Despite filling most of my time with work, academia and general geekery, I do have time for the odd hobby or two. People who know me will be well aware that working with children is something I love, and as well now working in paediatrics, I try to fit in some volunteering with Over The Wall and also help to run a Cub Scout group.
Last weekend, we took the Cubs away for a night camping. We filled the day before and after the actual camping with a variety of activities including archery, crate climbing and of course ending with the legendary soap slide (which may explain some of the bruises on my legs...). Any camp purists will be delighted to know we also had an excellent camp fire, complete with lots of singing and toasting marshmallows.
People often question my sanity when I tell them that I spend my rather limited free time in this way (I was actually quite proud when a colleague called me "completely insane" recently...) and sometimes I struggle to explain exactly why I choose to do these things. At camp this weekend, as the kids excitedly told me how high they climbed on the crates or how many bulls eyes they got, I was hit again by the sense of why I do these things. To hear a child say "I did it!" There is something immeasurably special about helping someone to achieve something they didn't think they could do. As a person who has gone through life convinced (for no good reason, although impostor syndrome comes into it) that they are rubbish and can't achieve anything, helping other people discover what they can do is something I feel I need to do.
I still get tears in my eyes when I remember a child at Over The Wall last year, partially sighted and scared of heights, manage half of the climbing wall she initially didn't even want to try because she "couldn't do it", or the incredibly self conscious teenager finally dare to perform at talent night (and give us all goosebumps with her rendition of Someone Like You).
There is a more selfish element to all of this, of course. There's an episode of Friends where Phoebe is determined to show that you can perform a truly selfless deed - even going to the somewhat bizarre lengths of "letting a bee sting (me) so that he could look cool in front of all his little bee friends" - and finally conceding that every "good" act is tinged with selfishness. I enjoy what I do. I enjoy seeing young people achieve and I enjoy knowing that I've played a part, however small, in helping them to do that.. Facilitating this achievement gives me my own "I did it!" feeling. And it's amazing.
(If you fancy joining in the fun, and sharing the "I did it!" feeling, go and browse the OTW and scouting pages.)
Showing posts with label Volunteering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Volunteering. Show all posts
Sunday, 8 June 2014
Sunday, 12 August 2012
Working Girl
Apologies for the unintentional hiatus in posting recently. Things have been rather busy recently. I have moved into a new flat, graduated, been away for a week and started work since I last posted (there's also a boy on the scene but I shan't bore you with the details).
My graduation was absolutely lovely. I was lucky enough to graduate on the one day where it wasn't absolutely tipping it down with rain. Lots of close friends were there and it was a very happy occasion with plenty of wine and Pimm's too. The icing on the cake was my friend's boyfriend proposing to her just after the ceremony - very exciting and I'm delighted for them :-)
I've also had another week away with Over The Wall. Anyone who has read my posts from last summer will be aware that I'm something of an OTW evangelist. Once again I had an amazing week and met some really inspiring kids. I hope I can arrange my leave/days off so that I'm able to go next year - I'd be absolutely gutted if I couldn't. After a wonderful but tiring and emotionally draining week, it's sometimes easy to forget the real reason we do this, but the comments from some of the kids and their parents after they'd got back just sum it up so well. These are two of the quotes which really made this year worthwhile for me.
"I have just recently came back from the 2012 Tulliallan "over the wall" camp, i would just like to say thank you now because i did not have time to do it before i left.
Thank you for.....
Helping me push myself beyond myself beyond my limits
Making me enjoy at first seemingly immature songs :).
Letting me feel Normal for once"
"Thank you so much for letting me join you again this summer, for another amazing camp. This past week has been the best week of my life. I will never forget the laughs, songs, the dances, the tears (emotional/happy ones!), and the memories that have come out of it. I have met some fantastic people that will inspire me everyday for the rest of my life. It is truly impossible to put an Over The Wall camp into words. From the staff and volunteers, to the campers: every single person at Over The Wall is just incredible. Your camps are the highlight of my year and heaven on earth for me. I look forward to seeing the photos that were taken this past week, which I will treasure forever. Leaving camp this morning was so difficult and emotional for me - but that shows what a great time I've had there.
What you do is wonderful.
