All entries for Monday 16 December 2019

Christmas!

For the last two weeks we have been thick in the block that is Advanced Cases 2 (AC2). Essentially serving as a refresher and introduction to our Specialist Clinical Placements (SCPs) which start after Christmas and of which you hear more about in the future as I go through them!

For every block, in order to pass, we have certain tasks that we need to complete, and for AC2 we have to complete 3 VPCs (or virtual patient cases). These are online packages where you log on and work through a case in order. So you are given first a presentation (i.e. Jack presented with lower back pain) and then there are questions that you have to answer, for example; what are your main diagnoses and what tests would you like to do? For AC2 I have to complete one of these for every one of the 3 weeks of this block. I usually find that online patients are never realistic and often not useful but I was surprised with these ones. They were really well put together and quite realistic! One patient was an elderly gentleman with acute urinary retention, one was a patient with alcohol dependency and the last was a young girl with a sore throat and cough. It was actually quite fun to work through these and was a nice reintroduction to the diagnostic skills we will no doubt need when we start our SCP blocks.

This week I also received my timetable for my first SCP, which is Psychiatry. This is my first SCP and each of these lasts for 6 weeks. Overall I have time spent in different Psychiatric settings, with 1 week in acute psychiatry, 3 weeks in community psychiatry, 1 week in old age psychiatry and the remaining 1 week being an introduction week where we have workshops and lectures to get our knowledge up to speed. I have to admit, I am slightly nervous for starting my first SCP as I don’t want to get there and have the consultants think that I don’t know enough or aren’t good enough. I know this is a feeling common to all medical students at changeover time when we start a new placement and I’m sure it will all work out. That said, I’m going to try and do some reading over the Christmas holiday to make sure I at least know something about the basics!

And so here comes Christmas! We have a month off which is our first break for a while and our last long break until next August. We have 4 weeks off and in those I am going for a short holiday in Vienna to explore the many, many Christmas markets and then coming home for a quiet family Christmas. There may be a few mince pies involved as well!

Eden Villiers : 16 Dec 2019 08:37 |  Tags: Jordan Mbchb Patients Student Wards Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem