Blog Entries

MMC recruitment , Will it compromise patient care?

kaushadhj@yahoo.com — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 19:00:00 +0100

This year's Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) recruitment round is almost over for this year. The majority of junior doctors were engaged with it. They had to submit separate applications for each Unit of Application, which could be up to seventeen this year. It puts junior doctors under immense pressure as they have to make applications and attend interviews whilst carrying out their normal clinical duties. Would it affect patient care? According to the General Medical Council good me [...]

Just plain old talking

Sanajaved3@hotmail.com — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:00:00 +0100

Theres one thing i can do - and thats talk for England ( & Wales). The last few weeks have been turning into a bit of a drag where i feel like im learning very little and now that the whole excitement has died down about being a FY1...things just seem to be dragging along.

So i just sat there on the ward , by the desk, jobs all done. Thinking what to do...i didnt really fancy going into surgery again and smell the stench of diathermy. So i walk over to one of my [...]

Ramadan Musings

Sanajaved3@hotmail.com — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:00:00 +0100

Ramadan ensues full steam ahead , days after days of no food and no drink have become routine now.

Ramadan i think to myself, is the month of ease. This month is much more than just giving up your food and drink for the sake of Allah (swt). This is a month of spiritual enrichment and being in touch with your inner heart. What does your heart yearn for? What are its focuses , its aims and ambitions?

As i pass the day by seeing lists of patients, i thank Allah fo [...]

Friday - Start to a bad weekend?

cardio@juniordr.com — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:00:00 +0100

A disaster at work. All my statistical analysis from the entire week is gone.

Apparently I should have backed it up as every now and again one of the servers goes down and is wiped. As the data were all in a numbers programme backing it up wasn't as easy as it sounds. I punch the keyboard with my fists and almost break it shocking everyone in the lab.

I decide to leave for a coffee and drink this calmly whilst considering my options. I could stay in all weekend whilst [...]

Thursday - Number crunching

cardio@juniordr.com — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:00:00 +0100

I get in by eight and spend the morning in the lab. James' sister came over last night and it turns out he was having dinner with her. I would have loved to meet her but he tells me that he's not ready for this yet.

I have to miss lunch as I'm running some experiments which can't wait. My cells finally seem to be making it through. I get a false reading at one point and want to throw it out but have to include it so I can't be accused of falsifying the re [...]

Bored swabless!

Sanajaved3@hotmail.com — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 19:00:00 +0100

I m waiting in the surgical mess. Im literally hanging around for a few swab results. So tedious its painful.

V. random , odd few days. Little jobs seem to be cropping up at odd unf. hours.

For example friday at 4.30 (official finishing time is 4.00 here) i happily walked to the medical ward to see one of my teams patient. Home time finally i thought! :D

To my shock and confusion a "mysterious" surgeon/anaesthetist had prepped our patient wrongl [...]

Surgery scrubs with half sleeves!

Sanajaved3@hotmail.com — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 19:00:00 +0100

Its great ive found this site so i can moan and hopefully amuse you all. Il begin with my ASL (Age, sex, location). Yea right. :P

But in short, im a Muslim female medic who has just begun her foundation training ; beginning with Vascular surgery.:)

Im having a brill time, no jokes, med school was such a complete bore and am so glad to finally be doing something mildly related to medicine. Lets just hope this joy lasts till the end of my [...]

No Pain, No Sweat

greenleaf_md@yahoo.com — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:00:00 +0100

We often wonder how it must be blissful to live without the gnashing pangs of pain. Pain is a terrible feeling that we want to avoid at all cost. Yet, would you give up this feeling that saves you in more ways than one?

Congenital Insensitivity to Pain and Anhidrosis

“Look Ma, I poked my eye” happily exclaims a girl with congenital insensi [...]

Wednesday - Where's James?

cardio@juniordr.com — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 19:00:00 +0100

Today is my one clinical day. Angio suite all morning where things go smoothly. I'm doing them on my own now and that includes balloons and stents. A consultant has to be nearby but as I've worked here for two years now they just let me get on with things. I've only had one near miss so far. You have to be very careful when you're moving wires around insides someone's coronary arteries.

I spend a few hours on the ward and do consults in the afternoon and [...]

Tuesday - Analysis

cardio@juniordr.com — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:00:00 +0100

Meetings all morning. I smile at James during one of them but he pretends to ignore me. The grant proposals for the entire department are being finalised and everyone is getting worried about their jobs. I'm lucky as the funding from my doctorate comes from outside but I pretend to be nervous like everyone else.

I spend the afternoon catching up on my data analysis. I have all these numbers from my experiments and the hard part is actually trying to make sense of them and work [...]

Forget the pharma books. Learn this ...

flossyann@juniordr.com — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:00:00 +0100

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXROnzpsrlg&feature=related 425x344]

Monday - More Merlot!

cardio@juniordr.com — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:00:00 +0100

If you've been following this column, and I hope you have, you may be interested to know that James and I are now officially going out and have been for three months (actually quite a bit longer for me). He's a senior researcher in my lab and we've managed to keep it hush for now, although I think the prof knows. That's only because he knows everything. Everyone else is either in the dark or pretending very well.

I spent most of the day grappling with those damn my [...]

Tale Of The Living Dead

greenleaf_md@yahoo.com — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:00:00 +0100

Imagine hearing a person gripe about his life being “dead”. It must be difficult dealing with the fumes of a putrefying body or the tragedy of disappearing vital organs. In episode 14 of the 4th season of the hit TV series “ Scrubs”, a character named Jerry depicted the role of a patient with the “Walking Corpse Syndrome”.

This is why NHS nurses can't do venflons!

flossyann@juniordr.com — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:00:00 +0100

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kVv2aqnEjs&feature=related 425x344]

Funny Video: Singing Medics!

flossyann@juniordr.com — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:00:00 +0100

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOrjcLJ2IE0 425x344]

Coursing Through The Curse

greenleaf_md@yahoo.com — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:00:00 +0100

&nb [...]

Friday - Bye everyone!

cardio@juniordr.com — Thu, 29 May 2008 19:00:00 +0100

I'm in clinic when I get a bleep from a number I don't recognise. After finishing with a patient I call it. It's the office of the chief executive. He wants to see me as soon as possible. I excuse myself for a while and make my way over.

I've never spoken to him before but he's looking rather glum for a plump guy in a pin-stripe suit. Dr Johnson has informed him that he is reporting me to the General Medical Council for professional miscounduct. Specifica [...]

Thursday - It hits the fan!

cardio@juniordr.com — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:00:00 +0100

The proverbial ‘stuff' has hit the fan. Johnson (my boss) calls me into his office before our rounds. He is absolutely livid that I went behind his back to transfer my man out. He starts ranting about professional obligations and the chain of command. I call him a wanker under my breath (not for the first time) but he doesn't hear. We part on icy terms.

I spend the rest of the morning on the ward round being ignored. Our SHO is still on nights so the poor house offic [...]

Wednesday - My last oncall

cardio@juniordr.com — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:00:00 +0100

My last general medicine on call for the next two years! I accept the list of patients waiting to be seen with excessive enthusiasm and actually frighten the poor gastro reg on nights. The morning passes slowly but things start to speed up in the afternoon. We get a sick patient with cardiogenic shock after a large anterioir MI. I thrombolyse him and get him a bed on CCU. His pressure starts to drop so we put in a central line and start some dobutamine. Things slowly start to slip downhill after [...]

Tuesday - Meetings, meetings and more meetings!

cardio@juniordr.com — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:00:00 +0100

My morning is filled with meetings. To start with there's the regional angiogram meet where cardiologists from district generals present their cases for consideration on cd-roms. They line up expectantly at the back of the room with discs in hand as we go through them one by one. The consultant chairing it this morning is a bit of an idiot and he spends most of the time sneering at his colleagues from other hospitals. The cases are met with grunts of disapproval and comments like ‘d [...]