On-the-job training.

It's now been 6 months in clinical placements and we're settling into the pattern of life and work in the hospital.

My Friday was less like the day of a student and more like that of an F1

• Turn up on the ward, visit each of my consultant's patients and make a record in the notes. 
• Pick up a pile of blood forms from the nurse's desk and head around the ward collecting blood from willing arms. The process of filling in the little forms on the blood bottles takes longer than the process of taking blood itself, making sure the right blood tests are done for the right people.
• Run up the stairs to deliver the patients bloods to the lab. 
• Update the Registrar (that's a doctor somewhere inbetween a Jr and a consultant) on the patients I've seen and check if he has any more jobs for me. 
• Get asked to cannulate one of the patients I saw earlier. Not able to get a good enough vein this time (doh!) but she reassures me that even the chemo nurses have touble cannulating her. 
• A quick 20 min lunch (luxury!) 
• Afternoon seminar where I give a case presentation to other students and a couple of the doctors. 
• Home time, rinse & repeat. 

This is basically our 9-5(ish) job but sadly without the wages. 2 more weeks of placement left now before we get a much needed 2 weeks of R+R before it all starts up again. For me that means orthopaedics, better get working on my muscles!

Milestones

Today marks 1 year until the opening ceremony of the 2012 London olympic games. It's also pretty much 2 years until I leave the comfort of med school and start work as a junior doctor!

You hear a lot of horror stories "Don't get ill in August!" It's not just because you get us baby doctors fresh out of medical school, the second years and registrars (basically almost everyone except the consultants) are moving on to new posts. And just to make things even better, it's likely a good number of the cosultants will be away sunning themselves on a beach somewhere!

I'm now 6 months into my clinical rotations and getting a bit of a taste of what life will be like for me in 2 years time. As an F1 (first year doctor) you are the regular face on the ward. You are the one who goes and checks on the patients every day, organise most of the daily medical care and have the 'pleasure' of dealing with the relatives.

Lots of practice still before we get there. Let the countdown begin!