Surgery
I watched several operations both laparoscopically and open, all of which were extremely interesting. I particularly enjoyed a mini stomach bypass on an obese man. I was amazed by the innovative equipment the surgeons had access to and was fascinated by the intricate manoeuvres they could perform. The bypass was performed in about an hour, with no complications. More than the actual procedures, however, I was watching the interactions between the doctors and scrub nurses. It was interesting to see the team of people working together on the one operation and it really confirmed to me that being a doctor is definitely a job for a team player. I took opportunities to ask the doctors about their lives and their training and one thing that stuck in my mind was when a surgeon told me that if I wanted to make money and be praised then I shouldn't be a doctor, but went on to say that if I wanted to make a difference to people and have good job satisfaction then I was making the right decision. I think I am. I asked him what the worst part about being a doctor was, and he told me it was most definitely the family life (or lack of, for that matter). This is something I'm sure I cannot fully understand, given that I am only 17, and have lived away from my family since I was 14 at boarding school. However, I know it is fully possible to have a family life in the medical profession, it just may not be completely conventional, but that being said, I don't think I would enjoy a conventional life. I think I will enjoy the challenge, being constantly stretched. I also attended a lunchtime meeting with the consultants where they discussed all of the new cancer patients they would be dealing with and the direction they thought their treatment should go in. One of the consultants told me that the reason for this meeting was to get as many opinions as possible and ensure the patient was receiving the best care possible, yet another example of doctors acting in a team.
A&E
I absolutely loved my morning in A&E again! I followed a lovely nurse, who showed me everything there was to see! There were some difficult cases and of course dealing with sudden loss is a major issue in A&E. Something that stood out hugely in A&E was the importance of good nurses and good bedside manner. A lot of the people who came in were distressed and their relatives and loved ones were upset and worried, requiring friendly faces and chatty nurses to take their minds off the hard time they were going through. I enjoyed talking to the patients and laughing with them as they had bloods taken and obs done because I felt as though I was helping them slightly. I was really stretched in A&E where the consultant asked me what I wanted to gain from my morning in her department and I told her I wanted to gain insight, experience and an idea of what it's like to be an A&E doctor, but also to be challenged. She rose to that straight away and handed me a case of a man who had been referred to A&E by MIU for them to then refer him to the specific department he needed. She asked me how efficient I thought this was and if I could think of a better pathway to go through. Well… It was 9am on a Tuesday morning and I had definitely been thrown in in the deep end but I loved it. I told her I thought it was very inefficient given that A&E had nothing to do with this particular patient until they were given his file by MIU, which seemed an unnecessary link if only
Cardiology
The cardiology department was probably my most challenging stint (stent ;) haha) in my work experience because it required a good level of understanding about all of the areas of the heart and the blood vessels around it. Luckily, this was my favourite chapter of the biology course, so I looked more into it! Thank goodness! I watched the procedure performed with catheters to investigate a stenosis in a lady's coronary artery and discussed with the doctor the procedure to insert a stent to widen the artery to prevent an MI. The doctor then took me to an audit meeting about a new blood thinning drug. He explained that this drug was better than Warfarin because with Warfarin, the blood needs to be tested regularly whereas with this drug, testing is much less frequent. This is positive because it means the drug has less of an impact on the patients life.
Interventional Radiology
Nowadays, surgery itself is much less invasive because of the fantastic advances in technology, and this includes certain operations which now don't even need to be operated on as such. They can be performed with ultrasound or X-Ray assistance. I watched a procedure where a lady had a gall stone stuck in her bile duct which was causing blockages and infection, but the woman was old and the risk of removing the gall stone, along with the stress it would cause her to have to undergo surgery, was deemed to not be worth it. So instead, the doctor used ultrasound to direct him to her liver, gave her a local anaesthetic, and used a needle to go through her liver to find the stone. He used dye which could be seen on a screen to be filling her bile duct, and the stone was so obvious. He then used the needle to guide a wire, over which he could pass a tube, to act as a bypass around the stone. This would prevent it from causing anymore blockages and less infections. The procedure took no more than 20 minutes! The personal side of this was more difficult than most of the others I watched, because the lady had dementia, and was very upset, asking why we had done that to her. She was crying and would beg me to let her go home and make her stop, reaching her hands out to me. I must admit, I wasn't overly sure how to approach this situation, given that I knew she couldn't go home just yet and was in no position to help her. I found it so hard to see her in pain the way she was, both emotional and physical. However, I was so touched by the way the other professionals in the room dealt with her and reassured her and calmed her down. They were so kind, patient and compassionate with her, which is exactly the type of doctor I hope to be one day.
Neurology
The final department I visited was a ward in neurology where I saw a lumbar puncture! I noticed on the ward how attentive the nurses were to the needs of the patients but also, how much administration the doctors had to! There was a lot of paper work and less patient contact that I expected. The doctors spent quite a lot of time looking at scans and discussing treatment plans as opposed to seeing patients. I still enjoyed this though, because I was able to see lots of scans.
A&E
I absolutely loved my morning in A&E again! I followed a lovely nurse, who showed me everything there was to see! There were some difficult cases and of course dealing with sudden loss is a major issue in A&E. Something that stood out hugely in A&E was the importance of good nurses and good bedside manner. A lot of the people who came in were distressed and their relatives and loved ones were upset and worried, requiring friendly faces and chatty nurses to take their minds off the hard time they were going through. I enjoyed talking to the patients and laughing with them as they had bloods taken and obs done because I felt as though I was helping them slightly. I was really stretched in A&E where the consultant asked me what I wanted to gain from my morning in her department and I told her I wanted to gain insight, experience and an idea of what it's like to be an A&E doctor, but also to be challenged. She rose to that straight away and handed me a case of a man who had been referred to A&E by MIU for them to then refer him to the specific department he needed. She asked me how efficient I thought this was and if I could think of a better pathway to go through. Well… It was 9am on a Tuesday morning and I had definitely been thrown in in the deep end but I loved it. I told her I thought it was very inefficient given that A&E had nothing to do with this particular patient until they were given his file by MIU, which seemed an unnecessary link if only
Cardiology
The cardiology department was probably my most challenging stint (stent ;) haha) in my work experience because it required a good level of understanding about all of the areas of the heart and the blood vessels around it. Luckily, this was my favourite chapter of the biology course, so I looked more into it! Thank goodness! I watched the procedure performed with catheters to investigate a stenosis in a lady's coronary artery and discussed with the doctor the procedure to insert a stent to widen the artery to prevent an MI. The doctor then took me to an audit meeting about a new blood thinning drug. He explained that this drug was better than Warfarin because with Warfarin, the blood needs to be tested regularly whereas with this drug, testing is much less frequent. This is positive because it means the drug has less of an impact on the patients life.
Interventional Radiology
Nowadays, surgery itself is much less invasive because of the fantastic advances in technology, and this includes certain operations which now don't even need to be operated on as such. They can be performed with ultrasound or X-Ray assistance. I watched a procedure where a lady had a gall stone stuck in her bile duct which was causing blockages and infection, but the woman was old and the risk of removing the gall stone, along with the stress it would cause her to have to undergo surgery, was deemed to not be worth it. So instead, the doctor used ultrasound to direct him to her liver, gave her a local anaesthetic, and used a needle to go through her liver to find the stone. He used dye which could be seen on a screen to be filling her bile duct, and the stone was so obvious. He then used the needle to guide a wire, over which he could pass a tube, to act as a bypass around the stone. This would prevent it from causing anymore blockages and less infections. The procedure took no more than 20 minutes! The personal side of this was more difficult than most of the others I watched, because the lady had dementia, and was very upset, asking why we had done that to her. She was crying and would beg me to let her go home and make her stop, reaching her hands out to me. I must admit, I wasn't overly sure how to approach this situation, given that I knew she couldn't go home just yet and was in no position to help her. I found it so hard to see her in pain the way she was, both emotional and physical. However, I was so touched by the way the other professionals in the room dealt with her and reassured her and calmed her down. They were so kind, patient and compassionate with her, which is exactly the type of doctor I hope to be one day.
Neurology
The final department I visited was a ward in neurology where I saw a lumbar puncture! I noticed on the ward how attentive the nurses were to the needs of the patients but also, how much administration the doctors had to! There was a lot of paper work and less patient contact that I expected. The doctors spent quite a lot of time looking at scans and discussing treatment plans as opposed to seeing patients. I still enjoyed this though, because I was able to see lots of scans.
No comments:
Post a Comment