Thank you."
I'm feeling quite emotional reading those back. I know both the kids who wrote them and they are really wonderful young people who have overcome some really tough challenges but are none-the-less bright, talented, enthusiastic and kind.
I could talk about camp all day (in fact, I pretty much do) but I should move on to what I imagine is more exciting for most people who read this: starting work!
I was one of the slightly unfortunate people who drew the short straw and my first ever shift was a night shift. Although it was pretty nerve-wracking and hard going, I feel like in only two shifts I learnt an awful lot and am already much more confident than I was before starting. I've also now done 5 day shifts on the ward where I'm based. I'm quite lucky in that the other doctors are very supportive and helpful and our consultants are happy to be contacted if we have any queries or concerns. The nurses, therapists etc are also all lovely, which makes the whole process of settling into the job a lot easier.
Without giving away anything confidential, I have seen and done a real mixture of stuff. I was really worried about practical procedures as my last student placements didn't offer much opportunity for practising, however, I have successfully managed venepuncture, cannulation, arterial blood gas sampling and catheterisation in the past week. Hopefully this means that my colleagues won't think I'm incompetent should I struggle with a few difficult patients in future. I have also confirmed death and filled in death certificates - rather morbid but something every junior doctor needs to get used to doing.
Whilst it's true that being an FY1/JHO/lowest of the low is largely about organisation and paperwork rather than medicine, I have found I've had plenty of opportunities to assess sick patients, prescribe, examine and generally use my brain - something I was worried wouldn't be the case. In true Learnaholic fashion, I have also found myself some research to be getting on with, and my MSc starts in October.
Right, I must head to bed as tomorrow is day 1 of 12 and I need to get enough sleep!
Goodnight xxx
My graduation was absolutely lovely. I was lucky enough to graduate on the one day where it wasn't absolutely tipping it down with rain. Lots of close friends were there and it was a very happy occasion with plenty of wine and Pimm's too. The icing on the cake was my friend's boyfriend proposing to her just after the ceremony - very exciting and I'm delighted for them :-)
I've also had another week away with Over The Wall. Anyone who has read my posts from last summer will be aware that I'm something of an OTW evangelist. Once again I had an amazing week and met some really inspiring kids. I hope I can arrange my leave/days off so that I'm able to go next year - I'd be absolutely gutted if I couldn't. After a wonderful but tiring and emotionally draining week, it's sometimes easy to forget the real reason we do this, but the comments from some of the kids and their parents after they'd got back just sum it up so well. These are two of the quotes which really made this year worthwhile for me.
"I have just recently came back from the 2012 Tulliallan "over the wall" camp, i would just like to say thank you now because i did not have time to do it before i left.
Thank you for.....
Helping me push myself beyond myself beyond my limits
Making me enjoy at first seemingly immature songs :).
Letting me feel Normal for once"
"Thank you so much for letting me join you again this summer, for another amazing camp. This past week has been the best week of my life. I will never forget the laughs, songs, the dances, the tears (emotional/happy ones!), and the memories that have come out of it. I have met some fantastic people that will inspire me everyday for the rest of my life. It is truly impossible to put an Over The Wall camp into words. From the staff and volunteers, to the campers: every single person at Over The Wall is just incredible. Your camps are the highlight of my year and heaven on earth for me. I look forward to seeing the photos that were taken this past week, which I will treasure forever. Leaving camp this morning was so difficult and emotional for me - but that shows what a great time I've had there.
What you do is wonderful.
Thank you."
I'm feeling quite emotional reading those back. I know both the kids who wrote them and they are really wonderful young people who have overcome some really tough challenges but are none-the-less bright, talented, enthusiastic and kind.
I could talk about camp all day (in fact, I pretty much do) but I should move on to what I imagine is more exciting for most people who read this: starting work!
I was one of the slightly unfortunate people who drew the short straw and my first ever shift was a night shift. Although it was pretty nerve-wracking and hard going, I feel like in only two shifts I learnt an awful lot and am already much more confident than I was before starting. I've also now done 5 day shifts on the ward where I'm based. I'm quite lucky in that the other doctors are very supportive and helpful and our consultants are happy to be contacted if we have any queries or concerns. The nurses, therapists etc are also all lovely, which makes the whole process of settling into the job a lot easier.
