Tuesday 7 December 2010

Things I Love About Medical School: The Feeling When It's Going Well

Today was my first day in A+E. I Clerked a patient, picked up all the salient points from the history, examined her and spotted a couple of subtle but important signs and came up with the most likely diagnosis all while a senior doctor was watching me.


I accompanied the same doctor to resus where a patient with sepsis was brought in by ambulance: I managed to put in a big cannula, take bloods and cultures from it and then take an ABG and successfully interpret it. 


This was all in the space of about 45 minutes. A few things went well and I felt ten feet tall.


Last week on ward-round I answered three questions wrong and almost tripped over my own stethoscope.


The ups and downs of medical school are not so good for your mental health.