The Acute Block… the Pressure Mounts

We’ve recently started our acute-medicine block, which is a very descriptive title. This block has us students at the very thin end of the wedge as far as treatment and patient management goes, and the block also has the reputation for being one of the most enjoyable of all specialist clinical placements. I can see why – it’s fast-paced, exciting and the timetable is laid out really, really well. Our opportunities are wide and varied and all of the doctors whom we work with are willing to help and get us involved. It’s a very collegial and inclusive atmosphere, at least from what I’ve seen so far. This is a branch of medicine that I could really see myself liking a lot.

The people designing the timetables have worked hard to give us exposure to a huge variety of disciplines at both a large hospital and a smaller one. We have rotations in the Intensive Treatment Unit (ITU), in the ‘majors’ and ‘minors’ departments of both large and small hospitals, a couple of shifts on the resuscitation wards, and a whole lot of other things as well. It’s really interesting. I feel like we are also being taken very seriously as medical students finally – perhaps when you reach the final year, doctors know that you’re more experienced and are happy to supervise you in your role but give you less guidance – which is exactly what we’ll need as F1s. On several shifts, I have been given the opportunity to clerk patients (conduct an initial history and examination) and present my summary along with differential diagnoses and a management plan to the doctor in charge, and I have always got useful and worthwhile feedback afterward.

I recently spent some time on the resuscitation ward within the larger of our two hospitals, and loved every minute of it. It was an evening shift – this is so that we can see patients at the busiest time of the day – and there were loads of interesting presentations. The purpose of resus is to stabilise each patient and make sure that all life-threatening conditions are neutralised before they are transferred to more appropriate care – which usually means another ward within the hospital. On my most recent resus shift, we saw several people with complicated fractures – treating these involved taking x-rays, putting on emergency plaster casts and sometimes re-applying the cast if the subsequent x-rays weren’t showing what the doctors wanted to see. I got to hold lots of legs in place for stability whilst wet slabs of plaster were slapped on and wrapped up. All I can say is: thank goodness for aprons!

Our time on the ITU was a little more sedate, although still very interesting. We saw patients who had usually come from A&E (although not always) and had usually suffered severe injury, several of which were to the brain. Several patients were in induced comas whilst their serious medical issues were treated. It took a little bit of getting used to, but once we were stuck in, it was really very exciting. We still have four weeks left of the acute block, and I’m really excited for what we have yet to see – watch this space!

Joshua Galvin : 22 Dec 2017 10:10 |  Tags: John Mbchb Student Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem