+vaginal+examination.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivtFY1AlVYrtqL4l2UsphUPprdBhPd3nEub-zr8lqJy1vjl1sDE38pVWjidcrawEgqKVP_8DvVKc5QTKiNsK65NTO4nvVBT4mSNVV0PAMTZCegp3FA_rZ0zgA-twZq8sRoSLaAvyp91w/s1600/halfadoc+elective+vaginal+examination.png" height="205" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The examination - there are two pregnant ladies within this corner - the one that is being examined and one nearer the camera that students are leaning over in order to see the examination</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;"><b><span style="color: magenta;">Halfadoc x</span></b></span></div>
Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319382295659590674.post-58564097043932716752014-07-12T20:46:00.000+01:002014-07-15T23:39:09.155+01:00The unwritten rules of being a junior doctor/ 25+things you wished you knew before becoming a doctorWell I thought it was about time that I did a junior doctor version of my post about things you wished you knew before starting medical school ( <a href="http://halfadoctor.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/80-things-you-wish-you-knew-before-you.html">http://halfadoctor.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/80-things-you-wish-you-knew-before-you.html</a> ) so here goes:<br />
<br />
1. (And this is the most important) Never say the "q" word. The q word is the dirtiest swear word of the medical world. In the rare event your day is "Quiet" DO NOT SAY IT!! If you do utter the word then be prepared to be blamed by all staff when seemingly every patient on the ward becomes deeply unwell.<br />
<br />
2. When referring a patient you can prepare your referral as much as you like and still guarantee the senior you are discussing with will ask that one aspect you forgot to look up such as the all important serum-rhubarb level.<br />
<br />
3. Crash bleeps like to go off when you are in the middle of a procedure or breaking bad news<br />
<br />
4. Crash bleeps like to get cancelled as soon as you arrive at the correct location having run from the opposite end of the hospital.<br />
<br />
5. As per above "crash call cardio" is an excellent way of getting your recommended exercise.<br />
<br />
6. The patients you get called to see with low urine outputs/ poor oral intake will probably have drunk and/or peed substantially more than you have during your on call shift.<br />
<br />
7. You will have to make some truely awful referrals/ investigation requests at the recommendation of senior doctors (surgeons I'm looking at you) and by the end of your fy1 year you could probably make a decent second hand car salesman after the amount of shit you have been peddling to other specialities all year.<br />
<br />
8. For the above the words "my consultant would like" absolves you from blame for crap referrals.<br />
<br />
9. You will get blamed and/or shouted at for the crap referrals anyway.<br />
<br />
10. A great ward sister/ charge nurse who likes you will make your rotation survivable. Doubly so if said nurse is also an avid ward baker.<br />
<br />
11. You will just be finding your feet in a speciality when you rotate to the next one. Return to go, do not pick up 200. <br />
<br />
12. The most difficult to bleed patient will also be the one who needs daily/ twice daily bloods.<br />
<br />
13. You won't have to do a female catheter until there's a patient that none of the nurses can catheterised and then suddenly you are expected to be the expert...<br />
<br />
14. If you are a female doctor then in spite of your stethoscope neck adornment and totally different dress code you will get called nurse by patients 85% of the time. <br />
<br />
15. To misquote pirates of the Caribbean: Your finish times are more like a guideline...<br />
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<br />
16. However late after your shift it is if you are on the ward you will still be considered fair game by other staff for more jobs.<br />
<br />
17. As soon as you have qualified (if not as soon as you have started medical school) be prepared to be accosted by nurses/HCAs/cleaners/catering staff/ friends/ family/ the cousin of the great great granddaughter the lady who lives 3 houses away requested you look at and instantly treat their rash.<br />
<br />
18. All rashes look the same to an FY1 <br />
<br />
19. The treatment for most rashes is emollients and/or steroids anyway.<br />
<br />
20. You will develop a robust stomach that cannot be touched by indigestion. This is because you will strengthen it by consuming a lot of your lunches either whilst fast walking between wards or while typing a discharge summary with one hand and eating with the other.<br />
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21. If you start reviewing a patient whilst eating lunch however you may have gone too far.<br />
<br />
22. Most of your friends will be doctors.<br />
<br />
23. You will spend a lot of your social time discussing medicine with other doctors.<br />
<br />
24. On the rare occasion you manage to venture away from the medical crowd for socialising please see point 17. You will still find yourself discussing medicine...<br />
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25. Scrubs are lifesavers when laundry day came and went about a month ago.<br />
<br />
26. You will find a pair of comfy shoes and wear them to pieces as the thought of breaking in new shoes on the wards is unthinkable. (In my case I wore my shoes until there was decent sized holes in the soles. I only threw them away when I stepped in a patients vomit...)<br />
<br />
27. You will develop a creepy habit of staring at people with bulging veins and thinking "phwoarrr how easy would it be to cannulate that!"<br />
<br />
28. Your patients will rarely have such veins.<br />
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I will add more "rules" as I think of them<br />
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<span style="color: magenta; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Dr Halfadoc x</i></span><br />
<br />Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319382295659590674.post-43848647282549219002014-07-06T21:19:00.001+01:002014-07-06T21:19:10.668+01:00Rubbish Handovers Doctors are often slated for their terrible handovers between shifts. Whilst nurses have a rigid formal handovers at every shift change, we have formal handovers between SOME shifts but informal between others (for example the day doctor may bleep the twilight doctor with something that is yet to happen such as blood coming back, this is often quite haphazard. The twilight doctor will then formally handover at the end of their shift in a sit down meeting to the team of doctors on overnight including senior doctors. I've noticed Often the very minimal change of sitting down and having someone senior present improves the quality of the handover and how much information is given. However the twilight doctor may be handing over stuff from the day teams list so their handover will be limited by what the day team originally told them.)<br />
<br />
Here's a handover I recieved this weekend:<br />
<br />
<i>Night shift doctor </i>: Oh and Mr Y hasn't had his xray yet.<br />
<i>Me: </i>What is the xray for?<br />
<i>Night doctor: </i>Not sure<br />
<i>Me: </i>... What type of xray<br />
<i>Night doctor: </i>Oh erm Chest xray.<br />
<i>Me: </i>Ok can I have his hospital number<br />
<i>Night doctors: </i>(Has this and gives it to me but only after I ask)<br />
<br />
I later hunt down Mr Y's request form purely so that I can find out why he is having one. At this point I discover its not a chest xray but a lower leg (fairly different ends of the body!) and he is having for the potentially very serious issue of ?osteomyelitis (infection of the bone). So I was very glad I looked!<br />
<br />
I received this handover at a formal type handover so perhaps sitting down doesn't always solve<span style="color: magenta;"> "</span><span style="background-color: white; color: magenta;">medical-chinese-whispers"</span> after all. In summary, we as profession do need to work on our handovers. (This example is the worst I can think of but there are plenty of other slightly rubbish ones). This weekend has reminded me about the importance of trying to both handover well and make sure I ask the right questions of those handing over to me so that I know what is going on. Geeky though it is I recommend all those reading this try to remember to do their handovers in a formulalic way such as the "SBAR" system.<br />
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Happy handing over!!<br />
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<span style="color: magenta; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Halfadoc x</span>Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319382295659590674.post-22932889857196918572014-07-02T19:51:00.003+01:002014-07-02T19:51:47.225+01:00Bedside manner anecdote part 1 <i><span style="color: magenta;">Me attempting to calm down very angry and aggressive patient</span>: (</i>About 4th attempt at explaining to the patient that she has had an intracranial haemorrhage which is why she needs to be in hospital and that she needs to calm down (stop punching us!) so we can examine her) So the reason you are in hospital is because you became unwell at home so your husband has brought you in, your brain scan has shown you have had a bleed on your brain. Do you understand this?<br />
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<i><span style="color: #cc0000;">Angry patient</span>: </i>Well you dont even have a bleedin' brain!<br />
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Well played patient, well played.<br />
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<br />Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319382295659590674.post-41575083980168299912014-06-07T23:05:00.006+01:002014-07-06T21:30:25.247+01:00The reality of life as an FY1So I'm now in my tenth month as a foundation year doctor working at one of the busiest hospitals in the country (great job picking there Halfadoc!) . I'm not going to apologise for having thoroughly neglected my poor blog even thought its something I never intended to happen and gives me the occasional sharp guilt pang before I forget about it again (probably due to being distracted by remembering another of the 1 000 000 life tasks I have forgotten to do). <br />
<br />
The reality of life as a junior doctor is that at points of the rota I am so busy, so tired that I scarcely can summon the energy to do the bare essentials of eating and washing before I go to bed. This isn't deliberate hyperbole and I do not think it is that far from the truth at times. It isn't the entirety of life as a junior doctor either but when on the "easy" rota shifts you often find you need to spend your slightly increased spare time catching up on the washing you neglected during busier patterns, attending own health/dental appointments, paying bills, hoop jumping for the dreaded e portfolio (an online method of assessing Junior doctors using a series of tasks that are about as useful as the labours of hercules) paying in ash cash cheques (not all chores are bad!) etc etc. The remaining spare time not surprisingly you often feel like spending as selfishly as possible ;). I used to be reasonably keen at playing sports (albeit in a lazy halfhearted kind of way).This year I have attended exactly one training session and one competition - in which I came second to last in, I guess the lack of training has caught up with me. So that is why my blog has been neglected badly enough that if it were a patient in the NHS it would probably have gain a DNAR (do not resuscitate) form by now.<br />
<br />
So is it all bad?<br />
No. But you have days/weeks when it feels that way.<br />
<br />
However there are moments that bring you back and make it feel worthwhile again and here are a few examples to stop this post sounding all doom and gloom:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Mrs Jenson, the lovely old lady who recently submitted to me cannulating her with a stiff upper lip that all too few of the patients have and afterwards thanked me for doing what is after all a painful procedure (though not as painful as some patients suggest) and gave me a handful of her chocolates as thanks. She wouldn't take no for an answer and I was very grateful for her as that handful of chocolates was in fact the total of my lunch for that 12.5 hour shift.</li>
<li>Mrs Smith, I met this lady whilst they were in the surgical high dependency unit where I was the sole junior doctor for a nerve wracking few weeks. She was there throughout my time and had a really rough time of it. She'd had a surgery to remove a bowel tumour which had left her with a stoma. Unfortunately the stoma wasn't working and she had a condition called Ileus which basically means her remaining bowel had gone on strike. This is very common after bowel surgery but this poor lady had it worst than most. She was in high dependency for weeks, required a repeat operation after a leak from where she her bowel had been joined up at which point she developed prolonged ileus yet again. She was very ill and very low in mood and yet in spite of this had her relatives bring in regular chocolates for the ward staff and once even summoned me over and gave me a box of chocolates and said it was just for me for the help I had given her (naturally I did share it with the nurses as I had certainly nicked theirs to keep me going through skipped lunches). She also used to say "god bless you " to me on a regular basis which as an atheist made me feel a bit guilty but I appreciated the kind sentiment. This lovely lady fortunately did go home shortly after I left the unit.</li>
<li>The adrenaline rush of a crash call and amazing feeling when the patient DOES regain an output.</li>
<li>A thank you from a healthy patient who is going home.</li>
<li>Pay day. I didn't do medicine for the money and theres a lot of better, easier ways of earning the same or more and definetly earning more per an hour. However when times are tough and you barely can keep going at least it is a day to focus on.</li>
</ul>
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(As ever all names/ details have been changed.)</div>
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Lately I've been re reading Max Pembertons junior doctor book and realising what an accurate portrayal it really is of life as a junior doctor. I read it before medical school, and I thought I understood what he was saying and what being a junior doctor would/could be like, but I'm now not sure you can until you are really there. I don't think even medical school fully made me realise what it would be like. I particularly however liked this quote from his book: <i><span style="color: purple; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"I was never naive enough to think that medicine would be a bed of roses, I just never realised there'd be so many nettles"</span></i> </div>
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For this weekend however this fy1 is enjoying the sunshine safe in the knowledge of impending annual leave and the e portfolio finally being handed in.</div>
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Till next time,</div>
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Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319382295659590674.post-62954421547983590232013-09-02T16:00:00.001+01:002013-09-02T22:36:57.405+01:00My first week on callOn the 12th day on call,<br />
The hospital sent to me:<br />
<br />
12 thousand bleeps,<br />
11 nurses insisting,<br />
10 BM's a-leaping*,<br />
9 drug charts completing,<br />
8 NOFs a-breaking **,<br />
7 TTOs for writing,<br />
6 bowels delaying,<br />
5 arterial gases,<br />
4 calling pts,<br />
3 stolen pens,<br />
2 D.T's***,<br />
And cake with a KFC!<br />
<br />
(Numbers may be altered for comic affect...)<br />
<br />
*BMs = blood sugars <br />
**Neck of femur - common and bad fracture in old people.<br />
***delirium tremens - occur when alcoholic s are withdrawing<br />
<br />
Dr Halfadoc xx<br />
<br />
Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319382295659590674.post-92012630422419997322013-08-18T16:37:00.002+01:002013-08-18T16:44:16.747+01:00Quotes from my first week and a bit as a junior doctor..<b><u>Quotes from my first week and a bit as a junior doctor..</u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
Well its been an eventful and exhausting week and a bit as a "proper" junior doctor. There's so many anecdotes and stories I could tell you about that I don't know which one to focus on, instead I thought I would share a few quotes to give you a flavour of how the week has been. As ever please remember none of these quotes/descriptions are entirely accurate so if you think you recognise yourself or a relative, you almost certainly don't... All of these quotes however are versions of things said to me during my first week or so of work.<br />
<br />
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Patient</i>: You're a doctor?!? I thought you were a work experience student! <i>(this was the response of the second patient I said "I'm one of the doctors" too, the first one simply said I looked to young to be a doctor)</i><br />
<i><br /></i><b style="font-style: italic;">Gentleman that I'm trying to put a cannula in: </b>Don't worry, just have a try. <i>(firstly isn't it my job to tell him not to worry - clearly need to work on calm expressions! Secondly I'd actually got it in by this point and was just sticking it down..)</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Consultant: </i>"And this is wrong.... and this is terrible....and this drug needs to be stopped...and why hasn't this been done...." "I'll forgive you this time as your new but.." - <span style="color: red;">None of the aforementioned mistakes were my own management plan, they were the more senior juniors but I get it, prinicipal role of the FY1 doctor is to be the whipping boy for everyone else's errors. </span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Lovely senior nurse: </i>Did you write [plan I had scribed but at instructions of FY]? <i style="font-weight: bold;"> </i>Mr [above consultant] is on the warpath about [minor mistake by FY2 in plan] but don't worry I told him you weren't on the ward.<br />
<span style="color: red;">Be nice to the nurses and they will look after you!</span><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b style="font-style: italic;">Disgruntled patient: </b>What an earth am I paying for the nhs for?!<br />
<br />
<i style="font-weight: bold;">More "senior" junior doctor friend: </i>Do you want me to lie and say it will get better?<br />
<b style="font-style: italic;">Me: </b>Yes please!<br />
<br />
<i style="font-weight: bold;">FY2 + nurse: </i>Halfadoc, go tell Mr Z that his investigation has been cancelled today so he has been nil by mouth for nothing. <span style="color: red;">Again, FY1 = everyones whipping boy/ person to be given the most disheartening tasks.</span><br />
<br />
<i style="font-weight: bold;">FY2: </i>Make sure you test his anal tone.<br />
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<b><i>Conversation overheard between FY2 and ortho surgeon</i>: </b>Lucky you having to keep testing Mr Y's anal tone. <i style="font-weight: bold;">FY2: </i>Nah I'm getting the FY1 to do it haha.<br />
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<i style="font-weight: bold;">Consultant grilling me: </i>Come on, this is simple!<br />
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<i style="font-weight: bold;">Younger patient who I have stayed several hours late for to try and ensure his treatment gets finally started that evening: </i>Do you have kids? [No] Then you can't understand.<br />
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<i style="font-weight: bold;">Lifesaver ward pharmacists: </i>Did you mean to do x/y/z? [<span style="color: red;">Always no</span>].<br />
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Lifesaver ward pharmacists: </i>Would you like to add x/y/z? [<span style="color: red;">Always yes</span>]<br />
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<i style="font-weight: bold;">FY1 colleague on another awful-paedics ward: </i>We've got to make sure we go to lunch together so its not so lonely and so we can discuss problems.<br />
<b style="font-style: italic;">Day 8</b>: We finally go to lunch at same time but only because there is a compulsory lunchtime teaching.<br />
<br />
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Lovely senior nurse: </i> Here I baked some cake, have a piece.<br />
<span style="color: red;">I repeat: Be nice to the nurses and they will look after you!</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: magenta;">Still, 10 days till pay day! Swings and roundabouts etc! Hope thats given anyone considering medicine a realistic idea about the glamourous first days of being a junior doctor. And to end on an appriopriate quote: </span><br />
<span style="color: magenta;"><br /></span>
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<span style="color: magenta; font-size: large;"><i>Dr Halfadoc x</i></span><br />
<br />Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319382295659590674.post-22699937263934954512013-08-01T07:17:00.001+01:002013-08-01T07:18:48.515+01:00First day of shadowingSo its finally here - I now have a hospital ID badge that says I am an fy1 doctor and a graduation present of a pink<br />
Stethoscope saying Dr Halfadoc* around my neck. And yes, I feel like a massive fraud at the moment - kind of like a 14 year old playing dress up!<br />
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We've had all our induction talks - which seemed to me intent on scaring us senseless and informing us we would hate our lives for at least the first 6 weeks. I've also learnt that my first rotation orthopaedics is nicknamed awful-paedics here which sounds ... pleasant! But now for my first actual day on the wards, I ll let you know how it goes!<br />
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Dr Halfadoctor xx<br />
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*it may not say exactly that on it ;)Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319382295659590674.post-83866087206556060472013-05-02T17:40:00.003+01:002013-05-02T17:40:54.265+01:00Half a doctor no more!<b><u><strike>Half a</strike> doctor!! FINALS PASSED :D</u></b><br />
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Well I've just had a lovely couple of weeks holiday after some truly horrible finals (which ended with at least the positive news that I got my first choice F1 and F2 jobs) but most importantly have now found out I PASSED! I have no idea how but I don't plan on questioning it!<br />
