J'ai fait un stage

Due to the fact that my family are living in France and I'm attending boarding school in England, it's very difficult to do any work experience in the UK, despite my best efforts, but I did manage to find some to do in France. The obvious downside to this is that of course all of the doctors I was able to follow were speaking in french. Although at times this was frustrating for me because I was unable to ask some of the more technical questions I had, I am happy to say that I was able to understand the majority of the things the doctors were telling me in french. The anaesthetist who I was shadowing, Frederic, was extremely helpful and allowed me to see a wide range of things and also allowed me to get scrubbed up and sit in on 4 surgeries! 

I was so so excited to put my scrubs on and be able to watch all of the amazing things the doctors were doing. To start with, I followed around another anaesthetist, Carine, who showed me how they put up the fluid to put the patient to sleep. It was interesting to see the fact that some of the drugs had the exact same names, such as morphine, ketamine and adrenaline. I was able to talk to this lady about the surgery I was about to watch and she told me that it was to be on a man who's chin was too large and so they were going to perform a reduction. I was looking forward to this but was obviously a little bit nervous because it would be the first time I had watched a human surgery, and despite the fact that I was not phased by the surgeries on animals I'd watched, I still didn't know how I would feel. 

However, right before the op was about to start, I was ushered out by Fred who took me into another operating theatre, because apparently this operation was quicker and would allow me to see a larger variety of surgery. I arrived while the patient was still lying awake and so was able to observe the interaction between the doctors and the nervous patient. There were a lot of jokes made and the atmosphere was really light and fun despite the fact that this guy knew he was about to be cut into! I hadn't yet been told the operation that was going to take place but the interactions before the anaesthetic was administered illustrated to me how important good people skills really are in this type of career even if the majority of the time your patient will be asleep. 

Fred injected the drugs in the order Carine had previously told me about and the patient fell asleep. He allowed the patient to fall into a deep sleep and then explained to me that when the patient is under, they would stop breathing if the tubes were not placed into their trachea. He used a laryngoscope to open the trachea sufficiently to show me the vocal cords and explained that the tube is placed in between the vocal cords. Once all attached to the correct places, the screen began to beep, and Frederic explained what each number meant and I was then able to watch the different numbers change as the patient became ready for the operation to begin. 

I had not yet been told what this operation would be so obviously I was fairly shocked, being a 17 year old girl, when his genitals were revealed. I'm sure I must have blushed but luckily my mask should've covered that up! So all was revealed and it was very evident that there was a problem, because the scrotum was severely enlarged due to a build up of water. This was carefully removed by using an electrically charged instrument which burned away the tissue attaching the sac of fluid to the testicle.

I think it's fair to say that I was thrown in at the deep end and I wish I could say the next operation I was able to watch was slightly more pleasant (if operations can be pleasant to watch) but unfortunately it was probably equally as intense. I was watching a swollen prostate effectively be scooped out using an endoscope. The thing which I found really interesting about this was that there was a fluid pumped into the cavity of the prostate leading up to the bladder despite the fact that the instruments being used were electric. The doctor controlling the endoscope asked me if I had any questions, so I managed to ask how the fluid wasn't electrocuting the man and he told me they used a fluid which was non conducting. 

Next, Fred took me for a walk around several of the operating theatres. He showed me two theatres where heart surgery was taking place but unfortunately I was unable to see anything due to the fact that there were so many surgeons around the patient. Luckily though, there was also a lung operation taking place, and I was able to see this through a glass screen on a television connected to an endoscope. Frederic explained to me that this patient was a smoker and this was very evident by the black deposits on his lungs. I watched a section of his lungs be chopped off and removed through the tube. I was so fascinated by the fact that a part of lung tissue can simply be cut off and removed so easily, even if it was damaged or dead. 

Finally, I sat in on a surgery on a lady who's bladder was sitting too low down in her abdomen. Again this used and endoscope and the doctors simply made a hole just below her bellybutton and pumped air into her stomach to inflate it so that they had room to work. They then proceeded to use surgical thread the attach her bladder to the inside of her abdomen in a better area. The doctors showed me the various organs which were visible and after a rather funny conversation which involved me trying to explain the female reproductive system in english words for them, the operation finished and my crazy day in the hospital was over. 

I had had an amazing time watching all of the fascinating things the doctors were doing, and this definitely just made me more excited to start my application! I could see the various qualities required to carry out this job correctly, one of which, surprisingly, is most definitely a sense of humour! Everyone was always laughing and smiling and despite how serious the environment should have been, it was still a really fun day. 

Should we legalise cannabis?

