sari
8th January, 2007, 6:08 PM
I would highly recommend this scheme. It is well organised and you are treated as if you were a junior doctor – helping to give a real insight in to what it would really be like. I saw and learnt a lot in a short space of time and found the experience invaluable to making my decision to pursue my goal to becoming a doctor. I have applied to Glasgow as a graduate and I really hope to be starting in autumn 2007.
Recording information was shown to be vital to avoid mistakes regarding treatment from observing ward rounds to surgery.
Day 1
AM – Care for the elderly wards
Went on the rounds in the wards. The consultant would give a summary about each patient then we would see them. Patients varied from having had a stroke to having pancreatic cancer. There was a man with COPD - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder which I learnt is a combination of chronic bronchitis and emphysema. I saw the oldest person I’d ever seen, she was 103 in with shingles and a chest infection. It was hard to tell the difference in age/health between her and patients 30-40 year her junior. She looked great.
Observed how much more time the FY1 & FY2 doctors could spend with patients compared to the consultant. Noticed the differing roles and how they worked together as a team, the different doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and so on.
For me the highlight of the day was seeing a brain pulsating through a patient’s forehead where she had part of her skull removed due to an aneurysm.
PM – Endoscopy
I walked through the door and the doctor doing the colonoscopy asked me what the condition looked like and the name of the area she was examining. I quickly explained that I am a student who has applied for medical school and that I’m not there yet.
Barrett’s esophagus – this is being seen more as obesity increases – usually develops into cancer.
A biopsy was taken from a man with alcoholic liver disease who had been told he did not have long to live. He had varicose veins and one could rupture at any time. Other biopsies I saw were for Celiac disease or Crohn’s disease.
A patient in their 70s had a cancerous lesion in the intestines which was seen from the screen when she had a colonoscopy. The lesion looked like a red bubbling volcano.
Day 2
A & E
A man was rushed in who had a ‘hypo’ – he had a seizure. He was diabetic and had injected his insulin without eating as he fasted for some hospital tests then passed out at the wheel of his car outside the hospital. He looked in a bad way when he was wheeled in to A&E and it was ‘all stations go’ but after he was given glucose he returned to a stable state.
Pregnant women with suspected pneumonia – after an x-ray this was confirmed.
Strokes – I saw patients having seizures and saw how upsetting this could be for the family. I found that by chatting to patients and their relatives helped put them at ease.
See and treat dealt with less serious incidents such as a nail stuck in a boys foot and broken bones and fractures.
Abbreviations used quite a lot in A&E:
CVA - stroke
MI – heart attack
CABG – coronary bypass Day 3
Surgery
I was standing right behind the surgeons performing maxillofacial surgery to a man who had been assaulted. The anesthetists and surgeons had to work closely together to do a tracheostomy – showed how good team work was necessary to perform this procedure as quickly as possible. This was necessary to enable the surgeons to attach a teeth brace to allow them to have something of the man’s face to work from. They then had to re-break his nose to be able to reset the bones. The surgeons made an incision above the teeth in the gum so they could access the cheek bones. Three plates were attached with screws after holes were drilled to hold the bones in place. I was fascinated by everything and watching this was remarkable.
Recording information was shown to be vital to avoid mistakes regarding treatment from observing ward rounds to surgery.
Day 1
AM – Care for the elderly wards
Went on the rounds in the wards. The consultant would give a summary about each patient then we would see them. Patients varied from having had a stroke to having pancreatic cancer. There was a man with COPD - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder which I learnt is a combination of chronic bronchitis and emphysema. I saw the oldest person I’d ever seen, she was 103 in with shingles and a chest infection. It was hard to tell the difference in age/health between her and patients 30-40 year her junior. She looked great.
Observed how much more time the FY1 & FY2 doctors could spend with patients compared to the consultant. Noticed the differing roles and how they worked together as a team, the different doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and so on.
For me the highlight of the day was seeing a brain pulsating through a patient’s forehead where she had part of her skull removed due to an aneurysm.
PM – Endoscopy
I walked through the door and the doctor doing the colonoscopy asked me what the condition looked like and the name of the area she was examining. I quickly explained that I am a student who has applied for medical school and that I’m not there yet.
Barrett’s esophagus – this is being seen more as obesity increases – usually develops into cancer.
A biopsy was taken from a man with alcoholic liver disease who had been told he did not have long to live. He had varicose veins and one could rupture at any time. Other biopsies I saw were for Celiac disease or Crohn’s disease.
A patient in their 70s had a cancerous lesion in the intestines which was seen from the screen when she had a colonoscopy. The lesion looked like a red bubbling volcano.
Day 2
A & E
A man was rushed in who had a ‘hypo’ – he had a seizure. He was diabetic and had injected his insulin without eating as he fasted for some hospital tests then passed out at the wheel of his car outside the hospital. He looked in a bad way when he was wheeled in to A&E and it was ‘all stations go’ but after he was given glucose he returned to a stable state.
Pregnant women with suspected pneumonia – after an x-ray this was confirmed.
Strokes – I saw patients having seizures and saw how upsetting this could be for the family. I found that by chatting to patients and their relatives helped put them at ease.
See and treat dealt with less serious incidents such as a nail stuck in a boys foot and broken bones and fractures.
Abbreviations used quite a lot in A&E:
CVA - stroke
MI – heart attack
CABG – coronary bypass Day 3
Surgery
I was standing right behind the surgeons performing maxillofacial surgery to a man who had been assaulted. The anesthetists and surgeons had to work closely together to do a tracheostomy – showed how good team work was necessary to perform this procedure as quickly as possible. This was necessary to enable the surgeons to attach a teeth brace to allow them to have something of the man’s face to work from. They then had to re-break his nose to be able to reset the bones. The surgeons made an incision above the teeth in the gum so they could access the cheek bones. Three plates were attached with screws after holes were drilled to hold the bones in place. I was fascinated by everything and watching this was remarkable.