Summertime

This weekend has really felt like a little summer holiday.

On Friday I had drinks with some of my lovely friends and a bit of a boogie. Saturday I trundled up to London, popped into the shops to get a textbook I needed and otherwise spend the rest of the day and the evening with some very good company. On Sunday I met Madsadgirl for lunch and a bit of a catch up since I haven't seen her for a few weeks. I then spent the rest of the afternoon eating ice cream on the beach when I got home and strolling around in the sunshine. Bliss. To top it all off, PapaSunshine is taking me out for a curry once he gets home from the football in about an hour. Nom nom nom...

The best thing is that I'm actually looking forward to getting up and going to work tomorrow. Everyone keeps telling me it won't last, but it feels pretty fantastic to be finally getting up to go and do the job that I've worked so hard to get.

The hard work doesn't stop now.

As well as the obvious hard work involved in actually being a doctor, I really want to make the most of this year. This means 3 things; exams, ePortfolio and audits.

Apparently the ePortfolio is looked at when applying for specialist training posts. I didn't realise that at all. To be quite honest I'd expected to just do the bare minimum on it and scrape through, but that's not the case anymore. I'm actually going to take the advice of the outgoing FY1s and get on top of it from the first week. Lots of reflecting and making sure that while in paeds I get lots of DOPs. Not only will this generally look good, it should show that I have an active interest in paediatrics and help my application later. It also seems sensible to make the most of a rotation where there is always senior supervision about.

Audits and exams are a bit extra. We all have to do an audit, but now I've heard there is an audit prize, I want to do the BEST audit. I can't help but be encouraged by a bit of friendly competition, it's why I'm such a nightmare at pub quizzes. This year I think I will also try and do my MRCPCH part 1 (the paeds membership exam part 1). Talking to the SHOs and SpRs over lunch they said that now is the best time, while it's all still fresh in my mind from finals and doing this placement. It would be silly to not take their advice and have a go. I got my hands on the revision book this weekend. It's 1000 pages. I want to take the exam in June. Eek.

Off to ready myself for tomorrow and then go and eat my bodyweight in curry.

Diet starts tomorrow. I promise.

Dr Sunshine xXx