So I'll be back soon to catch up on actual posts but I guess this blog will need a change in title in the very near future! I'll try and post some finals tips too from things I learnt the hard way, in the mean time here's a link back to my free revision source post which I have updated a bit more as these sites and resources definitely helped me to get through: <a href="http://halfadoctor.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-best-free-medical-finals-revision.html">http://halfadoctor.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-best-free-medical-finals-revision.html</a><br />
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Much love,<br />
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<i><span style="color: magenta;">Dr Halfadoctor!</span></i><br />
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<br />Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319382295659590674.post-80571572918846701102013-04-01T21:34:00.001+01:002013-04-01T21:34:09.444+01:00My scariest blonde moment yet...Finals are this week. THIS WEEK. With that in mind read on...<br />
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So I discovered this evening that I've had a five year blonde moment where I had no idea that the thymus and thyroid were different things... I genuinely thought that all the t-cell regulation (to do with the immune system) stuff the thymus does was just another function of the thyroid...<br /><br />Massive fail. Massive massive fail. So yeah wish me luck for the next few weeks!! (Short post because clearly I have revision to be doing!)<br />
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(In my defence a quick google tells me I'm not the only person to get confused here but I'm betting the asker of the below links question wasn't taking med school finals in under 100 hrs time :/ ) <a href="http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Are_the_thyroid_and_the_thymus_the_same_thing">http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Are_the_thyroid_and_the_thymus_the_same_thing</a><br />
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Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319382295659590674.post-82884777381161245342013-03-01T02:01:00.000+00:002013-03-01T02:03:09.929+00:00Junior Doctor application screw upThose of you who have been following the news may know that this week there's been yet another screw up with Junior doctor job applications. Unfortunately for me, I'm now in the cohort that has been affected. Heres a news article that summarises it all: <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/feb/27/medical-students-job-offers-exam">http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/feb/27/medical-students-job-offers-exam</a><br />
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But basically what happened was:<br />
<strong>This Monday</strong>: We all found out what deanery we had been allocated for our F1 and F2 jobs. This allocation is based on our score out of 100: 50 points come from educational scores e.g. ranking within the medical school, having publications, having extra degrees etc and 50 points come from the "SJT exam" - a multi-guess "choose the most appropriate action" ethicalish type exam (its a bit of a joke of an exam anyway and I doubt it really shows who will be the better doctor but that's another issue entirely). Anyway on Monday I got my first choice and was over the moon! Spent quite a significant amount of time on Monday evening starting to rank my job options.<br />
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<strong>Tuesday evening</strong> (after our medical schools were shut so we couldn't even get advice): We receive an email from FPAS (the organisation responsible for allocating our jobs) telling us that they had detected an error in the marking of the SJT and will be remarking a subset of papers (this has since been changed to EVERYONES papers) and so will have to reallocate jobs too and we are to consider Mondays allocations as no longer correct. There wasn't actually an apology anywhere in the first email..<br />
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We've had more emails since and basically it seems like the main issue is the scanners of the electronic sheets had failed to detected rubbed out answers properly leading to some people having "too many responses" recorded for certain questions and so gaining no marks. However there is another issue that they have not yet told us as they have admitted our marks can go up or down...Furthermore they have admitted to detecting another error in the week prior to job allocations but are claiming that was an isolated error... What a shambles!<br />
So now with finals mere weeks away we have the stress of waiting again and then when deaneries are reallocated those at my medical school will be forced with picking actual jobs (you have to rank 100 odd actual jobs) right amongst our finals time. Ideal!<br />
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Hope other fifth years are bearing up under the strain ok!<br />
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<strong><span style="color: magenta;">Halfadoc xx</span></strong><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxSOue-YnsyTNR5RIg-tlTNYm5wmvUNuhSZ8waIbP7_cOuD0tmNnfrs2jyG9EPa4S1fAy4yEKqrqE2T60bL_80SmRVlvIpBQ8SYbcitKXCQknWZ576uLl9kguj5AeQMSWcFFKho4cYwg/s1600/fpas+junior+doctor+job+screw+up+halfadoc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxSOue-YnsyTNR5RIg-tlTNYm5wmvUNuhSZ8waIbP7_cOuD0tmNnfrs2jyG9EPa4S1fAy4yEKqrqE2T60bL_80SmRVlvIpBQ8SYbcitKXCQknWZ576uLl9kguj5AeQMSWcFFKho4cYwg/s1600/fpas+junior+doctor+job+screw+up+halfadoc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxSOue-YnsyTNR5RIg-tlTNYm5wmvUNuhSZ8waIbP7_cOuD0tmNnfrs2jyG9EPa4S1fAy4yEKqrqE2T60bL_80SmRVlvIpBQ8SYbcitKXCQknWZ576uLl9kguj5AeQMSWcFFKho4cYwg/s320/fpas+junior+doctor+job+screw+up+halfadoc.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxSOue-YnsyTNR5RIg-tlTNYm5wmvUNuhSZ8waIbP7_cOuD0tmNnfrs2jyG9EPa4S1fAy4yEKqrqE2T60bL_80SmRVlvIpBQ8SYbcitKXCQknWZ576uLl9kguj5AeQMSWcFFKho4cYwg/s1600/fpas+junior+doctor+job+screw+up+halfadoc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> </a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxSOue-YnsyTNR5RIg-tlTNYm5wmvUNuhSZ8waIbP7_cOuD0tmNnfrs2jyG9EPa4S1fAy4yEKqrqE2T60bL_80SmRVlvIpBQ8SYbcitKXCQknWZ576uLl9kguj5AeQMSWcFFKho4cYwg/s1600/fpas+junior+doctor+job+screw+up+halfadoc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxSOue-YnsyTNR5RIg-tlTNYm5wmvUNuhSZ8waIbP7_cOuD0tmNnfrs2jyG9EPa4S1fAy4yEKqrqE2T60bL_80SmRVlvIpBQ8SYbcitKXCQknWZ576uLl9kguj5AeQMSWcFFKho4cYwg/s1600/fpas+junior+doctor+job+screw+up+halfadoc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><strong>A Wikipedia screen grab after the screwup - see second paragraph! Click on picture to see it :)</strong></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxSOue-YnsyTNR5RIg-tlTNYm5wmvUNuhSZ8waIbP7_cOuD0tmNnfrs2jyG9EPa4S1fAy4yEKqrqE2T60bL_80SmRVlvIpBQ8SYbcitKXCQknWZ576uLl9kguj5AeQMSWcFFKho4cYwg/s1600/fpas+junior+doctor+job+screw+up+halfadoc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><strong></strong> </a><br />
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<br />Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319382295659590674.post-85138182952083045082013-01-22T01:11:00.002+00:002013-01-22T01:14:33.231+00:00Not my blonde moment<b><u>Not my blonde moment</u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
Firstly I'm sorry for being v.quiet on the blog front for a long while - final year is proving to be tough: Long days on the wards, teaching in the evenings and then the feeling that every spare moment I have should be spent revising...<br />
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Still finals will be finished in 3 months time hopefully provided I don't have any retakes *Touches everything wooden in sight*; so then I will try and catch up telling you tales of my fifth year because ironically along with being one of the busiest, its been one of the most worth blogging about!<br />
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Anyway today's post is not actually my story but a close friends which I thought was too good to share...<br />
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So this happened when my friend "B" was in her 3rd year. She was due to watch angiography for the first time (angiography involves putting a small tube into one of your blood vessels and passing it up to the heart and then adding contrast. This allows xrays to be taken of the small vessels of the heart to see if there is any narrowing or clots. It is usually done if the patient has had a heart attack or suspected angina.) Because of the xrays involved, medical staff have to wear heavy protective clothing or the regular exposure they get would cause them health risks. Medical students also have to wear this clothing if they have to be present in such procedures. <br />
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Now the problem was than B hadn't ever been shown how to put on this clothing (to be honest, its pretty self explanatory though...) and nor had she seen people wearing it before. One of the parts of the clothing is a thyroid guard which is basically like a kind of bib as shown below. However poor B didn't know this so just put it on how she assumed it was meant to go.... .... Still I hear VISORS are making a comeback!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ3pYeOeh6_i9ve3bHI-hDQJe3ZtSDFnOMumOQRGBV-WJj_Wmc6nbRvkDf-RgFdlRCi02ps60_HBlidNVzu2XQzIdjy-M2N9jMmguNArOZZu_57DO-D0KZUM71k4AV4FvBurha-pJ68w/s1600/thyoid+protection+not+a+visor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ3pYeOeh6_i9ve3bHI-hDQJe3ZtSDFnOMumOQRGBV-WJj_Wmc6nbRvkDf-RgFdlRCi02ps60_HBlidNVzu2XQzIdjy-M2N9jMmguNArOZZu_57DO-D0KZUM71k4AV4FvBurha-pJ68w/s1600/thyoid+protection+not+a+visor.jpg" /></a><br />
Apparently the consultant cracked up every time he saw her from then on!<br />
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<i><span style="color: magenta;">Halfadoc x</span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: magenta;"><br /></span></i>
P.s B has made it to fifth year with the rest of us and now knows when and when not to go for the 90's raver visor look!<br />
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Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319382295659590674.post-53619141935093450042012-10-16T23:57:00.001+01:002012-10-16T23:57:21.772+01:002 prison guards, 1 patient, 1 pair of handcuffs, 1 nurse, 1 cannula, NO PRESSURE<u><b><span style="color: magenta;">2 prison guards, 1 patient, 1 pair of handcuffs, 1 nurse, 1 cannula, NO PRESSURE</span></b></u><br />
<u><br /></u>
I've come along a lot in the last few weeks at my clinical procedures. I've improved from wanting to hide in the nearest supply closet at the suggestion of cannulating a patient to actually feeling pretty confident I can pop it in provided the patient is not completely shut down/ older than time itself (<i>for those non medical personnel not in the know, a cannula is basically a tube you put into a vein so that you can give IV drugs/fluids through it, it usually stays in there a few days</i>).<br />
<br />
