Medical Students

I've heard this already - many times. All the older doctors complaining that we young'uns aren't half the doctors they were when they were out age. And I've always thought that was just a load of BS. But, lately I've been thinking they may be onto something. I was only a medical student last year so I don't think that my view of what it used to be like has changed all that much. There is one observation I've made in the last couple of days though - the medical students who are just about sit their gen med/surg exams aren't as boned up on their practical skills as we were only 2 years ago. I remember cannulating on my first day in clinicals and being quite up to scratch by the time exams came around. But on Friday I was speaking with a couple of medical students who happened to mention that they had yet to get their 5 supervised cannulas signed off - and with only 6 or so weeks to go before the exam. A little more probing revealed that neither had really done ANY practical procedures on patients - only getting to use the simulators at the clinical school once or twice. Now I don't know if this is the trend now for medical students, or it is this year in particular, but I hope they catch up a bit before they hit internship, otherwise I can foresee all the calls I'll be getting to slip in difficult cannulas for them on their cover shifts.

Disclaimer - if any of you are reading this, don't take it personally. I assume that you've covered what you need to for your exams and that's fine - I'm just commenting from personal experience and I promise to be nice if you end up calling me at 8pm with a difficult cannula =)

Take Days

Take days are my most dreaded day of the week. Take days are when its my unit's turn to admit all the surgical cases which come through emergency. So one day a week, and one in every four Fridays and weekends, each of the surgical units has this pensive experience. Now by chance or design, my surgical unit's regular take day is a Monday. For some reason, Mondays tend to be THE day of the week when all and sundry decide to troop into the hospital's ED with anything from bellyache to ruptured appendicies. We get hammered every Monday. The game is then to fix and discharge as many patients as we can by Friday, in anticipation for the following weeks take. Its a never ending cycle - a game, if you please - a big merry-go-round that is modern medicine. Don't get me wrong, I know I'm sounding bitter, I do love the job I'm in - I just wish that there were less patients on my list. It'd make such a difference if I could sit down in the Cafeteria for lunch a couple of days a week. I know what you're thinking, 'Shut up and suck it in; eat a teaspoon of concrete and harden up' - but so bad was our last take day, that the night surgical registrar had mercy on us and decided to slow up the last two admissions by a couple of hours so they would come under the next surg unit. No joke. So, if you're out there reading this, please avoid coming in on a Monday - any other day of the week would be fine ;-)