January 2006 - a young doctor left the big smoke to start his internship up at Whoop Whoop Hospital. The beginning of his medical career, he was nervous and green. Keen... but wet round the ears. He knew the theory of patient management (supposedly) but had never actually put it into practice. Somehow he fumbled through those stressful days as his training wheels came off and he ran on his own for the first time.
Blog entry Monday 6th Feb 2006:
"I was being 'beeped' non-stop.. had no time to think about the decisions I was making... I was on autopilot but had no idea what I was doing... I no longer became an exercise in patient survival... it became an exercise in MY survival.
Burnt out I trudged down to handover to the evening RMO then walked home to the empty house ... it was awful... it was one of the most terrifying days of my life... and I wanted to quit..."
"I was being 'beeped' non-stop.. had no time to think about the decisions I was making... I was on autopilot but had no idea what I was doing... I no longer became an exercise in patient survival... it became an exercise in MY survival.
Burnt out I trudged down to handover to the evening RMO then walked home to the empty house ... it was awful... it was one of the most terrifying days of my life... and I wanted to quit..."
Fast forward 18 months and it was kinda fitting that my 2nd last term working as a doctor was back at Whoop Whoop. The wards were the same, the patients just as sick, but the doctor had made it. Internship had broken him, but he had fought back. Residency wasn't easy, but he was still alive and thriving once more.
The ward overtimes were just as hectic, but this time he was composed and able to triage the chaos better. The cannulas went in first time 90% of the time (instead of 10% last year) The nurses no longer intimidated him, instead he intimidated them.
Looking back I've come a long way profesisonally since last year. I've learnt an incomprehensible amount of medicine (more than medical school) and feel competent enough to act on my clinical judgement and know when to call for help.
Once again the social life in Whoop Whoop has been great. The other exiled doctors with me have bcoem my 2nd family. We've lived together, worked together, played together, eaten together and we'll always have many fond memories of the beach and the pubs.
At the start of this term I was exhausted, physically and emotionally burnt out and in need of rest. As I end this term I am thankful for the best 10 weeks of the year so far and step boldly into the dungeons of ED (urgh!)
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