So I've been back for just over a week now and have started lectures. These lectures have literally made me question why I am studying Medicine. It has been a horrible week. 9am - 5pm lectures. I can fly back to Canada in that time period! I do not know what is going on with my medical school...but 9-5 lectures do not work. No one can concentrate for that long. I really have to admit it was tough. Not only was it tough, but I was dealing with jet lag so my days felt like weeks. I actually thought time had stopped as my days were going by so slowly.
All these lectures actually made me lose focus of my ultimate goal: to be a doctor. I was struggling to find my footing and was not motivated at all. I mean I have definitely found my footing again after having a good rest during the weekend. Yesterday I had Diabetes Teaching which was more interactive and practical. Definitely lifted my spirits and gave me a bit of motivation. I'm sure once placements come around again I will be inspired and motivated again.
After talking to a few good friends, I feel a bit better. One of my friends pointed out that I never give up in anything I do and giving up Medicine is not an option. And you know what, she is right. I never give up and I am not prepared to give up now. I'm halfway through my degree and it can only get better. Just need to put my head down and power through these lectures and assignments. I had a passion for medicine and when I really think about it - I still have a passion for it. There were some sparkles of hope today during our practical session and tomorrow I will be seeing diabetic patients. I am actually excited so I know my passion for medicine is still with me. Just need to get through 3 more days of lectures and I'll be back on the wards. I will be examined on my clinical skills soon so I'll be able to do some clinical skills on the wards. I just need to be patient and keep going.
You know while writing this post, it made me think. This is what medicine is about. Fighting adversity. Overcoming challenges. Pick yourself up and keep moving. On the wards - you will face challenges. You will have to make difficult decisions. There will always be ups and downs throughout your career and you have to learn how to deal with them. These days have been long and will only get longer when I become a doctor. Time to get used to it. This is reality.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Which Medical School?
Well it's a new cycle for 2012 medical applicants. I have a received a few messages about which medical schools to apply to. I can't remember if I have done a post on how to pick your unis so I'll just do another one just in case.
1. Get your priorities straight.
What do I mean by priorities? Each person has a different priority. If you're an international student like me: usually location is a huge point. So ask yourself: "what do I care about?" Location? Course structure? Teaching standards? Size of the university? Union? Night life? And so on...
2. Research. Research. Research.
Do as much research as you can to learn about the course structure for each university. Research about the city. Research cost of living. Some cities will cost more to live in than others. London for example is a very expensive place to live in. Finance is a huge thing especially for international students. This is something you should discuss with parents if they are going to be your main sponsors. If you will be on loan, again you need to make sure you spend your money wisely and try to be economic. You don't want to end up in money trouble after your first few years of uni. Also research the location of the university. Is it a campus university (e.g. Nottingham) or is it a uni within the city (e.g. Manchester)?
3. Course Structure.
For medicine, some universities have a PBL system, Traditional, or Integrated (Lectures with PBL). So how do you learn best? Do you like to have small tutoring sessions and learn best from those? Do you like to sit in a large lecture hall with hundreds of other students? Do you want to sit in a lecture hall and then apply your knowledge in a small group? Again, every person is different. By figuring out your learning style - you can already narrow down your universities.
3.1. Course Structure - Dissection.
Also some universities still have full body cadaver dissections and some have gone to prosection where you only get a section of the cadaver to dissect. What would you prefer? Some people don't care and some do. It's all down to personal choice. If you definitely want full body dissection that will literally shoot you down to a handful of universities. If you don't mind well you still got loads of unis to pick from.
3.2. Clinical Exposure.
Now some people see early clinical exposure as a very important aspect to their learning. Some people may not want such early clinical exposure. Some unis throw you out into the medical world in first year and integrate a lot of clinical experience into the course. Some universities keep it traditional and mainly keep you to the learning aspects and keep you away from patients until after 2nd/3rd year. This is something where you will have to do a lot of research on if this is important to you. Some prospectus/websites for the uni will not mention this so speaking to students from the uni of interest will be helpful.
4. Location.
Do you want to study in a big city like London? Or do you prefer to study in a smaller city such as St Andrews? Personally I chose against studying in London or big cities in general because of the distractions. Big cities = more distractions. I get distracted easily and will find excuses to not do my work. At the same time I don't want to be in an isolated area with nothing to do as I would lose my mind. I wanted to find a place with just enough distractions to keep me sane but not too many distractions that I won't get my work done. Best for you to go visit the universities to get a first hand experience of the city and university. I was quite fortunate to be able to travel the UK to visit all the unis I was interested in. Before I went I already had a rough idea which 4 schools I was going to apply to, but after visiting - my list was COMPLETELY different. You will know when you find the right school for you. You get a weird feeling and sense belonging. You gotta be able to picture yourself in that city for 5+ years. 5 years is a LONG time so you must make sure you will enjoy yourself there.
