Slow Week - Anaesthesia

To be fair, every placement has a "slow" week. Mine is usually the first week...somehow out of my 4 week placement, I managed to have another slow week. Last week, I spent most of my time checking out the intensive care unit and the high dependency unit. I'll just say in my opinion, it is probably the "less exciting" part of the job. Lots of ward rounds! I really don't know what to take away from this week. Having said that, I did manage to get a lot of physiology teaching from a consultant anaesthetist. It was actually a really good refresher. The way he taught was based on quizzing (which I hate, but love at the same time). I was picked on most of the time as I was the only medical student and that the knowledge should be "fresher" in my mind. It made me realize that I actually haven't really forgotten about physiology. From the quizzing/grilling, I realized that I just lack confidence in my answers and should just be brave and say what I think the answer is. It's a shame that it takes massive pushing and pressure for me to get an answer out. Guess it's one thing I need to learn and obviously shows I need to hit the books a bit harder to build some confidence in my knowledge. The foundation knowledge is definitely there and I just need to "go for it".

Thankfully to end the week, I got to go back to theatre and was placed with a really good anaesthetist who let me do a lot of skills. I was putting in all the cannulas, holding the oxygen mask, and inserting LMAs. It felt really good. In the first week, despite being very determined to get some hands on, I was quite scared and nervous performing these skills. Now, I'm on it the minute the patient comes to the anaesthetic room. Gloves on. Equipment ready. Ready to go! It also showed me that with practice, you'll get better at the skills. I had to cannulate a tricky patient. I missed the vein on entry, but managed to salvage it and got the cannula in without needing to try in a different spot. Added bonus was that the consultant complimented me on it, so it was a definite boost to my confidence level! Thinking back to the last 2 weeks and seeing my placement come to an end - I think I've made leaps and bounds in terms of clinical skills. I built a lot of confidence in my clinical skills and in general feel just a bit more competent. My day in theatre really showed me how far I have come from the beginning of placement and I think I have accomplished what I have set out to do - to improve on my clinical skills.

I do realize that my posts have been fairly short...as to be honest - there's not much to really talk about. I don't get to speak to as many patients as most are asleep. This placement was mainly refreshing my pharmacological and physiology knowledge and improving on my clinical skills.

Sorry for the boring read! I promise the end of this week's post will be more interesting!

Psychiatry - Slow Start.

I don't know why, but I'm quite prone to having slow starts on placements. So I've had my first week in psychiatry and to be honest...I've stepped onto the "wards" for about 5 minutes and then left. I don't know if I should be happy about the placement or a bit annoyed. We've got a lot of free time on the placement and seeing how exams are coming up - it gives us a great opportunity to revise. But at the same time...when I did go on the ward and ask if there's anyone I can see or anything I can do - the staff said that there's nothing to do here and told me to go get a cup of coffee. For the rest of the week - I spent my time in half-day clinics with my consultant. Luckily he is very chill and really good at teaching (if asked to teach). The nice bit is that there is a mutual understanding between the two of us. He has established that I do not want to do psychiatry and fairly indifferent about it. He said he will leave me alone BUT will teach if I have any questions or want any teaching. On top of that, he clearly listed out my learning objectives and what he does expect for me to have completed by the end of the attachment - which was pretty easy/fair. I know what my consultant expects and I don't see it being a struggle. He's also extremely nice which is a nice bonus.

I haven't really met any patients with full blown mental illness. All the patients I have seen were follow up patients who have their symptoms under control and doing fairly okay. Somehow due to my luck, I managed to miss the two new patients I was supposed to see in the week so I can see how patients present to the psychiatric team. For the first new patient, I only managed to stay for half the consultation as I had a doctor's appointment. Then in the next clinic, I ended up being 30 minutes late and missed the new patient as I got lost. Was really annoyed with it as apparently that patient was very interesting.

To be honest though, I don't mind this placement! I'm actually enjoying it as it is fairly easy and not very stressful. My schedule is very flexible and essentially to get good at psychiatry is to just speak to a lot of people (which I haven't exactly done as I'm having an extremely slow week). Despite having a slow week, I am learning a lot as everything is new so that's a bonus. So far all the consultants I've met are also very nice and chill, but they claim they should be chilled out as they know stress is a factor for suicide...

Hopefully next week will go a bit better and hopefully I'll be a bit more productive!

Offical Countdown to Exams....in 2 days.

Finally got the draft timetable (most likely will not change) for our exams and we will be the first bunch taking exams. May 24-26. 3 exams in 3 days. Funnnnnn. Pro: Done with exams nice and early! Con: LSKFJSLK:AKLJF SO SOON?! *hyperventilates*

Uhmm I was not expecting our exams to be so early so I had a mini wake-up call when I found out about our exam schedule. Pretty much have been burying my head in my notes ever since I found out. I really need to get snapping and get studying properly. I'm pacing at about 2 lectures a day...not good enough (and pathetically slow). I will not finish in time. BUT the last few days I have been studying biochemistry and I really do not like it. I am finally done with biochem so hopefully everything else will go smoothly and quickly. I'm hoping to finish revising 2 weeks prior to exams so I can break out my revision books! So in 2 days it will officially be properly 6 full weeks before exams. Eek.