Those of you who are observant and have been following my blog regularly might have realised I have only ever blogged about successfully getting a cannula in ONCE, that would be because until a few weeks ago I had in fact only got a cannula in ONCE (yes, I am a final year and yes I realise this is bad) which was on my elective over a year ago and then only under guidance from a midwife. Still after a few weeks on surgery and 1 in ITU I'm finally more at the level a fifth year should be at and have now done quite a few, but heres the story of my first two sucessful patients.....<br />
<br />
<b>1 week old with a MELONoma (</b><b>sorry I doctored the word a bit...)</b><b> he was a bit fruity... </b>(yes yes brother, I stole your joke, I'd vancouver reference you but this blogs anon so tough luck :P)<br />
<br />
Ok, this patient was a mango. The nurses mango to be precise (I think she ate it afterwards and all :S). He made good practise for how to hold and insert cannulas though, very forgiving and very patient, so I think I owe my first actual successful unassisted cannula to him. Here he is in all his cannulated glory:<br />
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Incidentally <b><span style="color: red;">don't try and flush saline into a cannulated mango, it WILL squirt out and hit your reg in the face. Opps :/.</span></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><u>The patient in handcuffs</u></b><br />
So off I went to cannulate my first actual patient here at the suggestion of mango-nurse, and she came with me so she could sign off my cannulation skill box if I managed / take over if I did not. All fine so far, till I get the patient who turns out to be handcuffed to a prison guard with another one watching... So my cannulation attempt will in fact have 8 eyes on it, excellent, no pressure... IS IT ME OR IS IT SUDDENLY REALLY HOT IN HERE?!<br />
<br />Furthermore the vein I like the look of is partially being covered by the handcuff, I try to pull the handcuff down a bit (wondering as I do if thats even allowed or if a prison guard is about to yell at me) but it gets caught on the wrist bone so I assume its meant to not go any further and give up tugging and try to work around the handcuff when the patient impatiently tugs it down for me, opps, good start.<br /><br />But anyway long story short, I did get the cannula in first time (yay) but I did also give the bed a bit of a blood splattering which mango-nurse was less keen about, never mind, win some lose some.<br /><br />But yes, not the first unassisted cannulation experience I was expecting!<br />
<br />
<span style="color: magenta;">Halfadoc x</span>Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319382295659590674.post-48461644415253591512012-10-12T00:47:00.001+01:002012-10-13T00:02:38.675+01:00Things can only get bettttter....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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October 2012: This last week and a bit started off so badly, with everything seeming to go wrong leaving me very fed up with medicine and my own disorganisation, fortunately I'm glad to say a week on and everything is already seeming a lot less stressful! The main two items of stress are below, not the only ones by far, but the straws that broke the camels back I suppose because without them it all seems so much more manageable again :).<br />
<br />
I've gone from having fits of rage that someone had taken my stethoscope from SAU where I had accidently left it over night (my stethoscope is by no means top of the range but its still £60 that I really can't afford to waste right now) to having my faith in humanity restored by someone responding to my <b>"MISSING STETHOSCOPE</b>" posters and getting it back to me. It had been missing for 3 weeks and I leave this hospital in a week so I thought it was a gonna but had been paranoidly eying up all stethoscopes of the same colour to try and see if my name was engraved on them. <i>Its probably for the best that its turned up now, because staring at all those doctors' chests was probably a little creepy....</i><br />
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<i><br /></i></div>
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Furthermore I was having a major fit of rage at myself and a big panic about the fact I could not find my intercalated degree certificate and it is foundation job application time - if I couldn't get a replacement one by the 19th then my intercalated year would be a waste of time in the sense that I wouldn't get any points for it on my job application - I couldn't believe that I had successfully put things such as my <b>Duckling Swimming Award</b> certificate in a well organised folder but had no idea where the most important certificate I currently had was! Major fail! I organised to get a replacement (another £26.50) and begged the admin lady to push it through faster than the 3 weeks quoted when sods law, 2 hrs after I had paid, my parents find my certificate at home. Doh!! However the very kind admin lady arranged a refund for me even though my certificate had already been printed - what a gem! So once again faith in humanity restored :)</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">But at least I alway know where my duckling awards are, I mean WHO knows when someone may ask me to show proof of having earnt that...</td></tr>
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Its also been a good week in that I've spent it in ITU which has been VERY interesting, plus I'm finally getting good at blood taking and cannulating - the doctors on this ward have actually commented that I'm very good! Now thats a change! </div>
Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319382295659590674.post-40261215100794318892012-10-02T13:47:00.003+01:002013-01-02T18:31:17.188+00:00The best FREE medical finals revision sourcesRight, so this is going to be an ongoing resource that I will add to as I go along , but I figure finals are a problem that is best shared so it would be nice to have a list that all students can look at and add to in order to save us all doing the same research. Please comment if you know of other sources and I will add them to the list :) (and steal your suggests for my own revision as well ;D).<br />
<br />
<b>Free Podcasts</b> - good for revising on the go<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://saran.podomatic.com/">http://saran.podomatic.com/</a> - easy to download, work straight away with windows media player. I've not listened to them yet so I'll let you know what they are like soon (downloaded them for a long car drive!).</li>
<li><a href="http://www.podmedics.com/">http://www.podmedics.com/</a> - not free but you can get a free 7 day trial. So I guess you can liberate as many resources as possible during that time....And of course then sign up for the website if you like them...</li>
<ul>
<li>There is a free podmedics podcast app with quite a few downloadable podcasts which are pretty good if you have an iphone</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Non downloadable presentations/ podcasts (streaming only)</b></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><b><a href="http://fdf.smd.qmul.ac.uk/1_intro/interfaces.html">"Feather does finals"</a>- </b>Meant to be really really good, been recommended by lots of people.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Youtube videos! </b>(for those all important examinations you never learnt to do!):</div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/CMFTUGME?feature=watch">Series of OCSE videos by manchester uni</a> - v. useful! (and thats as a non biased non Manchester student ;D) </li>
<li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/OSCEUmbrella?feature=watch">Another ocse video series</a> - not as many as above one, but good for thyroid!</li>
<li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsCoSHP4RmE">Varicose veins ocse video</a> - this one is great for varicose veins examination, finally made sense to me! (There is also a few more ocse videos if you click on the uploader name)</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<b>Websites</b><br />
<b><br /></b></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>geekymedics.com - looks really good from what I have looked at so far :)</li>
<li>http://almostadoctor.co.uk - really useful notes and sectioned in a very easy to use way.</li>
<li>www.askdoctorclarke.com - the courses and that aren't free but you can sign up to the website for free and theres a fair bit of revision material there </li>
<li><b><a href="http://passmed.co.uk/index.html">http://passmed.co.uk/index.html</a> </b>- bit variable, has links to other free sites but lots of them are out of date (have been looking through for working ones!). Some info on the site itself though.</li>
</ul>
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....<span style="font-size: large;">More to come!</span></div>
Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319382295659590674.post-35617512672213509692012-09-25T23:30:00.001+01:002012-09-25T23:30:22.238+01:00Blonde Medic Moment 3: A lethal pocket dial<b><u>Blonde Medic Moment 3: A lethal pocket dial</u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
September 2012: Ok this has <b>got</b> to be potentially one of my most embarrassing medical moments to date, and it literally happened about 30 minutes ago so this is hot off the press as it were....<br />
<br />
So to set the scene:<br />
Was just having a quick chat to my friend in his hospital accommodation about the surgical firm that he has just finished on and I have just started on. The conversation was mostly about the F1 but also about the surgical team and our opinions of surgery in general...<br />
<br />
Embarrassing topics we covered included<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>My friend having a crush on the F1</li>
<li>How the F1 is often late and seems pretty laidback (we weren't berating this, just commenting on it and saying that he doesn't seem any more keen on surgery than we are)</li>
<li>How neither of us are particularly keen on surgery at all and would prefer to spend time doing private study as it is probably more useful that the often waiting about style of surgery.</li>
<li>How my friend also had a bit of a crush on the registrar......</li>
</ul>
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And other topics of conversation best not discussed here as my mother sometimes reads this blog...(Kidding mum)</div>
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Anyway I had a brief chat to someone else (nothing incriminating, just general banter) on my way back to my accomadation and then when straight back... When I sat down I realised my phone had been pocket dialing the F1 for 3 whole potentially incriminating minutes... ..... Chances are I was safe and he wouldn't have heard anything beyond the later banter/ me walking, but that is waaaay too close for my comfort :/ . Fingers crossed he didn't hear anything (especially as my friend would also be embarrassed) but <b><span style="color: purple;">what on earth were the chances of my phone picking that particular moment to dial the F1?! </span></b>I swear these things could only happen to me!<br /><br /><br />Anyway I hope the thought of how much I am cringing now brings some enjoyment to your day at any rate! Trying hard to keep blogging reasonably regulary but fifth year is eating me alive and there are so many things I plan on blogging about that just don't make it to my blog. If there's anything in particular anyone would like to hear more about please do comment below and I will try and focus on those areas for a bit! </div>
