Venturing out into GP Land…

The lectures in Advanced Cases 1 have been tailored to achieve two main objectives: firstly ensuring we have the knowledge to understand multisystem and chronic diseases that we will be seeing on a regular basis in hospitals, and secondly, to understand the links between primary and secondary care.Our lectures in AC1 have been complemented by our placements in hospitals and last week we had our first adventure out into the mythical place that is GP Land.

Our community placements in Phase 1 taught us a lot about care in the community and the services available to different patients but last week was the first time we’ve actually been in a GP practice.In preparation for this we have had lectures this past week about the history of General Practice, from when General practitioners were brought into the NHS and regulated for the first time to the more recent creation of Clinical Commissioning Groups and GP Federations.

Throughout all these lectures there has been a common theme that has been emphasized, that as a GP you are often the first and last person that a patient comes to see.Patients will present to their GP with the initial signs of a problem and it is the GPs job to formulate a diagnosis and management plan.Even if that plan involves referral to secondary care that patient will eventually be discharged back to primary care and be managed by the GP long term.The opportunity to formulate a diagnosis and be able to follow up that patient over time is something that really appeals to me so I was very much looking forward to spending time in General Practice.

The GP practice I have been assigned to is a small practice in quite a deprived area with a large immigrant population, so the practice also has a full time interpreter.There are high drug and alcohol abuse levels in the local population and the practice is also the nominated service for a Parole Hostel, which brings with it a unique population with their own challenges.

While all this sounds a bit scary at first I think this presents a unique opportunity to work with a very diverse population with a variety of physical and mental health conditions as well as giving me real insight into the complex interplay with social aspects of our life.This has really put my Social and Population Perspectives theme from Phase 1 to good use! Working in a hospital you always enquire about social circumstances during a history but actually have very little time or power to be able to actually do anything about it.This is different for GPs who can take a more holistic approach.Come January we will be taking histories and examinations from real patients while on our GP placements which is equally scary and exciting!

The GP society at Warwick is very active and runs events throughout the year about different topics related to General Practice.Their next event is a night dedicated to GP special interests.Many GPs have a special interest, which is an area that they have additional training or knowledge in. At the practice I am based at, one of the partners had been in surgical training prior to becoming a GP, so he performed minor operations at the practice as part of his special interest area-often unannounced much to the nurses horror!

Even one day in GP land has shown me that it’s not all coughs and sniffles (although there are lots of tea and biscuits!) and there are lots of opportunities for medical students to learn about how diverse this area of medicine can be.

Joanne

Megan Earle : 17 Nov 2015 09:47 |  Tags: Gp Joanne Mbchb Student Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem