All entries for Monday 03 April 2017

The End of the GP Block

My clinical partner and I have come to the end of our GP block and it’s been a lot more enjoyable than I ever expected. The doctors at our surgery have all been lovely and extremely keen to teach us, and we’ve seen all sorts of different things come through the door. It’s been extremely eye-opening and educational in equal measure.

It seems that everyone expects GP surgeries to see coughs and colds and little else, and whilst we have seen our fair share of upper-respiratory-tract infections (URTIs, as we know them), we have been involved with a whole lot more. I think the less-than-entirely-complimentary way in which the profession can be viewed by other doctors is not always entirely justified. We have seen extremely vulnerable people who depend on their carers and doctors to help maintain their quality of life. We have seen difficult situations with depressed or anxious patients managed expertly by excellent and empathetic doctors. We have dealt with gynaecological problems, with issues involving sexual health and problems caused by deprivation – and all this in just one day.

The beauty of the GP role is that many times you just don’t know what’s going to come through the door. Just because a patient has a history of ovarian cancer doesn’t mean that she’s going to come in about that; she very well may have just stubbed her toe the night before (more than likely she has an URTI…). It really does require a nimble and agile doctor who is able to think on his or her toes. I liken it to having a massive flowchart in your head, which starts to be followed from the moment you lay eyes on the patient. Of course, every consultation starts with a “Please tell us why you’ve come in today…”, but ideally assessment of the patient comes about from the moment you lay eyes on them. We’re taught this from our first week at med school: does the patient look weak, ill or frail? Do they walk with a frame, stick or cane?, and so on. It really is a huge, complex and multifaceted profession – and one that I have perhaps a little begrudgingly come to love.

I remember one survey which we conducted not long after we started at med school; of the 170-odd people in the cohort, no more than five or six said (or would admit?) that they were interested in becoming GPs. And going into med school, I never thought I’d find the profession attractive. I still am not very, very interested in it, but even I cannot deny that this role is a lot more attractive than I once thought. I guess that’s one point of the block: we have spent several weeks seeing how the career of a GP operates and the myriad things that go on behind closed doors – not just the ten-minute consultations, of course! – and it has been an integral part of our education. I hope that every student who is lucky enough to take part in a GP block at some point in their WMS career gets as much out of theirs as I have out of mine.

John

Luke Pemberton : 03 Apr 2017 09:26 |  Tags: John Mbchb Student Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem