Ramblings About My Life..

YC In The Big City

Attachment Week Two of the Intensive Clinical Experience module is currently underway - just two more days to go and I'm home free, only to run right into the jaws of another two SSC assignments. My first week of attachments was done in the Respiratory Function Unit (RFU) of the Royal Hallamshire, so it was basically a straightforward affair. Walk there each morning, report in, watch a few spirometries, use the pulse oximeter, watch the technicians set up the CPAP and BiPAP machines, shadow a few doctors around, walk around the rounds for a bit and then trundle back to my room. Simple and clean. In addition, the staff over at the RFU were extremely friendly and didn't ask us to stow ourselves in a filing cabinet while they did their work whereas my partners were the metaphorical Hermione and Ron (which amused me to no end), so I more or less enjoyed the experience.

So far, Week Two hasn't been quite that enjoyable. I was posted to the Doncaster Royal Infirmary (DRI) for my second week of attachments - which wasn't even in Sheffield. When I first saw my second attachment's location, the first thought that ran through my mind was "Where the hell is Doncaster?". Perfect. Just perfect. To get posted to a city I've never been to in my life, located 40 minutes away by train. Travelling there really kills. In order to make it for my report-in time of 9am, I have to wake up at 0600, catch the No. 30 bus at 0707, walk to the train station and catch the 0741 Bridlington, reaching Doncaster at 0820, walk to the city centre and take the No. 82 to the DRI, hopefully reaching there at 0845. And I don't get to eat any breakfast either since the dining hall opens at 0745 - my breakfast to date has consisted of a couple of biscuits washed down with water. Add bitterly cold and windy mornings to that and you get the ideal crap beginning to a day, akin to the ones I've been having.

My experience there has been rather sedate compared to my previous attachment. Since I'm attached to an Orthopaedic Ward and all the patients in it are post-operative or under-observation, nothing exciting happens at all. However, it gave me a really interesting insight into the life of nurses. Contrary to popular belief, their care of the patient does not terminate once they leave the bedside of the patient or even when the patient is discharged. For example, a doctor merely signs a discharge form in order to discharge a patient whereas a nurse has to ensure that a patient has adequate care after he/she is discharged and if not, arrange for Crisis Intervention Teams, social workers and district nurses to care for the patient, arrange transportation, ensure that the patient's family knows of the discharge and even procure equipment that the patient will have to use at home. Pretty intruiging stuff - I never knew that! Despite that, however, things are still generally slow in the wards I've been in - so much so that sometimes I find myself bored.

Hopefully the next two days will be more exciting - I'll be attached to the Fracture Clinic tomorrow and Ward 6 (a medical ward) the day after. Can't believe I haven't seen any surgery so far! Some of my friends have seen really cool stuff like neurosurgery and keyhole surgery, but the most interesting thing I've seen so far is my lung function test's results. In addition, all that travelling each day is taking a huge toll on my mood (and my temper as well). I leave each morning grumpy and arrive back in my room late in the evening grumpy AND tired. No surprise then, that I'm helluva moodier the last two days. Won't be surprised if my temper snaps - it'll be the first time in quite a while, and it won't be pretty. Damn. And I thought I was making progress on my temper. Seems like this isn't the case after all. I'd better work harder in cooling down my hot temper.

P.S. - I just reread this entry, and it seems extremely disjointed. Goes to show how my mind works when it's tired. This entry is then, truly, senseless ramblings about my life.

P.P.S. - The Critical Analysis SSC results are out, but I haven't been to the Medical School to check mine (they're posted on a low-tech noticeboard when we have a high-tech webportal that the Med School incessantly implores us to use). Just haven't had the time - might go tomorrow if I get off early.

posted by yong chen @ 9:33 PM