I’ve popped my A-line cherry…almost

So I finally got to an A-line today. Unfortunately, I picked the one patient who had a heart rate of approximately 130 bpm, and whom had been in hospital for 78 days and had a multitude if lines in him already. He did have an A-line in his brachial, but this kinked and needed to be changed.

So after chatting with an ST2 and reading technique in a book, I tried my first attempt, then second attempt at cannulating the left radial artery. Bugger me, I just couldn’t do it, though I think I managed to cannulate a vein. The ST2 tried the right radial artery, and he failed too.

Hopefully next weekend when I’m on-call, I’ll get the opportunity to do another one or two, and possibly try a central line, or hopefully intubate in theatre.

Once I get more proficient with these skills, my interest and enjoyment in ITU should hopefully increase.

Your no friend of mine

Everyday, guaranteed, I recieve bleeps from wards to review patient I don’t look after.

Why?

It’s because these wards don’t know who their buddy is!

Let me start from the beginning.

For a long time in my hospital, and also other hospitals, medical outliers on surgical wards have a habit of being missed for several days or longer. So they’ve started something called a buddy system, which is where assigned medical wards look after medical outliers on surgical wards. Is the system working- is it fuck!

The main problem is, only the consultants have been emailed about the new buddy system and not any of the ward managers or staff nurses. Who came up with that brainstorm? So everyday, I get bleeped from a ward I don’t cover and have to fob the nurse off.

Another good idea ballsed up. Well done guys

 nhsdr

Where’s the excitement?

ER

Holby City

Casualty

Doctors

St Elsewhere

Chicago Hope

Grey’s Anatomy

Do you know what all these shows have in common?

You’d be correct to say they are medical shows. And also correct to say they are some of the many medical shows that swamp out TV channels. And dare I say it, you’d be correct in saying some of these are highly entertaining…sometimes, but…

…y’know what I think?

I think all these shows are lying to the general public! What lies, you may say?

Well the first being that life in a hospital is always exciting! Well it isn’t. Like an office, there is routine, and routine can be boring. Secondly these programmes, especially Holby Shitty gives the impression that you can get any test or operation done with the click of a finger. Bollocks i say. I’ve been waiting 3 bleeding weeks for a routine inpatient echo at my hospital. Thirdly, the reality of surviving a cardiac arrest in hospital is low, and if it’s out of hospital even lower- basically your buggered! But on Holby, every bugger survives and is speaking after a few minutes. Of course the nurses on Holby are far fitter than on my ward, who mostly look like Jo Brand on a bad day.

Of course I’m biased being a dr.

Currently I am doing a care of the crumblies and i’m bored bored bored. My daily life as a dr only gets more exciting when i’m on-call, but the 4 hour wait bollocks and managers breathing down your neck about breaches tends to sap any enthusiasm away. And the post takes- they can be either educational or mind numbing and hypoglycaemic inducing.

I know there are several NHS based blogs out there, well here is another, which will portray my trial and tribulations of working as a dr for the NHS. More likely, it will be my place to moan, whinge and spew my bile.

Lucky you!

And thus ends my first post, since I last blogged…let’s hope it improves!

nhsdr

New job, less money, more time to relax/doss

I am so shit at updating my blog. No-one reads it anyway, so who cares.

Finally changed jobs from hospital medicine which i liked to GP which i am tentative about. Looks a doss and i’ll be bored easily. Hopefully get some time to go away on holiday though and enjoy the summer AND hopefully get a job somewhere.

I’ll try and update this soon, to give you an idea of the preceding 2 months of nothingness in this blog.

time for bed!

One month later…

As I am no longer unemployed, sitting on my arse watching daytime TV, i now seem to be less inclined/interested in updating my blog— guess i am being just lazy really! Anyway with that stupid statement, I am now paradoxically updating my blog, almost one month after my last one!

