Wednesday 28 September 2011

Teaching Nerves

Since starting work I have had a medical student. In fact I am on med students number 3, 4 and 5 at the moment, so as you can imagine I have done lots of informal teaching. Tomorrow I have to do my first formal med student teaching ever.

I'm a little nervous.

I think I would be less nervous if I was doing it to a lot, but I'm teaching 3 medical students basic paediatric resus (BLS, choking, recovery position...). I'm also possibly being observed doing it. As there are so few students it will be so obvious if any of them fall asleep.

I'm avoiding death-by-powerpoint by only using a couple of slides to illustrate points, but it's just after lunch so I'm fully expecting post-prandial slumps. I guess the good thing is that I can make them go through things on the resus dummies which should keep them awake.

Wish me luck!

Dr Sunshine xXx

Sunday 25 September 2011

Getting Fit

You'd think with all the running around the hospital I do, that I'd have a certain level of fitness. I don't. I've never been very energetic or a big lover of exercise, but I do aknowledge the fact that when I used to force myself to do it regularly I felt a lot better than I do now. My bum also looked nicer.

I am quite a lazy person.

I told myself that this year I was going to change all that and join the gym. I have tried. Not only have I been going with a friend when she gets free passes, but I turned up on 3 different occasions to join the gym, but all 3 times the computer system was down. I saw this as a sign. Clearly someone, somewhere, didn't want me to join.

I came up with a new plan.

I've just ordered a cross-trainer online.

It's only a cheap £70 one, but it's got pretty good reviews. I've also decided that its less of a waste of money than playing £120 to join the gym and then £40 a month when I'll probably be too lazy to go. At least with this cross trainer I can do 15-20 mins every morning and evening without having to drag myself into the car and go all the way to the gym.

It also means I can watch Come Dine With Me while exercising. Win.

Dr Sunshine xXx

Tuesday 20 September 2011

Excuses, Excuses.

Sorry for being MIA.

Some of you may have thought that I had died of overwork. You weren't far off. I've worked yet another weekend with no days off in the weeks either side. Others may have thought I'd contracted some horrible mutated snuffles-virus from all the snuffly children I see. You were also not wrong. I seem to always have snuffles right now.

These weren't the reasons I haven't blogged.

The main reason is purely technical. My laptop is still having serious issues. Hopefully with enough locum shifts and some saving I can get something more reliable, and longer-lasting soon. On advice I'm thinking a macbook of some sort, so as soon as I'm allowed out of the hospital for longer than an evening at a time I'm going to go for a play in the apple store.

I also have a second reason for being a bit wary of blogging. I've been quite scared by all the weekend's drama in the Torygraph about doctor's on twitter/blogs and the things they say. I feel it was all taken out of context. In fact I call my midwife friends madwives to their faces... it's all banter, but I do worry that things I say will be taken out of context.

Anyway, an update on how things have been going at work.

In a word, good.

I'm still LOVING paediatrics and I'm still getting love-butterflies in my tummy when I talk about it to people. I've also had some tears with sad patients and I've had frustrations with other staff dumping their work on me so it's not perfect, but I'd rather tell you some of the awesome things about my job.

1. BUBBLES. I get to blow bubbles to amuse myself distract patients. I love bubbles.

2. CHILDREN. Some would say children are very far from awesome, but as I have the mental age of a child I love spending all day with them.

3. BABIES. They are so ickle and cute and I get to cuddle them and pretend it's part of my examination. In fact it is part of a good examination as it's nice to see how the baby handles.

4. PAEDIATRIC NURSES. All the nurses on my ward are beyond lovely. They are chatty, kind, helpful, experienced and have challenged me to keep up with them on a night out. I can't wait.

5. TRICKY BLOODS/CANNULAE. Again some would think that this is not so awesome but it's pretty satisfying when you get bloods or put a cannula in a tricky little vein. My personal best is getting bloods from a chubby 16 month old baby in 1 go. I want to try and get a cannula in a neonate before I finish this rotation. I reckon with all my recent experience that I'd probably just about manage it.

6. PLAYING. I like playing. Examinations are play. Talking to teddies and examining them is play. Taking inhalers is play. Play, play, play!

7. KIND CONSULTANTS. Even though they can be stern or firm about getting things done the right way, all my consultants are lovely. A large part of me feels this is not so much to do with how I'm treated, but it's from how I see them interact with children. It's so cute to see "scary" consultants laughing and smiling and playing with kiddies.

8. ACUTE CARE. It's scary but children deteriorate very quickly so whether its on a resus call to a&e or on the ward I get a fair amount of adrenaline pumping while dealing with sick kids. It's great to put skills to use and to work under pressure.

Tomorrow I'm doing (another) 12 hr day, having done my last 12 hr day on Sunday. We shall see if I am still so cheerful tomorrow night. Somehow I doubt it.

Dr Sunshine xXx

Monday 5 September 2011

Long Week

So after having a long weekend off work, I am now having a loooooong week in work. By long week I mean 11 days in a row.

A nasty viral infection seems to be sweeping its way through the team. This means lots of people taking days off. This also means that there was no junior to cover the weekend on the ward with the registrar, so I got to do it. Although I'm now exhausted after spending 26 hrs of my weekend in the hospital, it was actually a good thing for a few reasons:

1. I learnt LOTS over the weekend. I clerked and reviewed so many patients that my history and examination skills were really brought up to scratch and the registrar was so helpful. He really encouraged me to formulate management plans and after being so heavily involved in the acute care of so many children I feel so much more confident in making a management plan.


2. I got some bits for ePortfolio done.


3. I will have some more pennies at the end of the month so I'll be able to afford the 3 new tyres my car needs.


I was lucky that although we saw a lot of patients we chose not to admit, the ward itself wasn't as busy as it could have been. I was also very glad that I was working with a very supportive registrar who is always there to answer any questions and was happy to review any patients I was unsure of.


One of the things I'm enjoying so much about the team I'm with now is that the consultants change weekly and the registrars rotate. Some people find it irritating but I find it really helpful to see different consultants management techniques and the decisions they make. I also like the changes of registrars as they all have different tips for practical skills and I need as many tips as I can get.


The only bad thing about working so many days in a row, especially after such a busy weekend is that along with being completely shattered I am really grumpy. Normally I have quite a high tolerance level for all of life's little niggles, but not today. My advice, don't mess with the Sunshine until this weekend when I've caught up on my rest.


Dr Sunshine xXx