Without giving away anything confidential, I have seen and done a real mixture of stuff. I was really worried about practical procedures as my last student placements didn't offer much opportunity for practising, however, I have successfully managed venepuncture, cannulation, arterial blood gas sampling and catheterisation in the past week. Hopefully this means that my colleagues won't think I'm incompetent should I struggle with a few difficult patients in future. I have also confirmed death and filled in death certificates - rather morbid but something every junior doctor needs to get used to doing.
Whilst it's true that being an FY1/JHO/lowest of the low is largely about organisation and paperwork rather than medicine, I have found I've had plenty of opportunities to assess sick patients, prescribe, examine and generally use my brain - something I was worried wouldn't be the case. In true Learnaholic fashion, I have also found myself some research to be getting on with, and my MSc starts in October.
Right, I must head to bed as tomorrow is day 1 of 12 and I need to get enough sleep!
Goodnight xxx
Friday, 11 May 2012
The Final Countdown
After almost 7 years as a student I now feel like I'm into the home strait. One more week of teaching, a few weeks of studying and the small matter of a couple of OSCEs are all that stand between me and entering the big bad world. I am surprisingly calm about this, although provided I pass my exams I will be starting work in 2 and a half months. Possibly I ought to be more nervous about this, especially if day one really is like the bits they show on "Junior Doctors: Your Life In Their Hands" and I take 278 attempts to cannulate each patient.
At the moment, our teaching is all on "professional practise", which is essentially all the stuff that's quite important but noone teaches you. This includes such delights as confirming death, prescribing and fatal accident enquiries. I suspect that actually much of this has been covered in some ilk or other before but I ignored it because it was all "ages away". And now it is not ages away. It is a matter of months. Weeks, really.
This morning we had a session on dealing with "stress and conflict", where we were presented with some rather grim statistics on the mental wellbeing of junior doctors. I was delighted to learn that being female (check) and having a critical father (check - that doesn't mean he isn't lovely) increase risk of suffering burnout during the first couple of years after qualifying. On Wednesday we had a session entitled "support and sanctions" which involved the GMC, MDU and health board HR people telling us not to be naughty or we'd get struck off/fired. Despite these two rather depressing sessions, I'm actually feeling rather positive about starting work.
I had a phone call from occupational health yesterday, and was told they had "no concerns" about my fitness to practise. If you've read my blog before, you'll know that I've had one or two health problems in the past. Although I've played my worries down, I've gone through medical school being a little bit worried that someone would find some kind of loophole which would mean I wouldn't be allowed to start work, so it's a huge relief to know that, from a health perspective at least, I'm going to be ok.
I am keeping myself rather busy at the moment, even though I probably ought to be in the library trying to get the whole of medicine and surgery into my cranium... Last week we had a week off uni and I did absolutely no work at all. I went home to see Mummy and Daddy Learnaholic and had a lovely, relaxing time. Last weekend I went down to Brighton to the National Medical Student Paediatric Conference, which was fantastic. I met lots of lovely people, caught up with some old friends from other medical schools, enjoyed hearing different perspectives on paediatrics and drank lots of wine at the delegate ball.
In addition to uni and revision, I've also started helping out at Cubs (great fun), have a poster to make for a conference in a couple of weeks and applied for a Master's. I suppose I have to justify calling myself the Learnaholic, don't I?!!!
xxxx
At the moment, our teaching is all on "professional practise", which is essentially all the stuff that's quite important but noone teaches you. This includes such delights as confirming death, prescribing and fatal accident enquiries. I suspect that actually much of this has been covered in some ilk or other before but I ignored it because it was all "ages away". And now it is not ages away. It is a matter of months. Weeks, really.
This morning we had a session on dealing with "stress and conflict", where we were presented with some rather grim statistics on the mental wellbeing of junior doctors. I was delighted to learn that being female (check) and having a critical father (check - that doesn't mean he isn't lovely) increase risk of suffering burnout during the first couple of years after qualifying. On Wednesday we had a session entitled "support and sanctions" which involved the GMC, MDU and health board HR people telling us not to be naughty or we'd get struck off/fired. Despite these two rather depressing sessions, I'm actually feeling rather positive about starting work.
I had a phone call from occupational health yesterday, and was told they had "no concerns" about my fitness to practise. If you've read my blog before, you'll know that I've had one or two health problems in the past. Although I've played my worries down, I've gone through medical school being a little bit worried that someone would find some kind of loophole which would mean I wouldn't be allowed to start work, so it's a huge relief to know that, from a health perspective at least, I'm going to be ok.
I am keeping myself rather busy at the moment, even though I probably ought to be in the library trying to get the whole of medicine and surgery into my cranium... Last week we had a week off uni and I did absolutely no work at all. I went home to see Mummy and Daddy Learnaholic and had a lovely, relaxing time. Last weekend I went down to Brighton to the National Medical Student Paediatric Conference, which was fantastic. I met lots of lovely people, caught up with some old friends from other medical schools, enjoyed hearing different perspectives on paediatrics and drank lots of wine at the delegate ball.
In addition to uni and revision, I've also started helping out at Cubs (great fun), have a poster to make for a conference in a couple of weeks and applied for a Master's. I suppose I have to justify calling myself the Learnaholic, don't I?!!!
xxxx
Saturday, 31 December 2011
End of the year...
So, 2011 is finally drawing to a close. It's been a rather interesting year for
me and so I feel compelled to join in with the corny reflective blog entries,
and then I'll probably continue with the corniness and make some resolutions of
some kind.
2011 didn't start off in any particularly exciting way - my then-bf's uncle died on New Year's Eve and so the first event of any significance in the New Year was a funeral. I suppose that did mean that things really could only improve!
My first placement after the holidays was in general practice. I hadn't really expected to enjoy it much but I had a fantastic time. The staff were all lovely and I've kept in touch with one of the nurses and one of the receptionists. I was also able to do an audit whilst I was there, which was probably pretty good for the CV/job applications. Plus, it was on one of my "favourite" (read "favourite thing to rant about") topics - MMR vaccine uptake.
The rest of the academic year went fairly well, if uneventfully. Fourth year was rather stressful in the sense that, GP aside, we were only on most blocks for a week at a time so by the time we'd worked out who and where everyone/thing on the ward was, it was time to move on. On top of that, as anyone silly enough to have read my blog will know, in June we had our final written exams. From about March time I spent most evenings and weekends studying. Rather sad, but it paid off when I passed. A little scary to know that the next written exams I take will probably be my membership exams - eek!
Over the summer I had two wonderful weeks away volunteering. I won't go into details as I've already blogged about them, but they were lovely experiences and even now, months later, I still smile when thinking about them. I very much hope that I can squeeze in at least one this year.
This academic year has been rather up and down. After something of a dull start (professional practise block - yawn!( I had a wonderful experience on my elective in New Zealand. As well as enjoying the travel and change of scenery, my placement was fantastic and only reinforced my absolute love of paediatrics. After getting back to the UK, my gastroenterology placement was slightly less to my liking. However, I do feel like I came on a lot in terms of my knowledge and clinical skills, so overall I'd say it was successful.
Uni aside, I have of course got my job for once I've graduated. Rather exciting and terrifying at the same time. I'm still waiting to find out the exact details of my contract but it's nice to know that, providing I pass my OSCEs in June, I will have a job to start. After 7 (!!!) years of studying I'm rather looking forward to joining the real world.
Ignoring a lot of trivial and banal things which really don't matter, I'd say overall 2011 has been a pretty successful year for me - I hope 2012 continues in a similar way!
Now, resolution time! These are largely unrelated to work so don't really belong in this blog, but I thought it would be good for me to write them down somewhere so that I felt accountable!
- Get fit again. This is a major one for me because I know when I'm fitter and exercising more regularly my mood, energy and sleep are all much better. I was going to the gym at least 3 times a week until exams started taking up too much time. Then with elective and a placement out of town I haven't really had the chance.
- Start eating properly again. This is another "again" as it's a good habit I'd managed to get into which has lapsed recently. Ideally I'd like to lose weight but my primary goal is to eat properly and stop using food as an emotional crutch.
- Sort out my finances. Rather dull but as I'm now in my 7th year of student life, I am rather skint. This isn't an immediate thing but I'm hoping that if I'm sensible now and start working (hopefully!) in August that by the end of the year I will at least have cleared my credit card and overdraft...
- Attempt to be more positive. This is something I say every year and I'm not very good at it (look what I did there, self deprecation in action!) so I'll have to keep on trying.
Right, those are my little aims for the next year. And to graduate and become a doctor of course!
Happy New Year everyone! xxx
2011 didn't start off in any particularly exciting way - my then-bf's uncle died on New Year's Eve and so the first event of any significance in the New Year was a funeral. I suppose that did mean that things really could only improve!
My first placement after the holidays was in general practice. I hadn't really expected to enjoy it much but I had a fantastic time. The staff were all lovely and I've kept in touch with one of the nurses and one of the receptionists. I was also able to do an audit whilst I was there, which was probably pretty good for the CV/job applications. Plus, it was on one of my "favourite" (read "favourite thing to rant about") topics - MMR vaccine uptake.
The rest of the academic year went fairly well, if uneventfully. Fourth year was rather stressful in the sense that, GP aside, we were only on most blocks for a week at a time so by the time we'd worked out who and where everyone/thing on the ward was, it was time to move on. On top of that, as anyone silly enough to have read my blog will know, in June we had our final written exams. From about March time I spent most evenings and weekends studying. Rather sad, but it paid off when I passed. A little scary to know that the next written exams I take will probably be my membership exams - eek!
Over the summer I had two wonderful weeks away volunteering. I won't go into details as I've already blogged about them, but they were lovely experiences and even now, months later, I still smile when thinking about them. I very much hope that I can squeeze in at least one this year.
This academic year has been rather up and down. After something of a dull start (professional practise block - yawn!( I had a wonderful experience on my elective in New Zealand. As well as enjoying the travel and change of scenery, my placement was fantastic and only reinforced my absolute love of paediatrics. After getting back to the UK, my gastroenterology placement was slightly less to my liking. However, I do feel like I came on a lot in terms of my knowledge and clinical skills, so overall I'd say it was successful.
Uni aside, I have of course got my job for once I've graduated. Rather exciting and terrifying at the same time. I'm still waiting to find out the exact details of my contract but it's nice to know that, providing I pass my OSCEs in June, I will have a job to start. After 7 (!!!) years of studying I'm rather looking forward to joining the real world.
Ignoring a lot of trivial and banal things which really don't matter, I'd say overall 2011 has been a pretty successful year for me - I hope 2012 continues in a similar way!
Now, resolution time! These are largely unrelated to work so don't really belong in this blog, but I thought it would be good for me to write them down somewhere so that I felt accountable!
- Get fit again. This is a major one for me because I know when I'm fitter and exercising more regularly my mood, energy and sleep are all much better. I was going to the gym at least 3 times a week until exams started taking up too much time. Then with elective and a placement out of town I haven't really had the chance.
- Start eating properly again. This is another "again" as it's a good habit I'd managed to get into which has lapsed recently. Ideally I'd like to lose weight but my primary goal is to eat properly and stop using food as an emotional crutch.
- Sort out my finances. Rather dull but as I'm now in my 7th year of student life, I am rather skint. This isn't an immediate thing but I'm hoping that if I'm sensible now and start working (hopefully!) in August that by the end of the year I will at least have cleared my credit card and overdraft...
- Attempt to be more positive. This is something I say every year and I'm not very good at it (look what I did there, self deprecation in action!) so I'll have to keep on trying.
Right, those are my little aims for the next year. And to graduate and become a doctor of course!
Happy New Year everyone! xxx
Sunday, 7 August 2011
Makes Sense!
Yesterday I got back from a week's volunteering with Sense (http://www.sense.org.uk/), who are the UK's
national deafblind charity. A group of volunteers took 5 young boys with
multisensory impairment (as well as other needs/difficulties) away to the
Cotswalds for a week, where we swam, ice skated, go-karted, ate, drank, laughed
and generally had a fantastic time. This was my third holiday with Sense (those
of you who also read my OTW-related posts may have gathered that I'm a bit of a
volunteering addict), although my first with children as I'd previously worked
with adults. I cannot describe adequately what a special experience this kind of
work is. It is, however, rather tiring, thus I have spent most of the time since
I got home sleeping. This got me thinking - I am exhausted after just a week.