So, I’ve almost done my first month of Psychiatry as an F2 SHO. How has it been then? Well to be honest, the first 3 weeks was rubbish—why? —well my boss was away and thus there were no outpatient clinics and we seemed to have no ill patients. For 3 weeks, me and my F1 (PRHO) were bored out of my brains. Thankfully our boss returned and we were both plunged into doing our own clinics and i did my 1st of many dictated notes. The other massive hassle, which i have finally sorted out is a bloody audit which i’ve been trying to get registered. I hate doing audits, but i need to do at least one of these bloody audits to complete my F2 year!

As I am lucky to have my weekends off, i have been off visiting friends etc. So last bank holiday weekend, I went home, back to the new flat, to check out how things had progressed. I built more furniture and sorted out my room so it was more livable. I went out for my mates 29th birthday on Saturday and met up some old mates (from Sheffield Uni) at the Notting Hill Carnival 2006 . Bought more furniture in IKEA on Monday, and then took the wrong turn back home, so we had a scenic view of London back to Islington.

I am now sitting in my room of the hospital accomodation i am renting, for a bargin price. Luckily this rented house is only 8 minutes from work and i save money on petrol. I’m just about to watch the England vs Andorra match now. Played footy earlier in Warwick— I am now aching! I am so unfit!

Might check out Leamington tomorrow. Do my usual, non-specific, ambling around town and try and do some work later.

Gotta go!

New Job, New Car and New Flat

Soooo, it’s been a while since i’ve posted a blog. A lot has happened since July 21st!

I started my 1st full time hospital dr post since december 2005. My 1st job is the ludicrously piss easy Psychiatry job, which has an on call rota of no weekends, no nights and nothing past 5pm, but the pay is low as a result.

The 1st day consisted of registration and intro lectures. The 2nd day, my consultant was away, so i checked out the new hospital and bumped into some mates, which brings me to the new flat statement…

On Thursday evening, I found out from my sister, that the long awaited exchange of contracts had finally occurred and the day of completion and the move was to be Friday. i hurriedly arranged annual leave for Friday, checked out a grotty (unlikely) flat for leamington, and then drove home to Essex. Got home by 8pm, and promptly cleaned out my car and sold it for 200 squid. It is probably worth more, but i’ve really battered it over the years. I have now ‘inherited’ my sisters car, as she does not want it anymore—it has low mileage, A/C, power steering and is less battered! Cool!

On Friday the removal men turned up bright and early and started the ‘Big Move Out’ from the house and Essex. After approx. 1.5 hours the house was cleared and we found it from our solicitor that the 1st half of the money transfer had been completed. There was some sadness leaving our house, as there are so many memories there! 20 minutes after we arrived in N1, we had our keys and the ‘Big Move In’ to Islington had started. I helped the removal men (two Poles from Woolwich), and was left knackered and aching by the end, as well as cut and bruised. Lugging boxes up to a 2nd floor flat on a muggy day was fucking hard!

Since moving in, we have managed to make the flat more homely, though there are many boxes yet to unpack!

A slight diversion to the weekend of moving came in the form of the free music festival in Regent’s Park called ‘FruitStock’. I saw Norman Jay and Arrested Development live too—v cool and free!

I am now back in Leamington, crashing at my mates house, after a quick 1.5 hour drive from London to Leamington. Wow! and i did that without touching the M25!

I’ll try and update my blog more regularly, especially regarding the highs and lows of Psychiatry.

Less than a month to go

After many months of unemployment and claiming dole, i am finally going to be starting work as a full time doctor from august 2nd.

my rotation is 1 year long and my jobs will be:

• Adult Psychiatry: August to December 2006
• Acute Medicine: December 2006 to April 2007
• GP: April to August 2007

It appears that most of my hospital jobs are at one hospital.

I’m looking forward to getting back to work and earning some decent dosh again, plus life will be more social, though a lot of my weekends will disappear, but that i am aware of that! I miss working as a doctor!