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<span style="color: magenta;">Halfadoc x</span></div>
Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319382295659590674.post-4997915445822423922012-09-14T23:48:00.003+01:002012-09-14T23:48:59.748+01:00Blonde medic moment 2!<b><u><span style="color: magenta;">Blonde medic moment 2!</span></u></b><br />
<br />
Time for another short blonde moment post! Okay this moment is made blonde by the fact it has occured recently and so has occurred whilst I am a final year and really should know better....<br />
<div style="font-weight: normal;">
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<b>Consultant Surgeon</b> (Lets call him Mr Stereotype for definitely no reason connected to his personality being a bit stereotypical of a surgeon...): Why is the Gallbladder important?</div>
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<b>Me</b><span style="font-weight: normal;">: It makes bile?</span></div>
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<b>Mr Stereotype</b><span style="font-weight: normal;">: Errrrm no, it doesn't make bile....</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal;">
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<div style="font-weight: normal;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>So why is it important??</div>
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<b>Smart Student</b><span style="font-weight: normal;">: It makes mucus</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
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<b>Mr Stereotype</b><span style="font-weight: normal;">: Well Yes, but no, its important because removing it is paying for my children's<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>private education.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And probably pays for his monday, tuesday and wednesday games of golf too (maybe he does kidney stones for the thursday and friday games)</td></tr>
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Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319382295659590674.post-75624584389648212492012-08-31T23:38:00.006+01:002012-09-13T00:49:49.327+01:00First Week of Final Year - Eeeeek!<strong><u><span style="color:#cc33cc;">First Week of Final Year - Eeeeek!</span></u></strong><br /><strong><em>End of August 2012:</em></strong><br /><strong><em></em></strong><br />Well, I've officially made it to final year, how scary is that?! I'm living in hospital accommodation for the next 8 weeks but actually on my 4 week GP placement first of all which is about 10 miles away from my hospital accommodation. Living in hospital accomodation is proving to be quite an odd experience so far, I'm in a flat of 4 which is quite plush in that it has two showers, one with a loo in the bathroom plus a separate toilet as well. It also has double beds! Luxury! But on the downside its exceedingly quiet - am yet to meet one of the four health professionals I am living with (only one of these is another student) and have seen one of the others only very briefly, no internet there yet either! How will my social life survive ;D (it will probably actually be good for my academic life as long as it doesn't continue too long, no facebook!)<br /><br />Its quite weird being able to literally see the hospital from my window, I don't think I'd like living here on a permanent basis whilst working in the hospital very much, it would seems quite clautrophobic and I expect it would feel like you never really got to escape from your working life. Even now it feels a bit of a continual reminder that I should be working and that finals are starting to loom...<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><em><span style="font-size:78%;color:#ff0000;">As once described in scrubs: The hospital can be a monster that takes over your life, </span></em><em><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">I could see this being doubly the case if you lived in hospital accomadation permanently!<br /></span></span></em></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5786911894082030162" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSB1A6-H4alSjy55A2f3jV7AXsGbaUZOKhUpUvp1f5sYR9WEJYagwqA6H4oDEAbfItQVvQQfDWzSYPkKp-BNCYoQaSaJD8ETE7lSNvaro4wNcg3pTS8UoPoVgIDgsMNRioDHkF_wUJLg/s320/jd+hospital+is+a+monster+hospital+acommadation.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br />Starting on GP in someways this feels a bit like a lack of progression from fourth year which had quite a few GP visits but in other ways it is really quite different. For one thing I have my very own shiny consulting room which is literally mine and mine only to use for the next 4 weeks which is pretty exciting! I've been told I can decorate with pictures, bring a radio in... etc. Unfortunately not sure my "suicide bunnies" poster is quite appriopriate so I've decided to keep it plain and professional! So far I've only used it a few times to see patients before they see the doctor but hopefully I should use it more and more as time goes on.<br /><br />Another change for this year is that as I am there for a solid 4 weeks rather than just the odd afternoon I am already starting to feel like more of a team member rather than occasional visitor which is really nice :)<br /><br />Thats all for now - going to try and keep posts shorter and sweeter otherwise I have no hope of managing to post reasonably regulary whilst keeping up with final year, which already I am finding ever so slightly stressful...<br /><br /><span style="color:#cc33cc;">Halfadoc xx</span><br />Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319382295659590674.post-36488435247799603562012-08-18T23:18:00.002+01:002012-08-18T23:18:21.551+01:00How to apply to medical school without losing your mind<span style="color: magenta;">Hi guys, sorry I've fallen off the blogsphere a bit, its been a busy few months full of finishing fourth year and the fun of exams* combined with summer fun such as volunteering as a games maker at the olympics and earning my last pennies from my part time job before I quit it in order to dedicate my time to giving myself and my wonderful lack of medical knowledge the best chance of scrapping through finals in about 9 months times (eeek eeekk eeeeek!!! This absolutely terrifies me!!)</span><br />
<span style="color: magenta;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: magenta;">The good news is I'm all passed on fourth year and so now do hold the terrifying title of <b>Final</b> year medical student.A week and a bit till I start back :o. Start taking your vitamin tablets cause its looking like I could actually pull off this medical student business **! </span><br />
<span style="color: magenta;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: magenta;">But anyway: Blogging. I'll catch you up on some of my latest medical exploits soon, but I figured its that time of year when AS students have all got their results and are working on their applications... Well I always intended this blog to be something that would help current applicants but it has occurred to be that I've not really shared that much of my "wisdom" about the application process, so without further adieu:</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u>General advice<o:p></o:p></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u><br /></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Personal statement</b>
– concentrate more on what you gained
from a few key pieces of work experience/ volunteer work than just listing all
the things you have done. Spend time
working on your opening line, you want to get their attention and make your
personal statement stand out.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Interview – </b>Best
advice is to be enthusiastic and to be yourself. Read a good newspaper on the day of your
interview and the few days leading up to it (often there are questions on current medical issues). Re read your personal statement –look for
bits where you may not have expanded much as these may be the areas the
interviewers ask you more about. Think
about what you might want to say for some key questions eg “Why medicine” and
“How do you deal with stress” but don’t script answers too much because it will
sound fake.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Look on forums before your interview – some people put up
what they got asked at recent interviews at particular med schools and the
questions often don’t change much.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: red;">What if you don’t get
in?</span> This is in my opinion my most important bit of advice: </b>Gap year and reapply!! Lots of gap year students get in esp if you do
something useful with your time on your gap year that you can talk about at
interview. Get feedback from unis that rejected you so
you can improve next time.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Phone, fax and email medical schools on results day – some
medical place do <b>very </b>occasionally
come up at clearing! A girl in my year got into keele despite not having
applied there originally because she both phoned and emailed them her results +
personal statement on results day and they offered her an interview – have
heard of this happening to a few people at keele. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Seriously, the grad route is always a possibility but as you have to pay your own tuition fees for second degree (so thats £9000 upfront, no loan, per a year) this really should be your plan C not plan B, gap year gap year gap year!! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u>Websites<o:p></o:p></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Current medical student blogs e.g. <a href="http://www.halfadoctor.blogspot.com/">www.halfadoctor.blogspot.com</a> obviously :p, but seriously theres some very interesting reads on the blogroll at the right of my main page</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.wanttobeadoctor.co.uk/main.php">http://www.wanttobeadoctor.co.uk/main.php</a>
(by Leeds WAMS, but lots of general advice and example interview questions)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.newmediamedicine.com/">www.newmediamedicine.com</a>
(a forum for medical applicants and current medical students) and/or www.thestudentroom.co.uk then just go to the medicine pages.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tomorrow’s doctors document: <a href="http://www.gmc-uk.org/education/undergraduate/undergraduate_policy/tomorrows_doctors.asp">http://www.gmc-uk.org/education/undergraduate/undergraduate_policy/tomorrows_doctors.asp</a> - this is apparently what medical schools want you to be like but I've got to admit its a bit wishy-washy and I only ever skim read it, whoopsy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u>Books<o:p></o:p></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Bedside Stories: Confessions of a Junior Doctor (Paperback) </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
by </span><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-url?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books-uk&field-author=Michael%20Foxton"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Michael Foxton</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">In Stitches: The Highs and Lows of Life as an AandE Doctor (Paperback) </span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"><br />
