Placement 2 - End of Week 2

Holy smokes what a crazy week. To be honest though there isn't much to talk about placement as I only went in 3 out of the 5 days. Well actually more like 2/5. On Monday I had my clinical skills assessment so I spent the whole day pooping myself and practising before my assessment. I was so nervous it was kind of ridiculous. I was nervous because I felt that I haven't had enough practice yet and there's just so much to think about whilst doing a clinical skill.

So it was finally my turn to do the assessment and thank goodness the assessors were REALLY nice. It was really informal and they told me that they don't expect me to be a pro at it and will guide me through each skill. Essentially I was tested on hand washing (easy), vital signs (BP, temperature, pulse, SpO2), venepuncture, cannulation, drug mixing, and finally setting up an IV drug. I didn't mind doing any of those EXCEPT for drug mixing and setting up an IV. I haven't done either of those skills since last year and I didn't get a chance to practice either of those skills prior to my assessment. I nearly started sweating bullets while doing those two skills but thankfully everything came back to me and I managed to pass all my clinical skills. That means I can officially do all of these clinical skills on real patients in the hospital as long as I am supervised.

Tuesday - standard - ward round and clinic. Clinic was really interesting. Saw 2 patients which some interesting case histories. Ward round...was a pain. Dr B was doing ward rounds which meant another grilling session. Also what I have realized is that he is PAINFULLY slow at doing ward rounds. Dr Y takes 3 hours to do a ward round....Dr B takes 4.5 hours and has the same amount of patients to go through. Anyways while Dr B was finishing writing notes in the patient's notes, my partner and I talked about the patient and the physical signs that we saw. Out of no where, Dr B turns around and snaps at us. He told us off for talking and said that if we keep getting distracted/aren't interested we can go to the library and do something else. My partner and I were like "....what?" We were confused because we were talking about the patient and what we saw, so we weren't distracted and obviously we are interested; hence why we were talking about the patient. Obviously Dr B was a bit grumpy today. The way he snapped at us really bugged us as it was uncalled for. So my partner and I had two choices: a) Piss him off more and just leave and go follow Dr Y or b) Bombard Dr B with loads of questions to show him we are interested and obviously to annoy him as much as possible. We chose to go with plan B and cue the waterfall of questions. We literally asked him about EVERYTHING. We looked at a patient's drug chart and asked Dr B about why he would prescribe these medications and why not alternatives. We started asking about the mechanisms of different drugs. I'm pretty sure Dr B got the idea that my partner and I were doing this on purpose and Dr B blazed through the rest of ward round. I guess that's one way of getting things done fast.

Wednesday - I didn't go to placement as I was helping out at the Medic's Fresher's Fair, which was quite tiring. Started setting up quite early and then had to wait for the fair to finish as I also have to help put away stuff. It was really nice meeting the new medics. Then I had an age crisis as some of these freshers look really young. I mean I saw some who barely even look 16 years old! It was crazy. We also got to showcase the Fresher's Video that we made. It turned out quite well and I think (hope) that the freshers enjoyed it.

Thursday was the usual, BUT Thursday night was the night of Medic's Fresher's Fever! I was really excited for it as there was going to be a hot tub and sand at the venue. In the end - I must say this was the best Fresher's Fever I have experienced. It had a really good vibe and for once all the Fresher's stayed til the end! The last two Fresher Fevers I went to, people left 2 hours into the party and essentially used the event as a pre-drink before going to another club. This time - people stayed all the way until the venue closed. I was so glad I got Friday off as there was no way I would've been able to go to placement. I got to get Friday off as there was another freshers event that I had to help out at: Buddy Scheme. That didn't start until 3pm....and I thought I would definitely be able to wake up for that. I ended up waking up at like 2:15pm and was literally running around my flat trying to get ready to get my butt out of the door. But yeah this week has been quite interesting. Highlight of the week must be Fresher's Fever. Yeah yeah I know I'm getting too old for it, but seriously it was amazing. Definitely a memorable night.

PRE-FRESHERS - SEPT 20, 2009

Well I've been settling into my place for a few days now, trying to find my barrings and getting lost frequently. First thing I realized when I got to England was that people walk EVERYWHERE. Back in Canada, we drive everywhere. My legs were killing me by today. Anyways I had a party tonight which was held by the university. It was a "Beach Party" and it was to celebrate the end of summer. Few things I've learned:

1) Don't wear flip-flops to parties
2) Don't wear flip-flops to parties

Yes - some of you may think I am retarded but I wore flip-flops to the party and got stomped on, had drinks spilled all over my feet, and lost my flip-flops several times. The ground is extremely sticky so walking is a pain. To be honest, the drinks at the union were pretty cheap. They were about 1 - 3.50 pounds. Nice thing about the party was that the DJ was pretty good and had really good songs playing. Great songs to dance to. I also met up with a high school friend who's a year older than me and she introduced me to some of her friends. They were all very nice and welcoming.

Seriously, the parties at unis are totally overhyped unless you're the type who enjoys getting hammered and waking up hungover. All you do is dance and dance...and drink more and more....like yeah it is fun but after a few hours it gets tiring and boring. Plus half the people are heavily intoxicated and are spilling stuff all over you. Saw a poor guy who got puked all over and the guy who puked didn't even notice that he puked on someone. It was pretty gross.

Hm im actually pretty nervous about tomorrow (which is officially the first day of Fresher's Week). I'm scared it'll be a bit awkward being all on my own and not knowing anyone. Yikes. Hopefully it'll be fine tomorrow.