5. Entrance Requirement.
Some universities require higher grades than others. Your grades is something you can't really change or influence. You will probably have a ballpark idea on what grades you will achieve by the end of the year so look for reasonable unis that you know you will be a competitive applicant. It's nice to dream to go to certain universities but if you don't have the grades for it, you could end up wasting 1 of your 4 choices. Marks isn't everything to get into medicine. Everyone applying will be smart. They use marks as a cut-off and if you don't make the cut-off...well they won't even look at your extra curricular activities that make you seem unique. Also now with the UKCAT, more and more unis are putting more importance on it and using it to cut out applicants as medicine is such a popular course. Admissions need a way to cut down the number so they will use the UKCAT. So look up what are the cut-off marks for each university. Again like your grades, no point in applying to a uni where your UKCAT score is well below what is stated as they will cut you out without looking at your application. If UKCAT didn't go so well, there are still unis that do not look at UKCAT. I believe Birmingham and Liverpool don't use the UKCAT. Some schools need the BMAT so they will not look at UKCAT. Please do your research and look at the entrance requirements.
So this is a pretty rough list of what you should definitely keep in mind when choosing your universities. It takes a lot of research and priority setting. Location and Course Structure will probably be your best two filters to narrow down your list. If you're an international applicant, make sure you check if the university is international friendly. Some universities may not accept your high school diploma/standards. Remember choosing which uni to go to should be YOUR choice and YOUR decision. Yes of course if your parents are helping you out with money, they have a bit of say, but again you have to make sure you will be happy at the university and will enjoy the teaching. So select your unis carefully and take your time with it. Think it through and try and get some opinions as well. By the way I quite enjoyed this website: UnionView. It's a website which has a review of almost all the unis in the UK. So take a look at it if you don't get the chance to visit the uni.
Good luck with your application and I truly hope this has helped.
1. Get your priorities straight.
What do I mean by priorities? Each person has a different priority. If you're an international student like me: usually location is a huge point. So ask yourself: "what do I care about?" Location? Course structure? Teaching standards? Size of the university? Union? Night life? And so on...
2. Research. Research. Research.
Do as much research as you can to learn about the course structure for each university. Research about the city. Research cost of living. Some cities will cost more to live in than others. London for example is a very expensive place to live in. Finance is a huge thing especially for international students. This is something you should discuss with parents if they are going to be your main sponsors. If you will be on loan, again you need to make sure you spend your money wisely and try to be economic. You don't want to end up in money trouble after your first few years of uni. Also research the location of the university. Is it a campus university (e.g. Nottingham) or is it a uni within the city (e.g. Manchester)?
3. Course Structure.
For medicine, some universities have a PBL system, Traditional, or Integrated (Lectures with PBL). So how do you learn best? Do you like to have small tutoring sessions and learn best from those? Do you like to sit in a large lecture hall with hundreds of other students? Do you want to sit in a lecture hall and then apply your knowledge in a small group? Again, every person is different. By figuring out your learning style - you can already narrow down your universities.
3.1. Course Structure - Dissection.
Also some universities still have full body cadaver dissections and some have gone to prosection where you only get a section of the cadaver to dissect. What would you prefer? Some people don't care and some do. It's all down to personal choice. If you definitely want full body dissection that will literally shoot you down to a handful of universities. If you don't mind well you still got loads of unis to pick from.
3.2. Clinical Exposure.
Now some people see early clinical exposure as a very important aspect to their learning. Some people may not want such early clinical exposure. Some unis throw you out into the medical world in first year and integrate a lot of clinical experience into the course. Some universities keep it traditional and mainly keep you to the learning aspects and keep you away from patients until after 2nd/3rd year. This is something where you will have to do a lot of research on if this is important to you. Some prospectus/websites for the uni will not mention this so speaking to students from the uni of interest will be helpful.
4. Location.
Do you want to study in a big city like London? Or do you prefer to study in a smaller city such as St Andrews? Personally I chose against studying in London or big cities in general because of the distractions. Big cities = more distractions. I get distracted easily and will find excuses to not do my work. At the same time I don't want to be in an isolated area with nothing to do as I would lose my mind. I wanted to find a place with just enough distractions to keep me sane but not too many distractions that I won't get my work done. Best for you to go visit the universities to get a first hand experience of the city and university. I was quite fortunate to be able to travel the UK to visit all the unis I was interested in. Before I went I already had a rough idea which 4 schools I was going to apply to, but after visiting - my list was COMPLETELY different. You will know when you find the right school for you. You get a weird feeling and sense belonging. You gotta be able to picture yourself in that city for 5+ years. 5 years is a LONG time so you must make sure you will enjoy yourself there.
5. Entrance Requirement.
Some universities require higher grades than others. Your grades is something you can't really change or influence. You will probably have a ballpark idea on what grades you will achieve by the end of the year so look for reasonable unis that you know you will be a competitive applicant. It's nice to dream to go to certain universities but if you don't have the grades for it, you could end up wasting 1 of your 4 choices. Marks isn't everything to get into medicine. Everyone applying will be smart. They use marks as a cut-off and if you don't make the cut-off...well they won't even look at your extra curricular activities that make you seem unique. Also now with the UKCAT, more and more unis are putting more importance on it and using it to cut out applicants as medicine is such a popular course. Admissions need a way to cut down the number so they will use the UKCAT. So look up what are the cut-off marks for each university. Again like your grades, no point in applying to a uni where your UKCAT score is well below what is stated as they will cut you out without looking at your application. If UKCAT didn't go so well, there are still unis that do not look at UKCAT. I believe Birmingham and Liverpool don't use the UKCAT. Some schools need the BMAT so they will not look at UKCAT. Please do your research and look at the entrance requirements.
So this is a pretty rough list of what you should definitely keep in mind when choosing your universities. It takes a lot of research and priority setting. Location and Course Structure will probably be your best two filters to narrow down your list. If you're an international applicant, make sure you check if the university is international friendly. Some universities may not accept your high school diploma/standards. Remember choosing which uni to go to should be YOUR choice and YOUR decision. Yes of course if your parents are helping you out with money, they have a bit of say, but again you have to make sure you will be happy at the university and will enjoy the teaching. So select your unis carefully and take your time with it. Think it through and try and get some opinions as well. By the way I quite enjoyed this website: UnionView. It's a website which has a review of almost all the unis in the UK. So take a look at it if you don't get the chance to visit the uni.
Good luck with your application and I truly hope this has helped.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Congratulations!
To those who got their A-level results today and gotten into medicine - congratulations! Now you all can relax and prepare yourselves for freshers. It is going to be amazing. Even I'm excited for Freshers and I'm in 3rd year! Few more weeks and you will officially be medical students. When you start your first lecture - it will suddenly hit you: "I am in medical school." It is a feeling you can't describe... or you can be insanely hungover...which isn't a pleasant feeling. Either way it will hit you at some point so do enjoy it. To be able to study medicine is a rare opportunity so make the most of it. Should be a fun filled 5-6 years to become a doctor.
Anyways congratulations again and enjoy your next few weeks of holiday and get ready for freshers!
Anyways congratulations again and enjoy your next few weeks of holiday and get ready for freshers!
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
End of Week 3.
Sorry for the late update. Literally left for Canada the day after the end of my first placement, so I haven't had time to update.
Anyways. This was my final week on my first placement. I realized that the patient I was originally going to use for my SSC project/essay does not fit the criteria for the essay. Therefore, I was out hunting for another SSC patient. Decided to take a stroll to the Coronary Care Unit to see if there are any straight forward patients. We met a patient who was quite talkative and in general well enough to talk to us. He had an MI and was waiting for a bypass surgery. This time I made sure we got every single bit of info we need for this essay and all in all it was a really straight forward patient history. Did cardio, respiratory, and abdominal physical examinations. The patient was really friendly and actually didn't want us to leave because he was so bored. Kinda feel bad for some of the patients as they really do look like they are bored out of their mind. Some of them don't even get patients so you really do sympathize.
Actually before we went SSC patient hunting (on Monday) we went to theatre to look for our consultant. We literally stood there for 1.5 hour as our consultant was late and we didn't want to risk missing him so we turned up quite early. Finally caught our consultant racing through the corridor and asked to meet him on Wednesday so we could get our proformas signed off. I swear those 1.5 hours were horrendous as nurses kept asking if we were alright and if we needed anything. Swear we nearly blended into the background.
So come Wednesday, our consultant had clinic so we went to meet him at his clinic...only to find out he isn't there yet and will be an hour late. Great. I decided to talk to the SHO and nurses about bariatric surgery as I was thinking of writing up about it for my 2nd SSC essay on ethics and law. Had a really really good conversation going and I learned quite a lot. It's all down to personal opinion and it is definitely an interesting topic. So an hour later, consultant turns up...only to be in a bad-ish mood and completely ignored my partner and I. We waited til the end of his clinic to talk to him. So we gave him our proformas for him to assess how we did in placement. He took our sheets, quickly glimpse and it, and just circled "Satisfactory" for each section. My partner and I were panicking and our consultant returned the sheets to us without leaving feedback. In general it is expected for us to get an overall mark of "Good" in placement or else the medical school may think we didn't show up to placement. So out of desperation we asked if we can show him what we have been doing on placement as he hasn't watched us therefore couldn't really mark us properly. We were hoping after showing him our work he would raise our grade. He told us to meet him in between surgery on Thursday at 12:30pm.
We get there at 12pm...he apparently finished his first surgery early and had an early lunch break so he could get on with his second surgery. So we stood in for one of his surgeries which was expected to be only 2 hours. Not bad right? Wrong...midway through surgery we had a complication and the surgery ended up taking 4.5 hours. My legs were not happy with me. I think at one point I lost feeling in my quads. After surgery, our consultant was obviously annoyed, but still managed to meet us. We gave him a new proforma and he was like "Didn't I sign something like this yesterday?". We pretty much told him it's a different sheet and it requires written feedback. Somehow he fell for it and before marking us we showed him all our patient histories we took over the 3 weeks. Despite all the effort...he still gave us "Satisfactory" but in the feedback he put down that it was difficult to mark us and was sure we were "good/excellent" students but he didn't get the opportunity to watch us in the wards. At least we got some sort of reason. But to be honest, we now understand why he gave us a "Satisfactory".
So on Friday, we actually had nothing to do and it was our last day. Went in at like 10pm and my partner and I decided to get assessed on our history and examination skills. I think I did alright in it, but was told that my smiling was unprofessional. Still confused about it because if I was a patient I wouldn't want to be greeted by a doctor looking like he/she doesn't give a crap and is in a bad mood. Anyways everyone has their own opinions but it was one feedback point that I will keep in the back of my mind but definitely won't change the way I greet patients. It's not like I excessively smile and laugh/be inappropriate with my facial expression. Just want to treat the patients like a person. It was a weird one to get my head around, and still kinda bothers me. Oh well. After the assessment, we managed to leave at like 12pm and returned our lockers and bleeps. Only if I could relax the minute I got home. It was more like "need to pack. need to pack. need to pack." I don't think I sat down at all for the rest of the day as I was running all over the place trying to get things done and running some final errands before I left.
All in all my first placement as a student doctor has been enjoyable and I definitely learned loads. When I return to placements at the end of September, I will be able to take bloods and do injections/perform invasive procedures, so I'm really looking forward to that. Shame I have 2 weeks of 9-5 lectures prior to my 2nd placements. Yuck.
But finally a week into holiday I've had my chance to sleep in and relax. Now getting to writing up my first SSC essay. The brain hardly wants to work though.
Anyways sorry again for the late update. Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday! Freshers week is getting closer! :D
Anyways. This was my final week on my first placement. I realized that the patient I was originally going to use for my SSC project/essay does not fit the criteria for the essay. Therefore, I was out hunting for another SSC patient. Decided to take a stroll to the Coronary Care Unit to see if there are any straight forward patients. We met a patient who was quite talkative and in general well enough to talk to us. He had an MI and was waiting for a bypass surgery. This time I made sure we got every single bit of info we need for this essay and all in all it was a really straight forward patient history. Did cardio, respiratory, and abdominal physical examinations. The patient was really friendly and actually didn't want us to leave because he was so bored. Kinda feel bad for some of the patients as they really do look like they are bored out of their mind. Some of them don't even get patients so you really do sympathize.
Actually before we went SSC patient hunting (on Monday) we went to theatre to look for our consultant. We literally stood there for 1.5 hour as our consultant was late and we didn't want to risk missing him so we turned up quite early. Finally caught our consultant racing through the corridor and asked to meet him on Wednesday so we could get our proformas signed off. I swear those 1.5 hours were horrendous as nurses kept asking if we were alright and if we needed anything. Swear we nearly blended into the background.
So come Wednesday, our consultant had clinic so we went to meet him at his clinic...only to find out he isn't there yet and will be an hour late. Great. I decided to talk to the SHO and nurses about bariatric surgery as I was thinking of writing up about it for my 2nd SSC essay on ethics and law. Had a really really good conversation going and I learned quite a lot. It's all down to personal opinion and it is definitely an interesting topic. So an hour later, consultant turns up...only to be in a bad-ish mood and completely ignored my partner and I. We waited til the end of his clinic to talk to him. So we gave him our proformas for him to assess how we did in placement. He took our sheets, quickly glimpse and it, and just circled "Satisfactory" for each section. My partner and I were panicking and our consultant returned the sheets to us without leaving feedback. In general it is expected for us to get an overall mark of "Good" in placement or else the medical school may think we didn't show up to placement. So out of desperation we asked if we can show him what we have been doing on placement as he hasn't watched us therefore couldn't really mark us properly. We were hoping after showing him our work he would raise our grade. He told us to meet him in between surgery on Thursday at 12:30pm.
We get there at 12pm...he apparently finished his first surgery early and had an early lunch break so he could get on with his second surgery. So we stood in for one of his surgeries which was expected to be only 2 hours. Not bad right? Wrong...midway through surgery we had a complication and the surgery ended up taking 4.5 hours. My legs were not happy with me. I think at one point I lost feeling in my quads. After surgery, our consultant was obviously annoyed, but still managed to meet us. We gave him a new proforma and he was like "Didn't I sign something like this yesterday?". We pretty much told him it's a different sheet and it requires written feedback. Somehow he fell for it and before marking us we showed him all our patient histories we took over the 3 weeks. Despite all the effort...he still gave us "Satisfactory" but in the feedback he put down that it was difficult to mark us and was sure we were "good/excellent" students but he didn't get the opportunity to watch us in the wards. At least we got some sort of reason. But to be honest, we now understand why he gave us a "Satisfactory".
So on Friday, we actually had nothing to do and it was our last day. Went in at like 10pm and my partner and I decided to get assessed on our history and examination skills. I think I did alright in it, but was told that my smiling was unprofessional. Still confused about it because if I was a patient I wouldn't want to be greeted by a doctor looking like he/she doesn't give a crap and is in a bad mood. Anyways everyone has their own opinions but it was one feedback point that I will keep in the back of my mind but definitely won't change the way I greet patients. It's not like I excessively smile and laugh/be inappropriate with my facial expression. Just want to treat the patients like a person. It was a weird one to get my head around, and still kinda bothers me. Oh well. After the assessment, we managed to leave at like 12pm and returned our lockers and bleeps. Only if I could relax the minute I got home. It was more like "need to pack. need to pack. need to pack." I don't think I sat down at all for the rest of the day as I was running all over the place trying to get things done and running some final errands before I left.
All in all my first placement as a student doctor has been enjoyable and I definitely learned loads. When I return to placements at the end of September, I will be able to take bloods and do injections/perform invasive procedures, so I'm really looking forward to that. Shame I have 2 weeks of 9-5 lectures prior to my 2nd placements. Yuck.
But finally a week into holiday I've had my chance to sleep in and relax. Now getting to writing up my first SSC essay. The brain hardly wants to work though.
Anyways sorry again for the late update. Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday! Freshers week is getting closer! :D
Friday, July 22, 2011
End of Week 2.
Wow this week went by really quickly. One more week and then summer holiday!
So last week wasn't the most productive, so this week I wanted to make sure I get lots of patient histories and examinations done, as well as find a patient for my SSC project. This week I have managed to do about five patient histories and managed to do at least two physical examinations on 3 of the 5 patients. Again today (Friday), was my most productive day. Started bright and early and went to go see a patient my partner and I had taken a history from yesterday. The patient was going to be discharged today so we quickly did all the physical examinations we needed to do for our SSC project. Our SSC project requires us to find a patient where we do a full case history and all physical examinations (Cardio, Respiratory, GI, GALS, and CNS). This patient was extremely nice. I mean he was not feeling well and was quite frail. My partner and I expected him to say "no" when we asked for permission to take a history and examine him, but to our surprise he quickly said "yes" with a big smile on his face!
We first asked why he was admitted into hospital and listening to his history made me feel quite sad. This patient lives on his own and is almost at the grand age of 90 and he had collapsed on his floor at night. Because no one lived with him, no one knew he had collapsed and unfortunately he could not get up off the floor. He spent the entire night on the cold floor and because he had not answered his phone, his son had gotten worried about him and went to see if he was alright. The way the patient described his ordeal made it sound painful and you just feel really bad for the patient. He looked very upset and distressed about collapsing and told us that the pain he had from falling was immense. Whilst talking to the patient, we realized he was quite short of breath and had a constant and productive cough; therefore, we thought we should give the patient a break and would come back and examine him the next day (Friday).
So today we went to see the patient and the nurses told us not to bother the patient because they had just finished ward rounds and had prodded him quite a bit. He also looked quite tired as well and did not look very comfortable. We were then told he was going to be discharged later in the afternoon, so after popping to another ward to join a ward round we went back to the patient and asked if it was alright to do a quick full examination on him. Again, we were expecting to hear a "no" and a "leave me alone!" as he did look quite annoyed; however, he looked at us and promptly smiled and told us that he'll be more than happy to let us examine him. Because the patient looked quite tired, we tried to do our examination as quick as possible to minimize the amount of "prodding" we had to do. At the end we thanked our patient again and he gave us a firm handshake and wished us good luck with our career. He said it with so much sincerity and kindness it definitely brightened up my day. If I was in the patient's position I definitely would not let two medical students poke around and bother me if I was not feeling well. What a kind man and I got to say, my partner and I had learned a lot from this patient as he had an extensive history and was an immense pleasure to talk to.