by </span><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-url?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books-uk&field-author=Nick%20Edwards"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Nick Edwards</span></a><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Trust Me, I'm a (Junior) Doctor (Paperback)</span><b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">(and all other Max pemberton books, all good reads!)</span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"><br />
by </span><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-url?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books-uk&field-author=Max%20Pemberton"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Max Pemberton</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: magenta;">So none of this is by any means exhaustive, but I hope it helps a little. Any of questions about applying that you have, please feel free to comment below and I will try and get back to you :). Also I forgot to mention, how do you apply without losing your mind?? Well, I'm afraid I never discovered that one but I hope you enjoy the compulsion to constantly check your UCAS for changes more than I did ;) </span><br />
<span style="color: magenta;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: magenta;">Halfadoc x</span><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidt2eUxtGG9J4V3AUhYDg7bzrHCHE5Z-myzZ3QmCG-aaiNeNuOLG7lWckAx_wquNgbw_Z9tRla1gMgM22ZTUxO3NCbhET5PuYn4FyCNj7SXWF08u-Q4gS7r6AYIbjTxP50eMboSkG-Lg/s1600/halfadoc+advice+for+medical+applicants.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidt2eUxtGG9J4V3AUhYDg7bzrHCHE5Z-myzZ3QmCG-aaiNeNuOLG7lWckAx_wquNgbw_Z9tRla1gMgM22ZTUxO3NCbhET5PuYn4FyCNj7SXWF08u-Q4gS7r6AYIbjTxP50eMboSkG-Lg/s400/halfadoc+advice+for+medical+applicants.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
*Mainly a very annoying GP exam which combined genuine medical knowledge with rote learning/reciting type aspects about things such as the "WONCA tree" - google it if your interested but I don't advise bothering, for starters theres absolutely no connection to any chocolate factory ;D<br />
** Don't take too many, that's just as bad.Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319382295659590674.post-72569473349098939282012-06-01T22:46:00.003+01:002017-04-16T22:37:41.891+01:0080 + Things you wish you knew before you started medical school<b><u>80 + Things you wish you knew before you started medical school</u></b><br />
<br />
So I've been looking at this site <a href="http://www.medschoolhell.com/2007/04/24/101-things-you-wish-you-knew-before-starting-medical-school/">http://www.medschoolhell.com/2007/04/24/101-things-you-wish-you-knew-before-starting-medical-school/</a> , which is great but very american and not always applicable to the english medical school system, so I've decided to slowly completely plagiarise/alter/ add my own bits to this (I'll keep updating this post as I think of things. I think I'm a bit more optimistic than the original poster perhaps tho, so some have had a positive slant added to them!)<br />
<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>People told you it would be hard, but at times you will feel they didn't emphasize this enough. At other times you will think that they (and me now!) are drama queens.</li>
<li>You’ll study more than you ever have in your life. </li>
<li>Only half of your class will be in the top 50%. You have a 50% chance of being in the top half of your class. Get used to it now.</li>
<li>You don’t need to know anatomy before school starts. Or pathology. Or physiology.</li>
<li>That Chemistry A level you had to take because it was "the most relevant a level for studying medicine"? Not relevant. At all.</li>
<li>Third year rotations will suck the life out you. Fifth year ones might take your soul (so I hear, I'll let you know next year).</li>
<li>Med-cest! Your year group will couple up, break up, and then re couple up differently. Gossip galore. Those with non medic partners are in a sad minority.</li>
<li>You may discover early on that medicine isn’t for you.</li>
<li>You will need to know how to make tea to order for GP rotations. That job in a cafe? Looking more useful now.</li>
<li>You will become OCD about handwashing, if not you will be told off on many occasions by the nursing staff (rightfully).</li>
<li>Despite all the early lectures you have about patients consent being clearly asked with regards to medical students sitting in on clinics, you will be in countless situations where you are pretty sure the consultant hasn't asked and you don't think the patient is comfortable with you being there</li>
<li>You won’t be a medical student on the surgery rotation. You’ll be the retractor bitch.</li>
<li>You often won't be a medical student on ANY rotation, you will be he/she who pulls the curtain.</li>
<li>You will get really good at getting drug rep/ company free pens whenever you can but doctors are even better at "borrowing" them off you.</li>
<li>If you added up all the time you waste waiting around for clinics/ lectures/ ward rounds you could easily shorten the actual medical degree by a year. </li>
<li>You will work with at least one smart arse senior that you want to argue with about the way they treat you and other medical students, but you will have to sit down and shut up.</li>
<li>You will see staffs expressions of annoyance when you turn up and say you are a medical student.</li>
<li>You’ll ask a stranger about the quality of their stools.</li>
<li>You’ll ask post-op patients if they’ve farted within the last 24 hours.</li>
<li>At some point during your stay, a stranger’s bodily fluids will most likely come into contact with your exposed skin.</li>
<li>Somebody in your class will flunk out of medical school. Probably more than one.</li>
<li>Several people in your year will date doctors during the course.</li>
<li>After the first two years are over, your summer breaks scarcely exist. Enjoy them as much as you can.</li>
<li>You’ll be sleep deprived.</li>
<li>There will be times on certain rotations where you won’t be allowed to eat.</li>
<li>The phrase "Reflective writing" will induce a pavlovs dog style response resulting in instant rage.</li>
<li>There will be times throughout the course when you hate medicine and wonder why you are doing this.</li>
<li>You’ll party a lot during the first two years, but that will reduce drastically once you start rotations....</li>
<li>.... You will quickly learn than hangovers and ward rounds to not mix well at all.</li>
<li>You’ll probably change your specialty of choice at least 4 times.</li>
<li>You’ll spend a good deal of your time playing social worker.</li>
<li>Nurses will treat you badly, simply because you are a medical student.</li>
<li>Sometimes on ward rounds/ clinics you will start to seriously debate whether you have achieved the power of invisibility.</li>
<li>You will develop a thick skin. If you fail to do this, you’ll cry often.</li>
<li>Public humiliation is very commonplace in medical training.</li>
<li>Surgeons are arseholes. Take my word for it now.</li>
<li>It’s always the medical student’s fault.</li>
<li>At least 5% of those in your year would happily push you over and walk on you on their way to try and get to the top.</li>
<li>The woman at Lidl will give you a lecture about the medical risks of drinking too many energy drinks.</li>
<li>Your house might go uncleaned for two weeks during an intensive exam block.</li>
<li>As a medical student on rotations, you don’t matter. In fact, you get in the way and impede productivity.</li>
<li>You’ll be competing against the best of the best, the cream of the crop. This isn’t school where half of your classmates are idiots. Everybody in medical school is smart.</li>
<li>Don’t think that you own the world because you just got accepted into medical school. That kind of attitude will humble you faster than anything else.</li>
<li>If you’re in it for the money, there are much better, more efficient ways to make a living. Medicine is not one of them.</li>
<li>Anatomy sucks. All of the bone names sound the same.</li>
<li>The competition doesn’t end after getting accepted to medical school. You’ll have to compete for decile ranking, awards, and f1 positions. When you specialise you will have to compete for that too.</li>
<li>Close friends will claim they have done next to no work all year, you will be reasurred until you see their pages and pages of notes 1 week before exams start.</li>
<li>Your fourth year in medical school will be like a vacation compared to the first three years. It’s a good thing too, because you’ll need one. (This depends on medical school however....)</li>
<li>Somebody in your class will be known as the “highlighter whore.” Most often a female, she’ll carry around a backpack full of every highlighter color known to man. She’ll actually use them, too. </li>
<li>Rumours surrounding members of your class will spread faster than they did in school.</li>
<li>Rumours about the course will spread faster still - "haven't you heard the medical school HAS to fail 20% because the year is too big?!"</li>
<li>You’ll meet a lot of cool people, many new friends, and maybe your husband or wife.</li>
<li>No matter how bad your medical school experience was at times, you’ll still be able to think about the good times.</li>
<li>Most questions at the end of lectures come from the post-grad students.</li>
<li>There will be at least one person in your year who scarcely has the social skills to say his own name, no one knows how they got through the interview process.</li>
<li>At the beginning of first year, everyone will talk about how cool it’s going to be to help patients. At the end of third year, everybody will talk about how cool it’s going to be to make a lot of money.</li>
<li>By fourth year you are virtually having weekly conversations about how you will spend your first pay check.</li>
<li>The attractiveness of being a GP with its good pay and short hours is positively correlated to your year at medical school</li>
<li>Telling local boys/girls at the bar that you’re a medical student doesn’t mean shit. They’ve been hearing that for years. Be more unique.</li>
<li>The money isn’t really that good in medicine. Not if you look at it in terms of hours worked.</li>
<li>Don’t wear your hospital id badge into a petrol station, or any other business that has nothing to do with you wearing a white coat. You look like an ass, and people do make fun of you.</li>
<li>Dont steal patients for presentations that you know other students are going to use and actually clerked! You will quickly be known as one of that 5% that would push their own gran in front of a bus if they thought it would help their career somehow.</li>
<li>Stick to the back of the ward round parade unless offered to come forward and get a better view of the patient, we've not earnt a right to be at the front yet.</li>
<li>If you piss off your F1, he or she can make your life hell.</li>
<li>Make the most of all the opportunity universities have - don't forget you are at university rather than just medical school, don't be afraid to step out of that medical school bubble occasionally. </li>
<li>Your family members will ask you for medical advice, even after your first week of first year. By your third year onwards they start to worry if you don't know the answer.</li>
