All 9 entries tagged Sarah

A Midsummer Night on Call

Finally all examinations and extended exams are over, which means that its time to have some fun! On Tuesday, we had our graduation ball at a country hotel just outside Coventry. The theme was, “a midsummer night on call,” and was organised by the grad ball committee, who did a fantastic job!

When we arrived we were met with a drinks reception in the beautiful grounds, complete with a musician, bouncy castle and bucking Bronco. My housemate tried to persuade the head of our medical school to have a go but was unfortunately unsuccessful. We also had the chance to get our photos taken by a photographer who is a Warwick grad and who moonlights as an FY1 doctor in the area!

When we reached our tables the committee had arranged a bag of treats included syringe shots, flower garlands, and various other treats. We also got a tea towel each, which explained why a few months ago we had to draw our clinical partners on tiny pieces of paper! The last time I saw a tea towel like this was at primary school, and to be honest I think the art work was better on that one…. It’s a great memento of the class of 2015 though.

The rest of the night past in a blur (more blurry for some than others) of food, drink, dancing and a fantastic cheeseboard. It was great to see everyone dressed up and looking their best after months of living in tracksuit bottoms and hoodies during revision hell. There are some excellent photos which started going up on Facebook the following evening as people emerged from their after-ball state… 2 days on and I’m just about recovered enough to face results day tomorrow!

The ball was the last time that most of us will be together until graduation, and it brought home the fact that we are all moving on soon. Even those of us staying in the area are leaving housemates that we’ve lived with for 4 years.

Although I’m really excited to start work, I’m going to miss bumping into my course mates on the wards, and I’m really going to miss my clinical partner, who is moving down South. I’ve spent the last 2 and a half years on the wards with him, and at times we joked that we see each other more than our respective partners do. Its strange to think that he won’t be there on the ward with me on day 1, but whoever’s ward he does end up on should count themselves lucky.

Right, time to get some sleep to prepare for results day. We have the champagne on ice already so hopefully it’s good news!

Megan Earle : 29 Jun 2015 11:19 |  Tags: Graduationball Mbchb Sarah Student Warwick |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

The Last Push

Last week was one of the most stressful weeks of my academic life, but I can now say that clinical finals are over!

My exams were on Tuesday afternoon and Thursday afternoon. I had wanted to get them over with as quickly as possible, so of course I ended up in the last possible session! The morning before each exam went so slowly, and I sat in the house trying to relax but watching the clock from waking up at 6am to leaving the house at 12.

Arriving at the hospital before the exams, it was obvious that everyone was nervous. There were sandwiches and cakes for us, but they didn't get touched until afterwards. After a briefing, we were led to a corridor where we all sat outside our individually allocated room. A bell rang, and we entered the room.

From then we had 15 minutes to take a history and examine a patient, which is quite tight on time. The 30 seconds it took for the examiners to introduce themselves and shake my hand seemed to take forever, but the rest of the time flew by. After that another bell went, and we left the room to think for 15 minutes and produce a management plan. Then it's back into the room for 15 minutes of presenting the patient and getting grilled.

Everyone says that these exams are like your driving test, with, “inspection, palpation, percussion, auscultation,” (or lookin’, touchin’, hittin’ and listenin as I remember it), as the equivalent of, “mirror, signal, manoeuvre.” The examiners aren’t expecting a perfect display of skills. They just want to know that you are safe and that you know the limits of your own practice.

Having said that, as lots of people will remember from their driving tests, when under pressure it isn’t always that easy to perform as well as you’d like! After 2 cases, I felt physically and mentally drained. It wasn't like any exam that I've had before. Although I now know that I did enough to pass, at the time I felt like I could only remember about 60% of the stuff that I’d revised.

The thing that was most interesting in the exams was that most of the patients had clinical signs to find. We spend hours as students trying to seek out just such patients, but so many of them are well in the community that the only times they attend hospital are for the occasional clinic and to help out with exams! A lot of us saw some signs for the first time in finals, and it took a lot of effort not to be too enthusiastic and excited about them during the exam!

Over 4 days 170 students saw 4 patients each. That's a lot of patients, and I think it's incredibly kind of these people to give up a whole day of their time to let us talk to them and prod and poke them to show that we will make safe doctors. I imagine that it's almost as tiring for them as it is for us, but they continue to come and help year on year. It's a timely and important reminder of the respect and trust that people have in the medical profession.

Megan Earle : 15 May 2015 13:38 |  Tags: Finals Mbchb Sarah Student Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

It’s the finals countdown

2 weeks to go until clinical finals, and I’ve got cabin fever. I spend the days either endlessly reading and re reading my notes, or for a bit of light relief I head to hospital and try and find some patients who are willing to talk to me and let me examine then, and who haven’t already been seen by 6 students that day. At this time of the year, that’s a difficult task.

The university have arranged various lectures and mock exams for us, which have been really helpful. They have the same format as our finals exams, which is that we go and see a patient, take a 10 minute history, do a 5 minute examination and then present our findings, a differential diagnosis list, a list of investigations that we’d like to do, and a management plan. It can be quite gruelling, and I’ve found out that the best plan is to approach each case using the same framework. At least then if/when I freak out I have a basic plan to fall back on!

At the moment most of us spend half the time thinking that we wish we’d sat finals a month ago, because then at least it would be over, and the other half thinking that we’ll never know enough and that 2 weeks isn’t long enough. I’ve been dealing with this rollercoaster of emotions by ploughing through my Easter chocolate in record time, and regularly shouting at my notes. It does seem to help, but my housemate expressed some concerns about me last week. I’m also physically attached to my pocket copy of Kumar and Clarke (the bible), and I suffer separation anxiety when I have to leave it somewhere.

