The more you put in, the more you get out...

...or at least that's what we're told about our placements this year. In reality, it seems that what you get out of your placement is down to how lucky you are with your consultants and registrars. I must say before I sound like I'm complaining that everyone on my placement has been really friendly and welcoming, which has been lovely. Unfortunately, I think I was spoiled by being paired with a really confident and encouraging reg in my first fortnight and now I'm not working with her (she's doing stints on AMAU, night shifts etc) I feel like things are a little bit dull. I think it's partly because we've also been very understaffed recently, and of course it's much quicker and easier to just do something than to supervise your medical student through it. I've just felt like recently I haven't had any opportunities to think. I actually look forward to consultant ward rounds because I know I'll get a grilling and will have to think a bit and most likely learn something too. I accidentally started a bit of a debate on Twitter at the weekend when I said this placement was making me not look forward to my FY jobs. 140 characters is pretty limited, so sometimes getting your point across is difficult. I think that what I was (admittedly rather inarticulately) trying to say was that there doesn't seem to be much opportunity to actually use your brain as a fifth year and I'm worried next year will be similar. Hopefully it's just a bad time on the ward with staffing etc and this isn't reflective of what my jobs will be like... Sorry for the rant there!