<li>Many of your friends will go onto great jobs and fantastic lifestyles. You’ll still be at university eating (asda smart price) pot noodles. </li>
<li>It’s amazing how fast time flies on your days off. It’s equally amazing at how slow the days are on a rotation you hate.</li>
<li>No matter what specialty you want to do, somebody on an unrelated rotation will hold it against you. You will probably starting lying to make your future career match your current rotation...</li>
<li>Sitting around in a group and talking about ethical issues involving patients is not fun. But you will have to do it a lot. </li>
<li>You will probably do more role play than the students studying drama do, and you will become adept at playing the role of a sick patient for ocse practise.</li>
<li>Find new ways to study. The methods you used in college may or may not work. If something doesn’t work, adapt.</li>
<li>Hospitals smell bad.</li>
<li>Occasionally a doctor or nurse will offer you a cup of tea or coffee, that person will become your new god.</li>
<li>Subjective evaluations are just that – subjective. They aren’t your end all, be all so don’t dwell on a poor evaluation. The person giving it was probably an asshole, anyway.</li>
<li>Some physicians will tell you it’s better than it really is. Take what you hear (both positive and negative) with a grain of salt.</li>
<li>90% of surgeons are assholes, and 63% of statistics are made up. The former falls in the lucky 37%.</li>
<li>During the summer before medical school starts, do not attempt to study or read anything remotely related to medicine. Take this time to travel and do things for you.</li>
<li>Vaginal deliveries are messy. So are c-sections. It’s just an all-around blood fest if you like that sort of thing.</li>
<li>Despite what the faculty tell you, you don’t need all of the fancy equipment that they suggest for you to buy. All you need is a stethoscope. The other equipment they say you “need” is standard in all clinic and hospital exam rooms. If it’s not standard, your training hospital and clinics suck.</li>
<li>Don't buy textbooks before you start medical school, and don't buy everything on the reading list then, most librarys are perfectly adequate for textbooks you may only ever use a couple of times. Wait till you know what the core books you use are.</li>
<li>There will be several people in your year who will seem to be doing some form of "gotta catch 'em all" for committee positions and extra curricular activities.</li>
<li>There will be at least one person in your year who seems to be doing the same for STI's ...</li>
<li>By fourth year suddenly everyone will be talking about publications they have got or presentations they are giving at national conferences. If you are not one of these people you simply won't understand how everyone has managed this.</li>
<li>Don't let your decile ranking within the medical school affect your self worth!</li>
<li>Avoid surgery like the plague.</li>
<li>You may have gone into medicine "to help people" but sometimes the only way to do that is to carry out procedures which cause them pain and make you feel like an utter b**t**d, you'd better be prepared for that too.</li>
<li> Reflection will no longer be just the thing you see in the mirror but a word that fills you with dread.</li>
<li>Read this, and the linked american version, now, throughout medical school, and then after you’re done. Then come back and say how right all this is. (I read the american version early in medical school, and now again now as a fourth year, got to say, its definitely looking pretty right!).</li>
</ol>
<br />Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319382295659590674.post-85211355322853351882012-05-29T00:21:00.000+01:002012-05-29T00:21:11.658+01:00I could have qualified last week<b><u>I could have qualified last week</u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b><br />
So last week the fifth years got the results for the second (and last) part of their finals. Those who have passed both bits effectively know now that they will be a doctor come August. This includes a large number of my original year group and some of my closest friends. For those of you who weren't following last year, I took a year "out" of medicine between my third and fourth year of medicine in order to do an intercalated BSc in Sports Science (as did a large amount of my friends, but a few of the closest did not so we are no longer in the same year group).<br />
<br />
Now I don't regret this extra year in the slightest - I had so many incredible experiences last year which I could not have had if I had stayed at my university, only ever studied medicine, and never been a "real" student. Furthermore I've had experiences this year (I can't talk about these as much as I am very proud of them and they have been a massive part of my year, as linking myself to them would COMPLETELY destroy any sense of anonymity) which I could not have done if I had been in the fifth year and were not an option last year as the society I was part of did not exist then. <br />
<br />
However its hard not to feel the slightest tinge of jealousy (and I mean very slightest, and not in a bitter way - I'm unbelievably proud and happy for my friends that all their ridiculous hard work this year has paid off) or slightly weirded out that without this year, I could have passed (or failed..) my finals last week and be starting as a doctor come august. That kinda blows my mind.<br />
<br />
I have mixed feelings about whether I would want to be in this position - on the one hand MONEY (I'm honestly not going into medicine to get rich, but the amount of student loan we get at this stage of the course is pitiful and I'm growing weary of counting pennys student style), the knowledge you've done it and the fact that by five years of uni you are a little weary of the whole thing (however much I honestly love my medical school) and just want to be done. On the other hand, I'm not sure right now that I am quite ready for the responsibilities of a doctor - not knowledge wise (I definitely don't have that yet!) but emotionally/ situation management wise; perhaps though going through fifth year would have meant I would feel more ready at this stage though. <br />
<br />
One of my friends who has just passed is only 22, she will have <i>just</i> turned 23 once she starts, so perhaps although I feel too young at 23 to be qualifying it is not so much age making me feel this but the amount of clinical experiences I am yet to have but will hopefully have been exposed to by the end of fifth year.<br />
<br />
I think my overwhelming feeling though is being quite daunted by the prospect of finals and fifth year in general. From seeing my friends go through it, it looks exhausting. I'm envious of my friends for being past this stage now. Their finals being done now, means my year group are the next to have finals (ignoring retakes). FLiiiiipppping heck. I still remember walking into my first lecture of first year thinking how long the course was, and scoffing at the lecturers who told us before we knew it we would be coming to the end. And I still have so much knowledge to re-learn after forgetting it all during my intercalated year. Well, one things for sure, next year should be...interesting..!<br />
<br />
But above all:<br />
<span style="color: magenta; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THOSE MEDICS UK-WIDE WHO HAVE JUST PASSED FINALS!!!</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-0SYp5SYYUm7P6nn6y6CwZHCSH1Y9jucjZ_aGxaRoxFDFWYpPHypV8vRkJ4adP4rBxBBeUHRqrcwKS4IH_kvUyGVs0924C_fnCkj6d9VHXSMQcGZz4yg4iAjGxm8ydaLFWcHcqQjA9Q/s1600/doctor+graduation+final+passing+halfadoc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-0SYp5SYYUm7P6nn6y6CwZHCSH1Y9jucjZ_aGxaRoxFDFWYpPHypV8vRkJ4adP4rBxBBeUHRqrcwKS4IH_kvUyGVs0924C_fnCkj6d9VHXSMQcGZz4yg4iAjGxm8ydaLFWcHcqQjA9Q/s320/doctor+graduation+final+passing+halfadoc.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This year this is for my friends, group of absolute geniuses who I know will make incredible and caring doctors (hopefully next year I can do the same with the "halfa" in my blog title!!!)<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-size: large;">Halfadoc x</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: magenta; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: magenta; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319382295659590674.post-45399037659779858222012-05-23T14:22:00.001+01:002012-05-23T14:22:30.827+01:00Drs ABC at a post office<b><u>Drs ABC at a post office</u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b><br />
Hello again, I've been gone for a while as I was frantically writing my medical school dissertation. And if you've been reading my blog for a while you might remember from my intercalated year just how much I LOVE writing research projects. For those of you who are new to this blog, I hasten to add that this is sarcasm. But, it is DONE. Feels pretty good (plus two committee positions that I have been undertaking which involved a great deal of work have just come to an end, so I'm the most free I have been all year :D)<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnF1XVhVpx-BNXj-WpxdKwG3QrC11qrcKxI-YrRScH2Uqtb957GMtu7JVT4GJu7hYhYfjTPJzzT-3T_rb97zhWExNIaHIo_3lGO5nv0O21_mVlOcbB4HB40iiwpFBfr8VCGIqaH74LgQ/s1600/dissertation+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnF1XVhVpx-BNXj-WpxdKwG3QrC11qrcKxI-YrRScH2Uqtb957GMtu7JVT4GJu7hYhYfjTPJzzT-3T_rb97zhWExNIaHIo_3lGO5nv0O21_mVlOcbB4HB40iiwpFBfr8VCGIqaH74LgQ/s400/dissertation+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The two bound copies of my completed dissertation - needless to say the pink scribble is not on the actual copies but to protect anonymity! </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
However whilst last week was mostly a case of being permanently attached to my desk and trying to make myself write this ^ damn thing, one of my few ventures out into the real world did yield a blog worthy story.<br />
<br />