The legalisation of cannabis is a heavily discussed topic for several reasons. I would say that these reasons fit into three main categories; economic reasons, democratic reasons and of course health reasons. I attended a heretics society lecture on this topic and it really got me thinking. What would the outcome be if we were to legalise cannabis and how could this affect my peers and I? I decided before I come to any conclusions, I need to fully weigh up all of the reasons for and against. 

Economic reasons

Of course, currently the price of marijuana is hugely higher than the production costs of the drug, but this is based on the fact that the supply is fairly low. People will often say that if the government were to legalise marijuana, they could profit massively from the taxation of the drug. However, I would argue that when the drug became legal, entrepreneurs would see the opportunity to profit from the ridiculously high street prices by driving them down and creating a competitive market while also increasing the level of availability which of course will drive the price down. I would argue that the government would benefit a lot less than the majority of people currently assume due to these factors. Of course the substance would be highly taxed due to the adverse effects it has but with the lower prices, the taxation is not likely to bring in the huge sum of money that could be expected. The government would be unable to set the tax levels too high because this could quite easily cause growers to sell on the black market where demand will be much higher if the legal product is too highly priced. This limits the economic benefits massively. So overall, I would say that the economic reasons are not enough alone to argue that cannabis should be legalised. 

Democratic reasons

The person who spoke at the heretics society claimed that we all have the right to make a silly decision which endangers our own health according to our civil rights and that democratically this therefore gives us the right to smoke marijuana. He compared this to the fact that we are allowed to drink and smoke tobacco despite the fact that it is not healthy. He was making the point that we cannot simply maintain that marijuana is illegal for health reasons. I definitely agree with this. There is not evidence of anyone overdosing on cannabis as opposed to the thousands of people who overdose on alcohol every year. It is fair to say that in a free society, it is unfair for the government to regulate substances based on anything other than the effect to the person and that there is a lack of consistency in the law today which allows a substance responsible for several thousand deaths per year to be legal and a substance which is yet to cause a death due to overdose to be illegal. 

Heath reasons

Obviously this is the most interesting to me, being interested in a career in medicine and taking an interest in the health of the population which I hope to one day be responsible for looking after. The stats which were discussed made me think a lot about the fact that we allow so many harmful, addictive substances to be acceptable in society. Obviously alcohol is the main example of this. Alcohol abuse costs the government over £21bn per year in healthcare and crime. This is absolutely ridiculous and in my opinion is a complete waste of resources. In 2011 there were almost 9000 deaths down to alcohol alone. On average 36 young people (under the age of 18) are admitted to hospital every day with conditions directly related to alcohol abuse. There are an estimated 1.6 million people dependant on alcohol in the UK. To me, it seems unbelievable that a substance like this is still legal. There is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that cannabis has lead to a death by overdose and also is much less addictive than both tobacco and alcohol. This begs the question, why is this illegal and other substances are not? Well one answer to this would be that previous prohibition of alcohol has failed and is therefore likely to fail again, making it very difficult to attempt to ban it as a drug. However, I would argue that the prohibition of cannabis is not working. It is still fairly easily available and a lot of young people are using it. The worrying thing about this for me is that young people have easy access to cannabis on the streets and mostly that, due to the fact that it is illegal, no standards can be placed on the substance. My view is that if we were to legalise cannabis we would be able to impose laws about the quality which is allowed to be sold and we would most definitely be able to better control the standards of the drugs people are taking, which in theory should make it more safe to take. In terms of addiction to cannabis, the drug is less addictive than drugs such as alcohol and tobacco which are legal. Frankly, I  disagree with all harmful substances because as someone wanting to enter the healthcare system, my main concern is the health of people who are at risk of becoming addicted to these substances, and these people are usually already suffering from other conditions, such as depression or other mental health issues. However, I also believe that we should have some consistency in the systems we have in place and the fact that the legality of the substance, which is already not incredibly harmful in comparison with other legal drugs, could in fact make it less dangerous means that to me, it seems almost sensible to legalise it for the health of its users. I also believe that its legality may in fact decrease its popularity among young people because it is no longer taboo. It could be seen as less 'cool' to use it because it is no longer illegal, making it less of a thrill. A question which was posed to the society, which I found particularly thought provoking was regarding the types of people who could potentially use this drug if it were to be legalised. Someone asked if we would be happy for primary school teachers to be smoking cannabis, and I have to say, it seemed ridiculous to even think about at first. However, after thinking about it, I asked the question, what is the difference between smoking cannabis and drinking alcohol as a primary school teacher. I don't see a difference. Of course it is not acceptable to smoke cannabis when you are teacher or to turn up to teach a lesson under the influence of the drug in the same way that it is not acceptable to drink while you are teaching or to come to work drunk. 

Overall, I feel that the reasons for legalising cannabis outweigh those for it to remain illegal due to the factors outlined above. I feel as though its legality would make it safer and would mean that its use could be controlled.