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!