<b>The context: </b>So there I was standing in a massive queue for the post office, rather annoyed because the packages I was collecting should have been there 2 weeks ago (our local post office is widely known for being really shoddy lately, its in the local papers regulary) and instead had of course come on the one day that no one was in the house but due to their crappness lately I wasn't risking getting them redelivered and instead had paid £3.60 in parking to collect them (one was too big for cycling) and was wasting my time doing so when I should be writting dissertation. So I was quite annoyed and was planning complaining at the counter as well about the fact one of my packages STILL hadn't arrived (and in fact STILL hasn't another week on... ....). Anyway enough of my postage rant, but that gives you an idea of the context. Oh and further context is that I was dressed like a total slob in trackies and a hoody (ironically my medical school hoody) as thats what I wear when I'm writing essays etc. Anywhere so there I am, queuing, in a bad mood, dressed like a slob, when....<br /><br /><b>The event: </b>The girl in front of me collapses! Now I didn't have to think too hard about my first action, I assumed she had fainted from standing too long (as I've said before, I'm prone to doing this so that was my immediate assumption for her). As a result my first words to her were "Are you ok?". I wasn't at all expecting her not too respond. When she didn't I went into "first aid" mode from what I have been taught on countless courses and said loudly directly into her ear "Can you hear me??", when she still didn't respond I added a shoulder pinch (no no no, not to be mean but because this is what I have been taught). <i>[There then was a brief moment when I thought shit I'd better put her into recovery position but fortunately I calmed down and remembered I needed to check one or two things before I jumped to this stage!]</i><br />At this point I realised she really wasn't responding and asked the people in the queue behind (none of whom as of yet had offered any help) if anyone was there with her, no one was. Someone then asked if I wanted them to call an ambulance, which was a good prompt to be honest as this is the next stage really when someones not responding so I said yes please call an ambulance. Fortunately someone asking this reminded me to calm down and go back to the basic Drs ABC algorithm for what to do in these situations (if you don't know what I mean, the picture below explains it but not what you should do at each stage - google it or even better go on a first aid course, you can literally save a life from knowing 5 basic steps). So I turned the patient over (and as I did so did actually have a brief scan of the girls wrists to see if she had a medic alert bracelet but I only saw what look like a watch). At this point someone else scuttled over and said lets take off her scarf , which I didn't think was entirely the most important next point as it was far too loose to be impeding her breathing and wasn't going to stop me doing the "Head tilt, chin lift" to open her airway but I let them do it and just said something awkward like <b>I'm a medical student if that helps</b> at that point they promptly backed away, happy to leave someone else to do it instead and reassured that despite looking young I had a vague idea what to do... At the same time I realised that <b style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: magenta;">yes, I probably was the most medically qualified person here, oh god oh god oh god!! </span></b>But quickly checked nothing was in her mouth and then id the head tilt chin lift to open her airway and was about to listen for breathing when she started incoherently responding - PHEWWWWWWWWWWWW<br /><br />I realised the first thing she was trying to say was that she DID have a medic alert bracelet (that watch thing? verrrrry sneakily engraved in small letters on one of the links!) , then as she came round more I took her history, tried to see if she had any prn meds she usually took in this situation (she didn't and in fact hadn't taken her regular medication for a week which is almost certainly why she had collapsed) and passed everything on to the ambulance operator on the phone. She was shivering a bit so I put my hoody over her, and someone else in the queue offered theirs. Eventually a post office first aid person came out, checked the ambulance had been called and then did absolutly nothing (literally didn't even chat to the girl, it was insane). Fortunately the ambulance crew turned up quickly and I was relieved there was someone more qualified to take over!<br />
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The ambulance man made sure someone went and got her package while he was checking her bp etc which I though was a nice touch.<br /><br />But yeah, a bit more dramatic than your average trip to the post office! Was retrospectively quite exhilarating though ( I think this is ok to say because she was ok in the end).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8PHpG73pNojThbeCJQrX9YInC7HHRx7HxksvuZZfuMTkU4l4qpofxCufBCZeRBsFU-0gB5vPH1-pXbwQ6l1MmyqfGfeVGu1wzVt_fxzuQOad75MF5dwMNDMe2apsN7xTw3QuG7Gc10Q/s1600/drs+abc+first+aid+save+a+life.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8PHpG73pNojThbeCJQrX9YInC7HHRx7HxksvuZZfuMTkU4l4qpofxCufBCZeRBsFU-0gB5vPH1-pXbwQ6l1MmyqfGfeVGu1wzVt_fxzuQOad75MF5dwMNDMe2apsN7xTw3QuG7Gc10Q/s320/drs+abc+first+aid+save+a+life.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Learn first aid, go on a course, its simple and you could save a life</td></tr>
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<span style="color: magenta; font-size: large;">Halfadoc xx</span>Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319382295659590674.post-67698132922974116022012-04-24T15:33:00.000+01:002012-04-24T15:33:01.753+01:00ENT department trollsCall me paranoid, but there MUST be an ENT department conspiracy to stop me attending my timetabled sessions/ just generally waste my time, surely this many clinics are not normally cancelled?!<br />
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I've had 3 (out of a timetabled 6) ENT clinics cancelled, plus an audiology clinic. Of the 2 ENT clinics I have attended (the 3rd will be tomorrow) both times I've been in with a GP trainee (who therefore see less patients than say ENT consultants) while my colleagues have been in with the consultant/ registrar. Both these clinics have had many of their few patients not attend and started at least an hour later than timetabled. The audiology clinic I finally attended made me wait an hour in the waiting area before telling me they wouldn't actually have any patients till 11am - what? Why not mention this say an hour earlier so I could go to the library and get something done?!?<br />
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As a result I have probably seen 6 conscious ENT patients (I have seen more in surgery) and really know very little about ENT, haven't got 2 of my clinical skills signed off through literally no fault of mine, and I think its fair to say this rotation has well and truly put me off ENT! Rant over (for now ;D)<br />
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Its not really a conspiracy though, as I'm not the only student who has had issues getting into clinics - especially with audiology clinics. Strangely I managed to attend audiology with no problems in 3rd year when I had to attend 10 random hospital departments for a sign off, walked straight in then, irony. I wonder if I accidently stole a 4th years clinic? :/.<br />
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<br />Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319382295659590674.post-21072254194433763702012-03-30T23:53:00.001+01:002012-04-18T22:02:06.610+01:00An average week of a fourth year medical student: Friday<b><u>An average week of a fourth year medical student:<span style="color: magenta;"> Friday</span></u></b><br />
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Firstly I finally just got down and did a reasonable amount of essay, woo! Secondly yes this does mean I am in at home on a Friday night doing essay rather than out :/ still on the plus side at least I don't have finals in a few weeks like my fifth year friends!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I'm so sorry...I just couldn't resist!</td></tr>
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So its friday today, which means it is GP day, I don't have GP visits every Friday, just 8 in the year but today does happen to be one of those 8.<br />
Here is my rough day:<br />
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8.15 Leave for GP surgery<br />
8.50 Get stuck in a horrible traffic jam and only move 1mile in 30 mins. Perfect.<br />
9.30 Arrive at GP surgery 30 mins late, and very stressed and panicked. GP is ok about this though and very understanding - phew!<br />
9.40-11.00 See patients at the GP surgery, a good mix of cases but mostly older patients due to the demographic of the town this GP surgery is in. Quite a few "heart sink" patients though like an elderly lady who has recently gone blind, has epilepsy as well and now is also very depressed. She is a "heart sink" patient because its quite difficult for the GP to treat her depression through medication at any rate as anti depressants can increase the amount of seizures in those with epilepsy and also certain antidepressants may interact with epilepsy drugs so this makes it harder for the doctor to choose a treatment for her which will not complicate things further.<br />
11.00-12.00 The GP goes on house calls at this point. This GP surgery seems to do a lot more house calls than other surgeries I have been attached to although maybe this is partially because of the older population here.<br />
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The house calls bring a whole new level to the heart sink factor as the five the GP I am shadowing takes are all at a care home for people with very advanced dementia. It does really shock me how absent some of the residents in this care home are, some are able to answer the GPs equations about their symptoms but others are simply staring vacantly at the walls/ ceiling. Now when I say phrases like "vacant" I don't mean any disrespect to the patients or their families, that's just simply how it is, some of these patients had such advanced dementia that they had absolutely no idea what was going on around them and didn't ever realise the doctor was there. These cases are heart breaking as there is so little that can be done for the patient (beyond treating whatever acute bout of illness has caused the doctor to be summoned). I think in many ways its probably harder for the relatives than the patients once an individual reaches this degree of illness because beyond the occasional lucid moment that they may have, for the most part the patient will not be aware that things had been different / that they are ill.<br />
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Afternoon: I picked up those desk chairs I bought off ebay, definitely a bargain at £5.98! And fortunately it turns out you can fit 4 desk chairs in a ford ka, if you try really really hard! Anyway means I can now sit at my desk and write my essay on a comfy seat rather than a wooden fold out seat stolen from elsewhere in my house!<br />
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Met up with my research supervisor and get some of the stuff I need though not all of it, he is a very nice guy and we randomly talk about other career progression things for most of the meeting. He always enthuses me research wise when I meet up with him, its just when I'm not meeting up with him it can be quite tricky to hear back from him and get help with the bits I need help with :/.<br />
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In the evening, I cook/eat dinner, do a decent amount of essay, write this and now its bedtime and the weekend!<br />
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My weekend will not be exciting so here is its summary: Tomorrow I will be working till 5.30 at WHSmiths earning money for food and other such luxuries (or for another four desk chairs, who knows!), Sunday I am determined to virtually finish that essay.<br />
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So there you go, the average (rather than exciting stories) week of a fourth year medical student :)<br />
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Halfadoc x<br />
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<br />Half a dochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04860611237759342307noreply@blogger.com3