It is nice to see things coming together though. Until recently I wondered if I’d actually learnt anything whilst I’ve been at medical school. I know that sounds ridiculous, but as a graduate in a biological subject you already have quite a lot of anatomy, biology and physiology knowledge. Revising for finals and seeing patients has made me realise just how much I have learnt. Practicing medicine needs a whole new skill set and a different way of thinking to studying pure science, and that is what this course has taught me. I’m far from perfect, but I’ve come on such a long way that for the first time I feel more excited than scared about starting my first job now. Bring on August.

Megan Earle : 29 Apr 2015 11:02 |  Tags: Finals Mbchb Sarah Warwick |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Jobs!

Last week we waited in suspense for the UK foundation system to update and tell us what jobs we will be doing for the next year. Last October we applied to individual areas, and then in March we ranked all of the jobs in the area allocated to us. Our scores and job rankings were then matched, and we were then told the news that we’d all been waiting for!

I got my first choice job, which has care of the elderly and gastroenterology at a district general hospital (DGH), and then vascular surgery at the big university hospital. I’m hoping that the smaller hospitals will be better for general experience because they tend to deal with less super-specialist stuff. It’s all very well working with a surgeon who only does whipple’s procedures (or pancreaticoduodenectomy as its also known), but if you don’t have to look after a patient with pneumonia all year then that’s not very helpful!

Care of the elderly should be interesting, as elderly patients are often very complicated and have multiple health and social problems which need sorting out. I’m dreading vascular surgery as I’m not a budding surgeon, and I don’t do well in theatre. Having said that, juniors tend to spend almost all of their time on the ward looking after pre and post op patients, and hopefully in the rare event that an extra pair of hands is needed in theatre, I can send the medical student….

The job I’m most excited about (and the reason I picked this rotation), is gastroenterology. I like that gastro doctors have so many different things to look after. They do everything from the mouth to the other end (with a bit of help from the surgeons), as well as the liver and pancreas. They also help to look after diseases that affect the whole body, like inflammatory bowel disease.

Although we all had our job preferences, at the end of the day most F1 jobs are basically the same. You do three jobs over a year, you cannulate lots of people, and you do a tonne of paperwork. There are a few exciting bits in between as well. Having said that, it’s nice to know where I will be and what I’ll be doing for the next 12 months, and it’s a nice boost with 2 weeks to go before finals!

Megan Earle : 15 Apr 2015 10:17 |  Tags: Jobs Mbchb Sarah Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

A typical day in the life of a Med Student

Being a student in the acute environment can be great, but also a bit challenging at times. Here is a typical day on placement in A&E:

8.30am
Arrive and introduce myself to the consultant and nurse in charge today. Pounce on a junior and ask what they're up to. As its early, the department is quite quiet and the juniors are mostly doing paperwork, and no one is in a particularly friendly mood. I go to the notes trolley and have a flick through to see who might be good to go and see.

9am
Go and take a history and examine a patient with my clinical partner. The patient is an elderly lady with pneumonia who is with her daughter. The patient has already been seen by the doctors and needs admitting, but is waiting for a bed. She is quite happy to have a chat to us as she is pretty bored!

10am
We hear a resus alert over someone's bleep and ask if we can attend. Resus is where the really sick patients are brought into the department, usually by ambulance or helicopter. This time it's a lady who collapsed and had a cardiac arrest out shopping. She is receiving CPR, and my clinical partner helps with the chest compressions. The resuscitation attempt continues for about 20 minutes but unfortunately (like most out of hospital arrests), the patient didn't survive.

11am
Back Into the main department, and it's strange to go straight from a resuscitation attempt to clerking and examining patients in majors. There is a new patient to see and a junior agrees to watch me take a history and examine the patient, and then questions me on my management plan. I then cannulate the patient and take some bloods.

1230
Lunchtime! As a student no one knows whether you've eaten or not, and it's important to keep fed and hydrated, as I have learnt the hard way in the past! (If the worst happens sit down, put your head between your knees and ask someone for a glass of squash and a biscuit!)

1330
Back in ED and it's getting busy. The consultant checks to see if the next patient is appropriate for me to see, assigns me a cubical and off I go. I see a young woman with abdominal pain on a background of chronic bowel disease. I present my findings to a registrar and suggest a management plan, and the reg agrees with me and implements my plan- it's such a good feeling when this happens!

1500
The department is really busy now. The pressures on A&E are evident and it's frustrating for staff who want to see patients but who have no cubicles or spaces to see them as beds are clogged by people who are awaiting admission, but who haven't been moved yet due to the bed crisis in the actual hospital. Staff are quite stressed and there isn't much to do, so I pop down the corridor to minor injuries to see what's happening.

1530
A builder has cut his hand at work and can't make the bleeding stop. The doctor asks me if I've stitched anyone up yet (only pigs trotters so far) and asks the patient if I can help. The patient agrees,the doctor shows me what to do and I put in my first stitch. It's hard to say if I or the patient was more nervous, but we both did ok! I write the patients discharge summary and then an orthopaedic reg pulls me over to have a look at an x-Ray. I know it's a distal radius fracture, but In the heat of the moment the word, 'ulna,' comes out of my mouth, which provokes a 5 minute rant about the quality of medical school anatomy teaching nowadays. Oh well, you can't win them all, and I won't make the same mistake again.

1630
Time to head home!

Megan Earle : 24 Feb 2015 14:02 |  Tags: Mbchb Sarah Student Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem