things i love about being back at the qe
- good nurses at gandarra, working with clare and kirrily
- team approach to problems
- a chance treat the whole patient and consider other aspects of management such as resources distribution and family dynamics
- independence to make my own management plans and decisions
things i abhor about being back at the qe
- terrible nursing support at the other wards
- the evils of overnight on calls
- behavioural and psychotic symptoms of dementia
- isolation from other interns and inadequate medical backup
examples that typified the qe experience
- an excellent lunch time discussion about medical ethics
- a nurse coming up to me and saying 'mr x has a temperature. it's 37.4' and me saying 'so... it's normal'
- working out the pros and cons of discharging a competent patient with a high risk of falls. he wants to go home, has a poor prognosis of weeks, has a supportive family, but will probably represent with a fractured nof
- explaining to a patient why she is inappropriate for resuscitation, while she struggles to breath and stay awake because of her end stage right heart failure, while she continues to insist she has the right to go to icu if she becomes unwell
- the same nurse interrupting me in a middle of an admission to wave a thermometer in my face, saying 'mrs y has a temperature of 38.7', having recorded no other vital signs, and later finding out they've been recording temperatures above 38 for the last few days, and had told no one
- having disinhibited old ladies yelling out for the good looking doctor to come back and spend time with them a la house
it's satisfying to notice the changes in myself since the last time i was here. i have so much more perspective and confidence dealing with basic ward problems now. and even hairy situations find me calm and problem solving, rather than frozen with indecision. sure, there are still many problems i can't deal with. but there will always be those.
i'm beginning to think of myself as a real doctor now.
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