[Image taken from
http://www.openlearn.open.ac.uk/]
Familiar, fellow medics?
This is how a (public/teaching hospital) ward round looks like on a typical weekday - a consultant, at least one fellow doctor (be it a senior or junior medical officer), a nurse or two sometimes, AND a group of 4th-6th YEAR MEDICAL STUDENTS.
Now I do not have anything against ward rounds - in fact, I find them really
interesting.... nothing beats the experience of observing clinical presentations before one's eyes.
However, there were times when I wonder - if the patients are actually comfortable with....having so many people surrounding them at one sitting.
If I were to be suddenly sick *TOUCH WOOD!*, and ended up in a public hospital, I'd be just like that patient depicted in the above picture - uncomfortable, anxious, fearful.
How would you respond, if you were in the patient's shoes?
Labels: Medicine/Hospitals/Medics
Sigh. Another block has come....and just when I started to enjoy this rotation tremendously....it's gone. =(
It's been a
crazy yet
fulfilling six-week
Haematology/Oncology/Infectious Disease/Breast block. At the Western Hospital (WH), no less....as opposed to the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH)where I completed my Neurology/Ophthalmology/ENT block seven weeks previously.
Western is pleasantly different (not that I have anything to complain about RMH, as it's a good hospital/clinical school overall), in the sense that:
1. The atmosphere in WH is seemingly more relaxed, perhaps due to the fact that it's smaller (than RMH) and is situated in the suburbs. 2. The hospital staff are EVEN FRIENDLIER here (which could be partially due to the more laidback environment in WH?) 3. Julie (who heads the administration department of WH clinical school) SERIOUSLY looks after us well!! XD Ward rounds, outpatient clinics and tutorials have never been more interesting (well, to me at least). It's true that this block (haemato/onco/ID/breast) is VERY
multisystemic and we had to
cover almost EVERY system we can think of (eg: cardiovascular, respiratory, abdominal, CNS/PNS, musculoskeletal, dermatology etc). A daunting task to many, perhaps, but I found it all the
more interesting! I had a wider range of things to read-up, and need not bore myself focusing on one to two fields alone.
[Of course this inevitably meant that I had LOADS TO COVER EVERY WEEK as well, but that's another story..... LOL.] Out of the four components in my block,
infectious disease (ID) actually intrigued me the most. Perhaps it was due in part that we had ID tutes at least once weekly. hahahah!!! Brain-washed, you might say? =p Nah, I guess it was the
ID team (headed by the affable
Dr. Garry Lane) that sort of
"won me over" in the end.
Ward rounds have never been this FUN. XD Oh, and another highlight worth mentioning for this block....
I even had the opportunity to "shadow" Ms Meron Pitcher, a general surgeon in Sunshine Hospital, for a day. Morning was designated for ward rounds and surgeries, breast clinics in the afternoon. It was overall a pleasant experience - observed two surgeries (a breast lumpectomy and breast masectomy with axillary clearance), scrubbed-in for the third (appendicectomy), and learnt a great deal more during the breast clinic session. I was also very impressed by the way Miss Pitcher and her team treated their patients - they were so professional!!
[Truth to be told, I always had the impression that surgeons were aloof (and lacked bedside manners for the matter), especially so after my 2-week clinical stint at a surgical ward last year.....I now think otherwise, after my "day-trip" to Sunshine. =D]
Gonna miss those times now. =(
Next stop:
Block 6 - Gastro, Hepatobiliary and General Surgery!!!Labels: Medicine/Hospitals/Medics
[Image taken from http://www.openlearn.open.ac.uk/]
