The Road to the End!

Hi everyone,
So as the final core prac comes to an end I have had the opportunity to experience running the whole ward!!
Our supervisor is keen for us to manage a large case load to ensure we get an understanding of what it would be like to be in charge of a whole ward should be get a hospital job upon completing our degrees!!!
So it’s fair to say that fitting in 12 cardiothoracic patients a day has been a challenge especially when some of them need to be seen twice!! It has been a good learning experience however, but means you are on the run from the beginning of the day. And have to accommodate patients having showers, going to xray and just general hospital craziness. It means that you have to learn to manage your time optimally and be flexible to change your plans quickly.
I do sometimes feel like we are being taken advantage of, especially when you see the supervisor sitting down doing emails etc, but I suppose that is what happens when you’re a student! At least it will teach me how I would like to treat any students I may have on pracs!

It has been great to see over the duration of these pracs the progressions of lots of patients-allmost all getting better or seeing improvements that the next person can take over from. It does make you keen to get out there and make a difference!
All the best.