Destroyed…but it’s a learning experience

Yesterday, I did one of the other SHO’s a favour a did his on-call as he’d done the first weekend and a few others already.

After only a few days on ITU, I still hadn’t really found my feet and felt like i was like a house officer again or at worst a medical student.

The trouble with our ward rounds at the moment is, there are too many docs, which is a good thing now, but means it is split between two teams of reg’s, so you don’t fully know what’s going on till the consultant comes along.

The usual intake on the gen ITU ward is 1-3 patients. Yesterday we were swamped with 6 patients, which we have to double admit i.e on paper and on the computer, which takes ages. I felt i became even slower and kept on apologising to the on-call reg and then the night team. I felt like a total twat, and just totally hated my first on-call experience. Totally reckoned ITU was not for me. Had an extended journey home as i got lost, but thank god for my SatNav, which got me back within an hour.

Today, thankfully things were a bit better, though i still feel like a little fish in a very wide and deep ocean. The lunchtime critical care teaching allayed some of my fears.

Ultimately, i have to use this as a learning experience, and hope i get better. I need to start doing some practical skills and opening appraisal, and hopefully i’ll start to settle a bit and gain confidence…i hope.

nhsdr

“Rabbit in your headlights”

These last 3 days at work, I’ve been feeling like I’m a medical student again. I started my new SHO job last Weds in Critical Care/ITU Medicine, and it’s like i’ve entered a whole new world.

Everyday, I hear beeps, boops, burps, buzzs, or something like that. There are loads of gadgets everywhere, stuff which i have no idea how they work, but which keep critically ill patients alive. And there are a shit load of new abbreviations: PEEP, CPAP, BiPAP, SIMV, M&M and numbers and physics—aaaaahhh!

I’ve watched several cool procedures this week, none of which i have the confidence to perform yet, but would love to do.

On Fri, I was assigned two patients to “look after”, i.e order all the investigations and check up on them later, but was so freakin slow, as i didn’t know where any of the radiological dept’s where in the hospital. By the time i sorted the investigations for my first patient, the registrar saw the other patient already. Slow slow slow.

Hopefully next week, i’ll become more useful to the other docs on ITU.