Friday, August 26, 2016

Clinical placement update

Things have been going really good on this placement. The hospital is very friendly, as are the other students (both medical and nursing).

Staying in the student accommodation has been a very good experience for me. I am able focus being on a medical student and also rest when I need to (which you can't always do as a parent) which has enabled me to focus. I feel like I'm really keeping up with my local medstudent-peers and meeting expecations of the Interns and Registrars.

The Consultant and seniour staff here at the hospital have all been very forward in suggesting that I would be welcome as a doctor here, although they do all admit the frustrating obstacles with the internship bottle neck and the problem where the hospital is not an accredited training facility (at the moment). I do believe this will change in the near futre as the workload increases in regional areas and the need to invest in workforce stability pressures the government and training colleges to have a rethink. Whether this changes in time for me, I'm not sure.

Lately, I have not been worrying as much about my medical career's future as I have in the past. I'm not sure why. I think maybe it's becasue things are seeming to be working out, I'm more reassured of my level of knolwedge and the welcoming I've had at this site, and perhaps it has been a change in mindset. Maybe it's got to do with my fiancé taking over the primary carer role for our daughter. Maybe it's the fact I listen to podcasts in the car on the way up here and have created a morning routine including saying positive affirmations.

Things just seem to be going my way in all areas of my life, not just medicine.

They say to do the hard things when times are easy, or as I say "Get ahead now while you can".

I feel reinvigorated with my passion for medicine once again. I don't know why.

At the moment, I want to be a GP. I want to work 9am-3pm (school hours) and maybe train as a GP/O+G, or a GP/EM or something like that. Whatever it is, I'll be one of those "good" GPs. I want to have my office decor reflecting my aesthetic (which is quite clinical anyway) and even do housecalls. I'd like to build a relationship with my patients and be one of those old-school family physcicians. I want to keep my training up so I can handle emergencies that come in. I see so many GPs can't place IVs because they never do them, or even interpret 12-lead ECGs. I want to be able to excise skin lesions without referring to a surgeon, and really look after my pregnant and paediatric patients, and even mental health.

This is funny as I rememebr when I did my Basic Clinical Skills workshop the female GP said she was getting out of General PRactice as female GPs do "tears, fears, and smears" Which I think is psych, the worried-well/worried mums, and women's health (PAP smears). Bizarre that those are the things I, once again, look forward to providing for my patient.

Anyway, time to make dinner back in the student kitchen...

1 comment:

  1. "tears, fears and smears,..." definitely a catchy way of putting it.

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