Learning to Love Hospital…

A month into advanced cases and everything is much more clinical. We spend more time in hospitals and our lectures are more clinically focused. Last year I couldn’t wait until things were more clinical but now it is actually happening I’m actually very nervous! More clinical means more complexity, more unpredictability and more patients! It sounds crazy to be so nervous as this is the reason I came to medical school but trying to pull together all the information from phase 1 and apply it to real cases is a skill that I have yet to master.

Apart from an often overwhelming sense of bewilderment I’m really enjoying my time spent in hospital, I currently spend one day a week at Warwick Hospital. We had the opportunity to select some clinical learning opportunities that particularly interested us, these are half days spent with different healthcare teams around the hospital learning about their different roles.

So far I have had the opportunity to work in ambulatory care, where patients are referred to hospital direct from general practice and the clinical audit team. In the ambulatory care unit the patients presenting complaints were very diverse and there was very high turnover of patients which required expert organisation skills and quick review of investigations from the FY1 I was shadowing.

Working in this acute clinical environment was very different from my time shadowing the clinical audit team. Over a much appreciated cup of tea the team took me through the audit process including the large national audits that the hospital takes part in. I also saw how the outcomes of audits are implemented, from large changes to national guidelines to small changes in local services; these all directly improve patient care.

Other clinical learning opportunities I have over the next few weeks include the radiology department, outpatient’s clinic and theatres. Getting a feel for all these different areas will help prepare us for full time life on the wards in Core Clinical Education, which starts in January.

As well as shadowing lots of different teams within the hospital we are also starting to complete some more practical skills training including how to conduct patient observations correctly and learning how to use the early earning score systems used on the wards and how to take bloods. We also learn about basic airway management and more advanced hospital resuscitation, which includes how to use a defibrillator. I don’t think we’ll be in charge of any cardiac arrests anytime soon but it does feel good to learn some more practical skills in phase 2. I’ve decided to think of my time in hospital as a reward for surviving phase 1 and a welcome change from the lecture theatre!

Joanne

Megan Earle : 16 Oct 2015 11:59 |  Tags: Hospital Joanne Mbchb Student Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem