Careers

Now I've made it to my 4th year of study, there's a lot of talk about career pathways. I've always been dead set on prehospital/critical care, and love anaesthetics as a speciality. However, I've just finished a rotation on Obstetrics and Gynaecology - a speciality I had convinced myself I'd hate - and loved EVERY minute of it. The SHOs (junior doctors) were incredibly enthusiastic, willing to teach, and happy to have me involved with clinical skills. They've made me a lot more comfortable in my abilities as a medical student (for example, I am MUCH less nervous taking bloods from patients now), and this is the first placement I've felt truly happy on. I was treated like part of the team by everyone, midwives and doctors alike, and was comfortable in my role. I was given a lot more responsibility on this placement (still with supervision) and really enjoyed the experience. I actually felt like I was benefitting patient care. This has reminded why I went into medicine, and reminded just how close I am to finishing Medical School.

I think I could honestly see myself as an obstetrician in the future. The career has everything - a mix of surgery and medicine, it's hands on from an early stage, has good job prospects, has emergencies to deal with on a regular basis and the uncertainty of not knowing what you'll see next. Seeing myself in a career I thought I'd hate is bonkers, but this is what you get for staying open minded! It's a good job I am open minded about specialities, I think, because otherwise I could end up in a career I truly hate.

To the wonderful SHOs: Thank you. Thank you for making me confident in my skills and for helping me find my feet. I can't repay you for that.

To the consultants: Thank you so much for being enthusiastic about your speciality and willing to take the time to speak to and teach students. It was noticed and very much appreciated.

To the midwives: Thank you for not conforming to the stereotype, and being truly lovely to everybody - and thank you for the opportunity to deliver a baby. This was truly special and something I shall never forget.

To the patients: Thank you for letting me be involved in your care, and helping me learn and become a better medical student. I truly enjoyed getting to know you and your families, and helping you welcome your new babies to the world. Thank you particularly to the lady who let me deliver her baby. It was a wonderful experience to be involved in, and I won't forget you and your family. Congratulations on the birth your beautiful baby.

I made it!

I made it. I actually survived 3rd year. I've passed all my assessments, and all my end of year exams (including the OSCE where I was continually attacked by a wasp!) and I've survived. I'm finally a 4th year.

This year has been horrific, looking back. My grandfather died, my grandmother has been in and out of hospital very ill too, I've had surgery for a very stupid injury, and suffered a lot of ill health as a consequence; and I've had a bit of a decline in my mobility. Of all of that, losing my grandad just before my 21st birthday was definitely the worst part of the year. And although passing the year is a great achievement, it makes it all the more real that my grandad will never see me graduate. He was immensely proud of me, and what I do, and I wish he was here to see my finally happy and truly loving my degree and chosen career.

Having an entirely free summer is giving me time to reflect on the year and how it went. I think the best description has to be rocky. A bit like being on a boat in a storm, that's only just passed. But even with all the difficulties, I've done well in all my exams, I've become a lot more settled, and I've become more confident and happy. I've also made some truly fantastic friends this year. One of whom is a junior doctor, without whom I probably wouldn't have passed the year, or stayed sane. So, a BIG thank you for being an amazing friend this year goes to Natalie, a very lovely person and a fantastic F2 Doctor.

This year has definitely made me a stronger person, and I think things can only get better from this point. I'm much more open to the possibility of several careers in medicine, including paediatrics, anaesthetics, intensive care, as well as my still very strong love of A&E and Pre-Hospital medicine. I'm completely at home in the hospital now, and really loving my placements. I've realised even more this year how much of a privilege it is to see patients, and to all of you who let medical students see you, thank you, it really is SO valuable.

Next year I have much to look forward to. Rotations in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Paediatrics, and my elective, a new PBL group and a chance to meet new people, and I honestly can't wait to get back. But, for now, I'm going to kick back and enjoy my summer. I won't get many more holidays like this, so I'm going to do my best to make the most of it!!

Truffle

x

Sorry!

Yes, I'm alive. I've neglected blogging for a while for several reasons. I'm totally swamped with work, we had a death in the family and I also landed myself in hospital. Again. Thankfully this time it was only for 4 days, but it did involve some fairly big surgery as it was for a nasty fracture with some complications. Yes, I'm an idiot for fracturing a bone. We have finally hit Easter holidays now though, so I'm catching up on rest, my social life and some work that I missed due to recuperation time for the broken bone. Safe to say due to impending doom (exams) I won't be blogging much now until August, but I do promise to stay around on the blog a bit more, and currently am welcoming suggestions for things you want me to blog about, so leave a suggestion in the comments box or email me and let me know!

Still Here

I'm still alive, I have lost a chunk of my sight, and am being sent for all manner of investigations into my eyes, joints, skin and heart, including seeing a geneticist, so everything's a bit crazy. I'm also on a clinical placement at the moment so learning lots in a very short space of time with long days, all whilst trying to maintain a social life and enter dance competitions that I'm probably not well enough to do. Tough times but I'm still here and still keeping going. Normal blogging will resume soon! I'm still on twitter and still check my emails regularly - let me know if you have any ideas for things you want me to blog about, or if you just want to get to know me better

Back soon!

