48 Hours as a Dr

Day 3 into the job and I'm tremendously grateful for a day off already!

My first two days involved me being "on call" - when you care for patients who come in acutely unwell. My schedule said I was to be in 0745 - 2010. It was in reality 0730 - 2215 both days!

Day one was a bit chaotic, as you might imagine. The day always starts and ends with a ward round - usually about 2 hours each, followed by the jobs that need to be done. My partner and I had had a practice run ward round the day before so we knew roughly what was expected. It was passable just about and since it was day one, the team went a bit easier on us. We then spent the morning figuring out how to do a discharge summary on the IT system (despite having had the training the day before!) whilst being harassed left, right and centre to discharge as quickly as possible, oh and this cannula, that ECG, this fluid chart, this review, oh and you need to do this now too etc etc! I didn't drink a drop from when I left home in the morning until 10pm that evening. But I didn't once feel I needed to either! Adrenaline does crazy things to the mind.

Day two was.. also chaotic! But in a different way. We knew what we were doing, but this time we were cut no slack. The list hadn't been updated because the second year doctors didn't know they were meant to. There were three students determined to stick with us (I now understand why students are not looked kindly on all the time!) The caseload that came in was also complicated - patients with multiple co-morbidites and therefore you have to keep a close eye on. They often say the most difficult thing as a junior is understanding when to escalate for help. I can now most definitely relate to this!

I remember at one moment standing in front of the computer at the nurses station, thinking, whoa I am juggling so many tasks. It was a strange feeling being halfway through so many things but not able to complete many of them as they were waiting on something else like a blood test to come back, or a nurse to come off their break. Prioritisation is a skill I need to develop! As the day went on, I never felt like I was flagging but I was aware it was highly unlikely even at the pace I was going I would be able to complete everything by the evening ward round which was to start at any time the team saw fit!

The moment came far sooner than I had hoped. The team literally appeared in front of me as if from nowhere and we were off. The other junior had no idea we had started and hence was on another ward. This was not the sort of time (when you're balancing three files and three obs/drugs charts) when you could phone! I trudged on, I think slowly becoming more and more frantic within myself. It didn't help the notes were scattered across the ward as the nurses had been giving out the evening medications. There was a lot of running around, scribbling, picking up dropped files, muttering of results and the occasional glare when something wasn't quite what they wanted to hear. (It's as if by magic we're expected to know how things operate in the hospital having not been told!)

We just about finished and I found it all a bit overwhelming. The team told us to complete jobs and meet them on a different ward. They left, and I couldn't help but well up. It was relentless and I felt I hadn't demonstrated how much work I'd put into the day to get everything done. But you live and learn!

We ended up staying another 3 hours to finish all the tasks that were left, before a much-needed debrief on the way home. All's well that ends well.

Here's to the learning curve getting less steep..!!