How on earth do parents/carers who look after these kids full time manage? I
have the utmost respect for anyone who looks after someone with these kind of
complex needs.
After such a good week, I'm feeling pretty positive. This is in no small part due to the fact that on Monday, I received an email inviting me to interview for an AFP at the end of the month. There are two short interviews, one regarding clinical issues and the other on academic/portfolio issues. I am absolutely terrified as I have no idea what to expect. I'm going to make sure I've read over my application and know everything there is to know about anything I've mentioned. The last time I had any kind of serious interview was when I applied to medical school so I feel a bit out of practise... Any tips greatfully received!
Hope all the students reading have had exam success and are enjoying the summer and all junior docs are settling into their new jobs :) x
After such a good week, I'm feeling pretty positive. This is in no small part due to the fact that on Monday, I received an email inviting me to interview for an AFP at the end of the month. There are two short interviews, one regarding clinical issues and the other on academic/portfolio issues. I am absolutely terrified as I have no idea what to expect. I'm going to make sure I've read over my application and know everything there is to know about anything I've mentioned. The last time I had any kind of serious interview was when I applied to medical school so I feel a bit out of practise... Any tips greatfully received!
Hope all the students reading have had exam success and are enjoying the summer and all junior docs are settling into their new jobs :) x
Monday, 11 July 2011
You Win Some, You Lose Some
As mentioned in my last post, I've just spent a week volunteering with Over The
Wall and had an absolutely fantastic time. This was my fourth holiday with them
and it was every bit as fantastic as the previous three I've done. One of the
great things about OTW, aside from meeting a lot of inspirational young people
and having a brilliant time, is when the other volunteers write you "warm
fuzzies"; these are basically just little notes to say hi and comment on
anything they think you did well or which stood out over the week. Anyway, after
reading mine (and getting out old ones from previous camps), it occurred to me
that I'm perceived in a totally different way at camp to how I'm perceived in
"the real world". I can think of two possible explanations for this. Either I'm
a completely different person for one week of the year, which seems unlikely, or
I actually have no idea how I'm normally perceived and just make it up. This
seems somewhat unrelated to this blog, which is supposedly about my academic
endeavours, however it just made me realise having such a negative view of
myself was probably not going to help my career prospects. So I shall now
attempt to be a more positive person!
Moving on to more relevant stuff, on Wednesday I got an email to say my one of my AFP applications had been unsuccessful. I was pretty disappointed, as having read over their criteria, I have all of the "essential" and some of the "desirable" qualities and thought I might manage to get an interview. However, it's a hugely competitive and popular programme and I know that there are a lot of applicants with far more research experience, publications etc than I have. I'll just have to hope I have better news from one of the other two!
On a much more positive note - I passed my exams! Hugely relieved, especially about the OSCE as there were so many things I realised I'd forgotten to do/say as soon as I got out of each station. This means I'm officially a final year, which is a little bit scary but very exciting :)
Hope everyone waiting on exam results has good news soon xxx
Moving on to more relevant stuff, on Wednesday I got an email to say my one of my AFP applications had been unsuccessful. I was pretty disappointed, as having read over their criteria, I have all of the "essential" and some of the "desirable" qualities and thought I might manage to get an interview. However, it's a hugely competitive and popular programme and I know that there are a lot of applicants with far more research experience, publications etc than I have. I'll just have to hope I have better news from one of the other two!
On a much more positive note - I passed my exams! Hugely relieved, especially about the OSCE as there were so many things I realised I'd forgotten to do/say as soon as I got out of each station. This means I'm officially a final year, which is a little bit scary but very exciting :)
Hope everyone waiting on exam results has good news soon xxx
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
OSCE and Freedom!
So today was the dreaded OSCE. I've always suffered horrendously with exam
nerves, and although in recent years I've managed to get a hold of myself during
written exams, I really struggle to hold things together during OSCEs. For some
reason, every examination, history or procedure that I've done numerous times in
the preceeding months leaves my memory and I feel like I enter every station
completely clueless. This year in particular, things were not helped by the
revision day put on for us at uni, where I was not-so-politely told, after one
particularly disasterous station, that I was under no circumstances to go
anywhere near a sick patient as I was basically completely incompetent... Cue an
evening of tears, sickness and panicky phone calls to medical friends. Utter
nightmare. However, once that was done I decided to focus on "practise,
practise, practise" - the only way to really get through a clinical exam. I
spent Friday and Saturday reading MacLeod's Clinical Examination and my Ask
Doctor Clarke books cover to cover, then Sunday and Monday both involved
practising with friends.
This morning I have to admit I felt rather unwell (ie like I could well vomit on the first patient I saw...), but having seen most of my year group feeling the same way, I realised things could've been much worse. The exam itself was rather hard to judge. I was lucky in that my first 3 stations were all written, as I find the written bits much easier and less panic-inducing, so that meant I started on a reasonably positive note. Aside from forgetting to take the respiratory rate of the patient in the "examine this gentleman's respiratory system" station (schoolboy error!), I can't think of any epic disasters. There were more communication/history stations than I'd imagined, which I think was a good thing, and no limb neurology or musculoskeletal exams - a definite bonus as they're my two weakest areas. All in all, I suppose it went "ok", not amazing, not terrible. I didn't cry when I came out of the exam (unlike quite a few people, and indeed me myself last year) and don't think I had any complete blanks. So I'm just going to try and forget about it until results come out a week on Friday.
This evening I'm going for dinner with some of the people from my ward group, which should be a nice way to mark the end of the year, and then we'll meet up with the rest of our class for some drinking, dancing and general debauchery! We have some lecture thing at uni tomorrow about registering with the GMC, and I suspect I may not be alone in attending with a bit of a headache (or possibly still drunk!); having to be in at 9.30am the day after exams isn't ideal but I'm sure I'll survive.
On Friday I'm going away for a week to volunteer for Over The Wall (http://www.otw.org.uk/), an amazing charity who run holidays for children affected by serious illnesses. It'll be the fourth time I've volunteered with them and I cannot wait! It's usually a completely crazy week involving lots of facepaint, nail varnish, singing, dancing, food challenges and general silliness :) So I may not update until I'm back, by which time I should have my results - eek.
Good luck to anyone still doing exams, and those who are finished enjoy your new-found freedom! xxx
This morning I have to admit I felt rather unwell (ie like I could well vomit on the first patient I saw...), but having seen most of my year group feeling the same way, I realised things could've been much worse. The exam itself was rather hard to judge. I was lucky in that my first 3 stations were all written, as I find the written bits much easier and less panic-inducing, so that meant I started on a reasonably positive note. Aside from forgetting to take the respiratory rate of the patient in the "examine this gentleman's respiratory system" station (schoolboy error!), I can't think of any epic disasters. There were more communication/history stations than I'd imagined, which I think was a good thing, and no limb neurology or musculoskeletal exams - a definite bonus as they're my two weakest areas. All in all, I suppose it went "ok", not amazing, not terrible. I didn't cry when I came out of the exam (unlike quite a few people, and indeed me myself last year) and don't think I had any complete blanks. So I'm just going to try and forget about it until results come out a week on Friday.
This evening I'm going for dinner with some of the people from my ward group, which should be a nice way to mark the end of the year, and then we'll meet up with the rest of our class for some drinking, dancing and general debauchery! We have some lecture thing at uni tomorrow about registering with the GMC, and I suspect I may not be alone in attending with a bit of a headache (or possibly still drunk!); having to be in at 9.30am the day after exams isn't ideal but I'm sure I'll survive.
On Friday I'm going away for a week to volunteer for Over The Wall (http://www.otw.org.uk/), an amazing charity who run holidays for children affected by serious illnesses. It'll be the fourth time I've volunteered with them and I cannot wait! It's usually a completely crazy week involving lots of facepaint, nail varnish, singing, dancing, food challenges and general silliness :) So I may not update until I'm back, by which time I should have my results - eek.
Good luck to anyone still doing exams, and those who are finished enjoy your new-found freedom! xxx
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