LJ CPR
Wow I really let my journal lapse!
Very Important Things have been happening and I've just been so busy living that I haven't been LJ-ing!
Consequently this is a very long post
Number One Important Thing:
Tom and I got engaged in Paris!!
I was so excited when this happened, and quite overwhelmed! It seems I was the only one who was surprised. Many friends have said things like "How did you not notice him carrying around the ring for a week?!?" and "You were in Paris, on Valentine's Day and you didn't think he would propose?!?!"
Well that's the truth, I just didn't think he would do it. Let me say though, I'm very glad he did :-D
Since my return to Adelaide my life has been in full swing! Back to uni, back to my job, and in between this I'm planning an engagement party!
Sixth year is a good year. You get to experience the most as a student, without all the responsibility of a junior doctor. I've done one "internship rotation" so far. This was on the Breast/Endocrine Surgical Unit at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. It meant following the interns around and trying to learn as much from them as possible. Consequently I had the same long hours as them, starting at 7.30 or 8am and working until 4 or 5 some days, but some days I skipped off at 2 or 3. Starting so early in the morning means I need to be in bed early in the evening and this makes me feel as though I have no time to myself.
Alright, I admit I probably did have time to blog. But sometimes I just don't know what to say.
Being a "student-intern" on the surgical unit was daunting at first, but really didn't live up to the scariness that I was expecting. Maybe it is different if you are the one who is accountable for all of what is written. Maybe it's different if you're on a different surgical unit? Under the supervision of the interns I was working with I admitted patients to the ward, wrote in their notes every morning, wrote their discharge letters, filled in sick certificates, wrote up medication charts and treatment orders, liaised with nurses, social workers and physiotherapists, ordered fluids, put in IV cannulas, took bloods and went to pre admission clinic. I found enough to do that I could easily avoid going into theatre to watch the surgery! I claimed two or three patients at a time as my responsibility, and I was completely supervised the whole time so it was a really good learning experience. You can't sign off on anything as a medical student so even though you know what the people need so you write it, but someone has to sign off so it gets checked over. Some people find this frustrating. I find it reassuring at this stage of my training. I'm sure by the end of the year I will be chomping at the bit to get working and then before long I will be the one calling internship a "glorified secretarial job".
I still haven't decided where to go for my internship. Last week was "Specials Week"; the first of two weeks of lectures about specialties - this was just Dermatology the next will be eyes and ENT. Lunch each day was provided by a representative from each of the hospitals who came to talk to us (with the exception of Modbury who didn't bother, but very few of us wanted to go there anyway!) It was all very interesting, especially to hear what they were saying about each other!! I left feeling quite confused, and I don't really know where to go. I like and I am most familiar with the RAH so it would seem sensible to go there. Unfortunately it has the reputation of treating its staff badly. The location is a plus, but the size of the hospital can be viewed as both an advantage and a disadvantage. Flinders appeals from the point of view of possibly being more progressive and treating interns better than the RAH but not losing a lot in terms of size and therefore availability of training in the future. The location is not as good as RAH (shopping is further away) but I'd be closer to Flinders than QEH or Lyell McEwin. Modbury didn't even come to talk to us, so I'm not interested. It's relatively close to me but that's really the only advantage, they keep stripping the place of services and it's getting smaller and the ED has a really bad reputation. The QEH is too far for me to travel every day because I would get stuck in traffic, and I just don't really like it as a hospital. (one crap reason: nobody cares about fashion there, and that is half of what keeps me sane sometimes) If I was forced to choose between QEH and Lyell McEwin I would choose Lyell McEwin because despite being the furthest away from me it is a growing place and the staff are pretty supportive by most accounts. But to choose between Lyell McEwin and RAH is easy because of the time it would take to travel there. So that leaves me to choose between Flinders and RAH. I've never done a rotation at Flinders as they have their own university attached. They would mostly do things the same *I think* but I am afraid of starting full time work in a new and unfamiliar hospital. (Jade - was it as scary as it sounds?) I'm going there for a tour and introduction on Tuesday 8th April. We'll see how that goes.
For the next month I'm in the Emergency Department at Lyell McEwin. Working in the ED scares me a bit, but I'll be fully supervised so they are supposed to pick up on any important things I gloss over. I have heard good things about this rotation from last year's students. For a start they let you negotiate your own shifts (only 2 students can be there at one time) so I chose to start tomorrow! I feel that I might actually have time to read Atonement for book club, and to plan this engagement party properly, and most of all time to blog again.