Also now being my 2nd week of venturing the hospital, I realized that the staff in the ward I am placed in are starting to recognize me and it was nice to see them saying "Hi" to me. Makes me feel like I am not invisible and that the staff do remember there's a medical student wandering around. I even had a lovely chat with one of the nurses as well and finally felt welcomed. Worst part is that next week is my last week and I feel like I am starting to get the hang of being in my ward and getting to know people. The turnover is so quick as each placement only lasts 3 weeks for us (total of 4 placements). Can't believe that next week is my last week! I feel like I've still got lots of stuff to do. I still have to be assessed on doing a patient history and a physical examination by a doctor. As well, I need to find another patient for my second SSC project with some sort of ethics and law background to it, such as discussing patient confidentiality, DNR forms, etc. Not only do we have to do that, but also we need to find our consultant. We haven't seen him since Monday in theatre as he is away for the rest of this week. He said he'll be back next Monday and my partner and I will have to chain him down (as he can vanish into thin air in a blink of an eye) and hopefully arrange a meeting with him on Wednesday morning as he will be free. I will definitely make the most of my final week and I still haven't been in clinic so I'm going to try really hard to go to one next week. It should be good. And then...I'll be HOME! Haven't been back since winter holiday and I'm starting to get really homesick.
Anyways sorry for the long post. Will update next week if I have time!
So last week wasn't the most productive, so this week I wanted to make sure I get lots of patient histories and examinations done, as well as find a patient for my SSC project. This week I have managed to do about five patient histories and managed to do at least two physical examinations on 3 of the 5 patients. Again today (Friday), was my most productive day. Started bright and early and went to go see a patient my partner and I had taken a history from yesterday. The patient was going to be discharged today so we quickly did all the physical examinations we needed to do for our SSC project. Our SSC project requires us to find a patient where we do a full case history and all physical examinations (Cardio, Respiratory, GI, GALS, and CNS). This patient was extremely nice. I mean he was not feeling well and was quite frail. My partner and I expected him to say "no" when we asked for permission to take a history and examine him, but to our surprise he quickly said "yes" with a big smile on his face!
We first asked why he was admitted into hospital and listening to his history made me feel quite sad. This patient lives on his own and is almost at the grand age of 90 and he had collapsed on his floor at night. Because no one lived with him, no one knew he had collapsed and unfortunately he could not get up off the floor. He spent the entire night on the cold floor and because he had not answered his phone, his son had gotten worried about him and went to see if he was alright. The way the patient described his ordeal made it sound painful and you just feel really bad for the patient. He looked very upset and distressed about collapsing and told us that the pain he had from falling was immense. Whilst talking to the patient, we realized he was quite short of breath and had a constant and productive cough; therefore, we thought we should give the patient a break and would come back and examine him the next day (Friday).
So today we went to see the patient and the nurses told us not to bother the patient because they had just finished ward rounds and had prodded him quite a bit. He also looked quite tired as well and did not look very comfortable. We were then told he was going to be discharged later in the afternoon, so after popping to another ward to join a ward round we went back to the patient and asked if it was alright to do a quick full examination on him. Again, we were expecting to hear a "no" and a "leave me alone!" as he did look quite annoyed; however, he looked at us and promptly smiled and told us that he'll be more than happy to let us examine him. Because the patient looked quite tired, we tried to do our examination as quick as possible to minimize the amount of "prodding" we had to do. At the end we thanked our patient again and he gave us a firm handshake and wished us good luck with our career. He said it with so much sincerity and kindness it definitely brightened up my day. If I was in the patient's position I definitely would not let two medical students poke around and bother me if I was not feeling well. What a kind man and I got to say, my partner and I had learned a lot from this patient as he had an extensive history and was an immense pleasure to talk to.
Also now being my 2nd week of venturing the hospital, I realized that the staff in the ward I am placed in are starting to recognize me and it was nice to see them saying "Hi" to me. Makes me feel like I am not invisible and that the staff do remember there's a medical student wandering around. I even had a lovely chat with one of the nurses as well and finally felt welcomed. Worst part is that next week is my last week and I feel like I am starting to get the hang of being in my ward and getting to know people. The turnover is so quick as each placement only lasts 3 weeks for us (total of 4 placements). Can't believe that next week is my last week! I feel like I've still got lots of stuff to do. I still have to be assessed on doing a patient history and a physical examination by a doctor. As well, I need to find another patient for my second SSC project with some sort of ethics and law background to it, such as discussing patient confidentiality, DNR forms, etc. Not only do we have to do that, but also we need to find our consultant. We haven't seen him since Monday in theatre as he is away for the rest of this week. He said he'll be back next Monday and my partner and I will have to chain him down (as he can vanish into thin air in a blink of an eye) and hopefully arrange a meeting with him on Wednesday morning as he will be free. I will definitely make the most of my final week and I still haven't been in clinic so I'm going to try really hard to go to one next week. It should be good. And then...I'll be HOME! Haven't been back since winter holiday and I'm starting to get really homesick.
Anyways sorry for the long post. Will update next week if I have time!
Friday, July 15, 2011
End of the Week.
What a week.
Driving to the peripheral hospital for 40 minutes each way every day does take a toll. Since Monday, I have been going in at about 9 or 10 am, which is considered a late start when compared to others. My consultant is fairly "slack" and told us not to come in too early because we do have to travel a long way and for safety sake not to tire us out too badly. Last few days my partner and I have been going around to different wards to take patient histories and do physical examinations. I swear we have not been that lucky this week. We have been given two patients on our ward who we should definitely speak to as they are quite interesting to talk to and one patient in particular is extremely fun to talk to. Every time we wanted to go speak to this one patient, he is asleep in his chair. We were told by the nurses and junior doctors to not wake him up as he gets tired quite easily (plus he is quite old). Finally, when my partner and I walked by his room he was awake so we went in to ask for permission to speak to him about his condition.
I am not kidding but I think the entire ward (nurses and junior doctors) were playing a mighty good prank on us. Here's the catch: this patient is almost completely deaf. We literally spoke right into his ear and he still could not hear us. My partner and I were absolutely baffled. We could not believe that the staff had been recommending us a patient who is deaf. The main point of patient histories is to ask questions and it does not exactly work if the patient cannot hear you. Now we feel like we are the joke of the ward. However I am VERY determined to get a patient history from this patient as I had a read through his notes and he is definitely an interesting patient. I think I will opt for the writing on a whiteboard to ask my questions.
After being absolutely baffled by this patient, my partner and I decided to abandon our ward and move to other wards to get patient histories. We went to the Cardiology ward and we managed to get a really good patient history. This particular patient was very kind and VERY patient with us. We visited him again today to do a Cardiovascular physical examination on him and again he was very cooperative and seemed really keen on helping us learn.
Today we also went to the respiratory ward and managed to get another patient history and do a respiratory physical examination. Despite being a Friday, I thought today was one of our most productive days. Last few days we were leaving early (e.g. 1:30pm-2:00pm) as we felt redundant. Today, we left feeling like we've done a lot and actually had some fun. Definitely a good way to end the week of placements.
Next week - hopefully we'll start off where we left off and continue to be productive. On Monday we will be doing a theatre list with our consultant so we'll finally see him again and hopefully get some teaching from him as well as he is amazing at teaching and very patient. I was also hoping to ask to be able to scrub in and maybe be a bit more interactive and try and help out as I think that is the best way to learn. Much better than standing in the corner of the room and trying not to be in the way.
Sorry for the long post. Will update hopefully soon. Have a good weekend!
Driving to the peripheral hospital for 40 minutes each way every day does take a toll. Since Monday, I have been going in at about 9 or 10 am, which is considered a late start when compared to others. My consultant is fairly "slack" and told us not to come in too early because we do have to travel a long way and for safety sake not to tire us out too badly. Last few days my partner and I have been going around to different wards to take patient histories and do physical examinations. I swear we have not been that lucky this week. We have been given two patients on our ward who we should definitely speak to as they are quite interesting to talk to and one patient in particular is extremely fun to talk to. Every time we wanted to go speak to this one patient, he is asleep in his chair. We were told by the nurses and junior doctors to not wake him up as he gets tired quite easily (plus he is quite old). Finally, when my partner and I walked by his room he was awake so we went in to ask for permission to speak to him about his condition.
I am not kidding but I think the entire ward (nurses and junior doctors) were playing a mighty good prank on us. Here's the catch: this patient is almost completely deaf. We literally spoke right into his ear and he still could not hear us. My partner and I were absolutely baffled. We could not believe that the staff had been recommending us a patient who is deaf. The main point of patient histories is to ask questions and it does not exactly work if the patient cannot hear you. Now we feel like we are the joke of the ward. However I am VERY determined to get a patient history from this patient as I had a read through his notes and he is definitely an interesting patient. I think I will opt for the writing on a whiteboard to ask my questions.
After being absolutely baffled by this patient, my partner and I decided to abandon our ward and move to other wards to get patient histories. We went to the Cardiology ward and we managed to get a really good patient history. This particular patient was very kind and VERY patient with us. We visited him again today to do a Cardiovascular physical examination on him and again he was very cooperative and seemed really keen on helping us learn.
Today we also went to the respiratory ward and managed to get another patient history and do a respiratory physical examination. Despite being a Friday, I thought today was one of our most productive days. Last few days we were leaving early (e.g. 1:30pm-2:00pm) as we felt redundant. Today, we left feeling like we've done a lot and actually had some fun. Definitely a good way to end the week of placements.
Next week - hopefully we'll start off where we left off and continue to be productive. On Monday we will be doing a theatre list with our consultant so we'll finally see him again and hopefully get some teaching from him as well as he is amazing at teaching and very patient. I was also hoping to ask to be able to scrub in and maybe be a bit more interactive and try and help out as I think that is the best way to learn. Much better than standing in the corner of the room and trying not to be in the way.
Sorry for the long post. Will update hopefully soon. Have a good weekend!
Monday, July 11, 2011
First Day as a Student Doctor.
So today was my very first day as a proper student doctor (clinical year medical student). I must admit that I was fairly nervous about my placement and at the same time excited. I really didn't know what to expect and my biggest worry was not being welcomed.
Anyways I am placed in Upper GI surgery which I had done for 2 weeks before in first year. Technically I should be an expert on it. Obviously I am not. Today was induction day at the hospital and we got a hospital tour. The hospital is fairly large and because it is a teaching hospital, most of the doctors/nurses there are really helpful. I heard a few bad things about the hospital I am placed at such as consultants completely ignoring you and being rude. I literally have nothing to complain about today. When I was standing around with my partner on our ward trying to look for our consultant, we were approached by several nurses asking if we needed help looking for someone or something with a smile and genuinely wanted to help. It really made me relax as it seems like I am welcomed and that people are willing to help.
After induction/introducing ourselves to our ward, the search for our consultants still continues. After lunch, we decided to go down to theatre to look for our consultant as he is a surgeon. Bingo! He was in theatre all day. During the surgery, our consultant did a great job at showing us stuff and letting us take a look and he took the time to explain things. However, we were quizzed, but our consultant was really nice especially when we did not know the answer. After surgery, our consultant went over the surgery that was just done with us and I mean our consultant has been in theatre all day and he took the time to sit us down in a room and draw us a diagram of the operation. He took the time to run through the basic anatomy involved and took the time to explain each step of the surgery. It really showed us that our consultant is committed in helping us learn and I have a feeling it will be a good attachment with great learning opportunities.
As well our consultant told us his schedule and told us to join him whenever we feel it is necessary. I like how we have the freedom to plan our own schedule and I guess quite self-directed. Really gives us the opportunity to prioritize things and get some of our compulsory assignments done instead of being our consultant's shadow.
By the end of the day I got to admit my back was quite sore after standing for so long. Can't wait to get a really good sleep tonight as I didn't get much sleep yesterday.
Hopefully I'll update you with more things if I encounter anything interesting.
Anyways I am placed in Upper GI surgery which I had done for 2 weeks before in first year. Technically I should be an expert on it. Obviously I am not. Today was induction day at the hospital and we got a hospital tour. The hospital is fairly large and because it is a teaching hospital, most of the doctors/nurses there are really helpful. I heard a few bad things about the hospital I am placed at such as consultants completely ignoring you and being rude. I literally have nothing to complain about today. When I was standing around with my partner on our ward trying to look for our consultant, we were approached by several nurses asking if we needed help looking for someone or something with a smile and genuinely wanted to help. It really made me relax as it seems like I am welcomed and that people are willing to help.
After induction/introducing ourselves to our ward, the search for our consultants still continues. After lunch, we decided to go down to theatre to look for our consultant as he is a surgeon. Bingo! He was in theatre all day. During the surgery, our consultant did a great job at showing us stuff and letting us take a look and he took the time to explain things. However, we were quizzed, but our consultant was really nice especially when we did not know the answer. After surgery, our consultant went over the surgery that was just done with us and I mean our consultant has been in theatre all day and he took the time to sit us down in a room and draw us a diagram of the operation. He took the time to run through the basic anatomy involved and took the time to explain each step of the surgery. It really showed us that our consultant is committed in helping us learn and I have a feeling it will be a good attachment with great learning opportunities.
As well our consultant told us his schedule and told us to join him whenever we feel it is necessary. I like how we have the freedom to plan our own schedule and I guess quite self-directed. Really gives us the opportunity to prioritize things and get some of our compulsory assignments done instead of being our consultant's shadow.
By the end of the day I got to admit my back was quite sore after standing for so long. Can't wait to get a really good sleep tonight as I didn't get much sleep yesterday.
Hopefully I'll update you with more things if I encounter anything interesting.
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