Pethidine Pleasure

The last three weeks of rural GP has been great fun. There was no assessment apart from my consultant marks, so I could just turn up each day and enjoy the attachment without the stress of having to do annoying presentations or study for tests. It was close enough that I could drive out each day. Going against the traffic, it didn't take very long at all!

When I arrived, I was able to do all kinds of things. Seeing patients and sitting in on consultations took up about half of my time there. There was also a GP there who focussed on dermatology so I got to see lots of skin stuff. I found that really helpful since I find derm quite difficult.

There was a lot of down time, especially in the afternoons since patients preferred to come in the mornings. However that gave me the chance to gain other skills that I hadn't expected to learn. While I was there, the practice staff were doing a major spring clean. They had lots of documents that needed shredding. So whenever there was nothing to do, I sat at a desk, took staples out of the papers and fed them into the shredder. Unfortunately the shredder was unable to keep up with my efficiency and frequently overheated and went on strike. Then I would go back to a consultation room and browse the web.

In the last week, a handle broke off a drawer. I went over the road to the hardware store and bought some supaglue. Then I returned and supaglued the handle back on. That was so fun! You don't learn skills like that in hospitals!!

Alas, the fun can't last for ever and I'm now back in hospital for General Medicine. Today was my first day and having been away from hospitals for three months, it certainly was a rude shock to the system!

Firstly, I forgot to set my alarm and overslept - I have to wake up an hour earlier for this attachment. Then I had to put on a long sleeve shirt and tie! I could barely breathe. Then I got on the motorway, and as I was driving along, I was struggling to remember how to drive to the hospital. When I got to the offramp I normally take, I found that I had to take a detour because of roadworks! That made me really late so I parked my car and rushed in as quickly as possible.

When I got to the meeting place, I found that I was still 20 minutes early because I hadn't read the arrival instructions!! It never occured to me that our orientation book would tell me when to turn up. The orientation never happened because the orientation person was in Australia.

I proceeded to join my team and got plunged into a consultant ward round. Then I found myself writing in the notes of a patient when I had no clue what was going on. Then I began to write super duper brief notes in a surgical style. My house officer reminded me to pan things out a bit more appropriately for medicine.

After the round, it's time for ward jobs. I was asked to put a luer in a patient. Things were going smoothly - I managed to get all of the bits and pieces ready, lined up my target vein, donned my gloves and feeling all ready to go. Then I opened up the luer pack and held up the needle. Then I looked at the needle. After three months of not looking at a needle, these things look huge!! I stared hard at it and thought, "$#^! do I have to stick this in someone's arm??" I checked the pack to make sure I had the right one. I did. Then I started shaking - this was not a good look.

After a few seconds of internal screaming, I managed to pull myself together and got the luer in without spilling a drop of blood! Feeling rather proud of myself, I proceeded to secure the luer with one of those sticky thingies (whatever they're called). Then I totally stuffed it up and got the sticky stuck to itself. That's when you say to yourself, "L-O-S-E-R"

Well, that's day 1 completed! Six weeks, 4 days to go! Let the fun begin!!