Very Important Things have been happening and I've just been so busy living that I haven't been LJ-ing!
Consequently this is a very long post
Number One Important Thing:
Tom and I got engaged in Paris!!
I was so excited when this happened, and quite overwhelmed! It seems I was the only one who was surprised. Many friends have said things like "How did you not notice him carrying around the ring for a week?!?" and "You were in Paris, on Valentine's Day and you didn't think he would propose?!?!"
Well that's the truth, I just didn't think he would do it. Let me say though, I'm very glad he did :-D
Since my return to Adelaide my life has been in full swing! Back to uni, back to my job, and in between this I'm planning an engagement party!
Sixth year is a good year. You get to experience the most as a student, without all the responsibility of a junior doctor. I've done one "internship rotation" so far. This was on the Breast/Endocrine Surgical Unit at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. It meant following the interns around and trying to learn as much from them as possible. Consequently I had the same long hours as them, starting at 7.30 or 8am and working until 4 or 5 some days, but some days I skipped off at 2 or 3. Starting so early in the morning means I need to be in bed early in the evening and this makes me feel as though I have no time to myself.
Alright, I admit I probably did have time to blog. But sometimes I just don't know what to say.
Being a "student-intern" on the surgical unit was daunting at first, but really didn't live up to the scariness that I was expecting. Maybe it is different if you are the one who is accountable for all of what is written. Maybe it's different if you're on a different surgical unit? Under the supervision of the interns I was working with I admitted patients to the ward, wrote in their notes every morning, wrote their discharge letters, filled in sick certificates, wrote up medication charts and treatment orders, liaised with nurses, social workers and physiotherapists, ordered fluids, put in IV cannulas, took bloods and went to pre admission clinic. I found enough to do that I could easily avoid going into theatre to watch the surgery! I claimed two or three patients at a time as my responsibility, and I was completely supervised the whole time so it was a really good learning experience. You can't sign off on anything as a medical student so even though you know what the people need so you write it, but someone has to sign off so it gets checked over. Some people find this frustrating. I find it reassuring at this stage of my training. I'm sure by the end of the year I will be chomping at the bit to get working and then before long I will be the one calling internship a "glorified secretarial job".
I still haven't decided where to go for my internship. Last week was "Specials Week"; the first of two weeks of lectures about specialties - this was just Dermatology the next will be eyes and ENT. Lunch each day was provided by a representative from each of the hospitals who came to talk to us (with the exception of Modbury who didn't bother, but very few of us wanted to go there anyway!) It was all very interesting, especially to hear what they were saying about each other!! I left feeling quite confused, and I don't really know where to go. I like and I am most familiar with the RAH so it would seem sensible to go there. Unfortunately it has the reputation of treating its staff badly. The location is a plus, but the size of the hospital can be viewed as both an advantage and a disadvantage. Flinders appeals from the point of view of possibly being more progressive and treating interns better than the RAH but not losing a lot in terms of size and therefore availability of training in the future. The location is not as good as RAH (shopping is further away) but I'd be closer to Flinders than QEH or Lyell McEwin. Modbury didn't even come to talk to us, so I'm not interested. It's relatively close to me but that's really the only advantage, they keep stripping the place of services and it's getting smaller and the ED has a really bad reputation. The QEH is too far for me to travel every day because I would get stuck in traffic, and I just don't really like it as a hospital. (one crap reason: nobody cares about fashion there, and that is half of what keeps me sane sometimes) If I was forced to choose between QEH and Lyell McEwin I would choose Lyell McEwin because despite being the furthest away from me it is a growing place and the staff are pretty supportive by most accounts. But to choose between Lyell McEwin and RAH is easy because of the time it would take to travel there. So that leaves me to choose between Flinders and RAH. I've never done a rotation at Flinders as they have their own university attached. They would mostly do things the same *I think* but I am afraid of starting full time work in a new and unfamiliar hospital. (Jade - was it as scary as it sounds?) I'm going there for a tour and introduction on Tuesday 8th April. We'll see how that goes.
For the next month I'm in the Emergency Department at Lyell McEwin. Working in the ED scares me a bit, but I'll be fully supervised so they are supposed to pick up on any important things I gloss over. I have heard good things about this rotation from last year's students. For a start they let you negotiate your own shifts (only 2 students can be there at one time) so I chose to start tomorrow! I feel that I might actually have time to read Atonement for book club, and to plan this engagement party properly, and most of all time to blog again.