Truffle

xx

USA Medical Student Day

Over in the states it is currently still July 1st which apparently (according to MedicDani) is Medical Student day there. So, this post was her idea and nudging me towards getting some fantastic advice from all of you hopefully! What I'd love would be for you to tweet @ me or to leave in the comments box or to email me is your piece of advice for brand new medical students, or students starting placements or junior doctors about to start their first jobs, or advice for medical professionals in general. Just one piece of advice is all I ask!

Here's Dani's piece of advice:

Befriend the nurses and the aides. We will be your best friends or your worst enemies and we have more power with the surgeons than you think. We decide whether to like you or not based on your first day, so the only staff to fear on day one is the Nurses and aides.

Looking forward to reading all of your pieces of advice!!

Love you Grandad Jack

My grandad died very suddenly at lunchtime on Tuesday. Safe to say I am a total mess.

Love you Grandad Jack.

Some Advice

This is a question I was asked a few weeks ago, via my formspring page. I thought it might help those students starting 6th Form, or about to start thinking about the dreaded UCAS (University and College Application System).

As a second year student, what advice would you give to anyone considering the same career path that you have chosen?

Think VERY carefully about whether this is REALLY what you want to do - you will be devoting your entire life to this degree for 5 years. You will lose your social life, and it will be hard to make and keep friends. Discuss it with your adults, your tutors, your friends, your family, ask questions to people like me who have already been through this (I'm happy to answer emails from anyone about this - dysdiadochokinesia@hotmail.com). It is hard, physically, emotionally and mentally.

It's a rewarding career but if it's not right for you, it will wear you down. Also - pick the right type of degree for you. PBL doesn't suit everyone, nor does a traditional course, nor a course with clinical placements from the word go.

Get lots of experience - being a doctor isn't glamorous like on Casualty or ER, it's hard graft and very demanding, and can often be very unglamorous - particularly when you're examining stool samples or putting maggots into leg ulcers! It's incredibly demanding, tiring and stressful. It can be upsetting, it can make you angry, get you frustrated. You'll experience more emotions in your first few weeks of clinical placements than you ever thought possible. It's a lot of hard work, and won't be much like you expected it to be. Do some work as a healthcare assistant or something in a hospital, do lots of shadowing.

If you're serious about it, go on lots of open days, ask current students about the courses and what they think about them, work hard at your A levels and GCSEs, and pick the right subjects for the courses you have in mind - DO your research. If you don't think you're going to get the grades, look at Access to Medicine courses, or Medical Schools that offer lower grades depending on what school you're at, or Medical Degrees with a Foundation Year.

Do lots of practice interviews, find out what they're like at the universities you've applied to - they vary a lot. For example, UEA is an OSCE style interview, whereas St George's University in London is a traditional interview with 3 consultants and a medical student firing questions at you.

But ultimately, do what YOU want, and what you think is going to make YOU happiest.

Good Luck

An Invitation

As I'm really busy at the moment with possibly life changing decisions to make, revision to do, still feeling ill, and putting up with my family, I'd like to invite somebody else to write a post for me. Would like it to be about an experience as a patient, a medical student during your training or a paramedicine student during your training, or someone in a medical career coming across something particularly interesting.

Submissions to dysdiadochokinesia@hotmail.com by midnight (UK time) tonight preferably for the first post, and midnight Thursday for the second post of the week.

Look forward to reading them!

It's A Strange World

Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know that I've recently spent 9 days in hospital. It was an interesting experience to say the least. It was very up and down and incredibly emotional. I cried a lot, I got angry a lot, and I learned who my friends are really and truly. Being ill enough to be in hospital teaches you a lot.


It's a very strange experience being a patient in your own hospital. On the first two wards I was on, I knew the majority of the staff, and even managed to have a catch up with a few of them, but suffice to say, it was very odd not being in control of anything. Even through the pain, I wanted to answer ringing call bells.  I wanted to help the other patients who  looked more ill than me. I wanted to help everyone, and be the one to answer the call bells instead of being the one pressing my buzzer. I got a real taste of how horrible and scary and disorientating and confusing and just how strange it is being a patient. This is something I'm going to remember in future. I don't think I could ever fully appreciate what it was like in the hospital as a patient before now.


Throughout the whole time, my best friend and my boyfriend (The Manchester Medic) were both very supportive. They even made my birthday fun, despite me being in hospital and in pain, and feeling generally terrible. I felt like a fraud to begin with, because everyone else just looked so much more ill than I thought I did. It was only on the second night did I realise how ill I actually was. I'd fought this illness for a month before admitting defeat and letting myself be admitted to hospital. Medical Students are well known for the phenomenon that is "Medstudentitis". We all think we have every disease we study. Something that comes from having too much knowledge I guess. Except, I'd refused to admit that I really was ill. I kept saying I was fine until the point where I just had to give in.


I learned a lot from being a patient, and this is something I'm going to share over the next few days and weeks.


And for those of you wondering about my health - I'm still in pain, I'm still exhausted and I'm still ill. Nobody knows what's wrong but it's definitely not an infection or anything urological. If you want to play guess the diagnosis, email me and I'll give you a run down of my history and symptoms. Would be interesting to know what differentials people come up with!! Let me know by leaving your differential diagnoses in the comments of this post.