Time flies…

Now that we've finished the Care of the Medical Patient block, our fifth six-week block in a row in 2017, we finally have a couple of weeks off to relax and re-charge our batteries. This is our official Summer Vacation. I worked for many years in the private sector before coming to medical school, but this thirty-week stretch in Phase III with only (three) bank holidays off is the longest I have ever done without a break in my professional life. I really hope that it's worth it in the end! I'm relaxing and not doing much and in between the lie-ins and catching up with old friends, I'm taking my time filling in the gaps in my notes from some of the earlier blocks. I'd rather do it now than spending time panicking over Christmas.

Slightly more alarming is the fact that we're now the oldest cohort at Warwick Medical School. When did this happen? It feels like we had our induction week just last month, but now we're just weeks away from yet another cohort starting. And the people who have been just one year ahead of us the whole way through the course have now got their degrees and are now actual, real-life F1s in hospitals up and down the country. It's wonderful, inspiring and more than a little daunting that this will almost certainly be us in a year's time. I have faith that we'll be fine, though. The environment for junior doctors to learn is very supportive, and the medical school has trained us well in what to expect.

When we start back, we'll be on the Care of the Surgical Patient block, which is intended to teach us as medical students everything we need to know for a firm basis in surgery and anaesthetics. I'm actually really excited - it's not a part of medicine I know much about from a practical standpoint. We've observed lots of operations and procedures but our (minimal) involvement up to this point has been on an ad hoc basis from consultants who kindly ask us to scrub in; this is rare. I hope in this block we will get a much better, hands-on view of what surgery actually entails. I believe that every foundation doctor is required to do at least one surgical rotation (although don't quote me) so this will be excellent practical backing.

For the rest of my break, however, I'm going to concentrate a little more heavily on the 'life' part of my work-life balance. This will be the last time before final exams that I get to relax and have a lie-in occasionally (or frequently)! I'd be lying, however, if I said that I wasn't revising a little bit at times. There is so much information to learn, and I cannot afford to forget any of it. But maybe I'll think more about it after I wake up from my nap!

John

Luke Pemberton : 08 Aug 2017 10:05 |  Tags: John Mbchb Student Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem