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Placement has resumed. Hoorah! For the last two weeks I have been on my musculoskeletal placement which was delayed for 3 months due to COVID. Thankfully, things are back to (nearly) normal. Monday started with induction, where the administrator of the block gave us our timetables and our new uniform – scrubs! So far in the course for placement we have been expected to wear smart clothes – for me a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, smart trousers and smart shoes. However, due to infection control, we have been told to wear scrubs, which can be washed at higher temperatures and more often to kill any nasty bugs. I’m certainly not complaining – while I like wearing my own clothes, ironing all my shirts on a Sunday night is not the relaxing activity you need before the start of a new week. Scrubs are comfortable and easy to wear, with no thought about which trousers go with which shirt. It does feel very informal to be wearing what basically feels like comfortable pyjamas, but I’m not complaining.

On Tuesday we spent all day in theatre with our consultant working through the trauma list, so the operations were focussed around fixing acute problems such as broken bones. It was pretty cool to be back in theatre and a welcome reintroduction to medicine after 3 months off. I have to admit, I had sort of forgotten….well everything really. But luckily there were some lovely scrub nurses around to help remind me how to scrub in for theatre. “Scrubbing in” is an odd term really, but what it actually means is washing your hands in a very specific way to remove any bacteria or viruses and then donning a sterile gown and gloves in a very specific way to make sure they are clean and don’t infect the patient. I’m sure on TV you’ve seen the surgeon and their assistant wearing a long gown and gloves right next to the patient while everyone else stands further back just wearing scrubs. In theatre we get a chance to put on the gown and stand next to the surgeon, and even help out a bit by holding tools and things like that, which was pretty cool. Our consultant is very good at explaining what is happening at stages of the operation, which really helped. I think all medical students should spend time in theatres seeing common operations. Even if you don’t want to be a surgeon, you should know what an operation involves and by seeing it done, you will be better at explaining it to patients. For example, even a GP will be doing some of the aftercare of a hip replacement, and if you’ve never seen one, it can be harder to explain what it involves and recognise when the patient may have complications afterwards. As well as that, it helps things stick in your memory for final exams!

I also got some news this week – I’m a final year! We were told that we progressed from third into final/fourth year. It was more of a formality than anything else, as we basically just needed to be signed off for our first two blocks to progress with no exams this year, but it was still nice news. It does feel slightly odd to change my introduction when talking to patients from “Hi I’m Jordan and I’m a third-year medical student”, to “I’m a final year medical student”, and hits home that I am on the final stretch. It seems both a long time ago and only yesterday when I was the scared first year trying to understand anatomy and not knowing how to talk to patients other than “Have you got any pets?”. Ironically whether they have pets tells you more about their medical condition than you might suppose…Anyway, In one year, I will have done finals, and (hopefully) have passed and become a doctor. Scary indeed, but I’m ready to face the challenges ahead.

Hattie Trigg : 16 Jul 2020 10:00 |  Tags: Jordan Mbchb Patients Scrubs Student Theatre Warwick Wms |  Comments (1) |  Report a problem