adelaidemedblog

When I was a young(er) lad back in year 12, everything seemed so far away. Owning a car, having a credit card, a mobile phone on a plan! Everything was a short term goal that if I could just reach, well then i was a step closer wasn’t I?
So yes in year 12 the goal was get into med, because it’s one step closer to a Porsche. Typical, superficial, but it worked.
In 1st year med it was, get to the clinical years, because then I’m sure, I’m certain that life will become more enjoyable. Everything will be practical, and it’ll be fun!
So that got me through years 1, 2, and 3, and I finally got to 4th yr (by the skin of my teeth but that’s a fable for another day).

My first rotation was Psych, and I was freaked out. Waiting in the lobby of Cramond Clinic (the psych ward at TQEH) I didn’t know what would await me. The only experience I had with psychos (or people with psychiatric illness to be more politically correct) were those that harrass you on the bus, and at bus stops, and on the mall. So yes I was going to be in a confined space with these people for 6 weeks.
However my RMO was AWESOME. She made me tag along with her everywhere and spent every single small opportunity teaching me things and helping me refine my interviewing skills. She taught me tricks that helped her as a med student, and I tell you what, I did really well in psych without ever having to open a textbook! I kid you not, that’s how good my RMO was.

So that was one rotation down, and so far so good, I was enjoying 4th yr.

Next up I had my two MSA’s, which are like electives that you get to choose towards the end of 3rd yr. Choose is misleading, because out of my top 10 paired preferences, I got none.
My preferences were like Ophthalmology + ENT, Ophthalmology + ENT, Ophthalmology + ENT, Ophthalmology + ENT, Ophthalmology + ENT, Ophthalmology + ENT, Cardiology + Renal, Aerospace Medicine, Forensics, and something else.
I was assigned to Geriatrics at the QEH, and Diabetes at the Lyell Mac. Yay. Another victory for me.
But the thing with having low expectations is, they are easily exceeded. Plus since we have an ageing fat population, this would be an easy way to brush up on the future of medicine. Once again the people who were teaching went above and beyond. They gave me structured tutes, a proper timetable, handouts and took me to meetings etc. It was GREAT. I actually really enjoyed geriatrics and ended up really respecting it as a specialty. The same goes for Diabetes, especially if you are ever fortunate enough to go the the Lyell Mac. A 250 Bed hospital that sees over 70% of Adelaide’s Diabetics. You learn a lot and quite easily, both of these rotations, still not a single textbook opened.

In the back of my mind however, I kept remembering the older years always telling me horror stories of being grilled and humiliated on the wards. Made to feel so insignificant and want to break down in tears. But until this point I had been praised! Praised by consultants for rocking up, for being interested, and for just being a student! Wow, my short term dreams of getting into 4th yr were realised.
Then I started Orthopaedics.
I thought if ever there was a time that I would receive the initiation treatment, it would be from the boys club.
Sure my intern wasn’t great, he never talked to me during the whole 6 weeks, but as the previous stories have gone, the registrars were fantastic. These guys were preparing for their final fellowship exams, and doing nightcover all the time, but made the hugest effort to run awesome tutes for us, and show us awesome pathology and cases.
We saw awesome fractures, wikid surgeries, and had a geniuine good time with the most jockiest jocks you’ll find in the hospital.
The other awesome thing about doing Orthopaedics at the RAH is Mr Pohl. The shining angel of medical education, and a passionate lover of anatomy and its teaching.
While other orthopods are off driving lambo’s and flying jets, Mr Pohl has dedicated his life to the public sector. He has dedicated a lot of his time to improving anatomy teaching for students. And if you have ever had the pleasure of being present when his mouth spills knowledge, then you truly have experience some of the finest teaching that you will receive as a medical student.
My 6 weeks on this rotation, and I learnt more anatomy than ever would have been possible in my first three years. I would be brazen enough to say stop learning muskuloskeletal anatomy right now if you know you’re going to the RAH for ortho.
So yes long story short, Ortho was awesome too! Very tiring and long days, but awesome none the less.

So that brings me to where I am now, and the precise reason as to why I have decided to write this essay.
Surgery.

General Surgery.

I dear friends, thought that surgery was the thing for me. Slice em, dice em, fix em up good. Send the poor buggers on their way better than how they came in.
You actually help people, and fast! So surgeons must be good people yes? They’ve dedicated such a huge portion of their lives enduring the pain of study and the lack of sleep so they can be where they are saving people, they MUST be so altruistic!
Bow bow.
Surgeons thus far have been the only people who ever make me reconsider choosing medicine. They will ask the hardest questions they can think of, fully aware that there is no way in hell a 4th year could pull out all the facts straight away, and then make the lovely reinforcing comments such as, “well if you don’t know that you might as well not be doing medicine”.
Surgeons want you there all the time. If they can’t see you, then you must be slack, and failing.
It might be very obvious that a medical student would learn the most by talking to patients, seeing them, touching them, taking their blood. But oh no, you must stand in theatre all day long, from 8am till 5pm. Doesn’t matter that you can’t see what’s happening, you have to be there, ready when they want to grill you again.

“what’s that?”
“I’m not sure, i’ve never seen this laproscopically before”
“it’s the medial umbilical ligament, what purpose does it serve?”
“i’m not sure, i haven’t read about it before”
“well if you don’t know by monday you deserve to fail”

Thanks doc. I love looking like an idiot.

“why did you write that in the outpatient notes??”
“you told me to write the notes”
“you’re writing it like a doctor, not a surgeon, don’t you know anything?”
“well, this is my first time writing in surgical outpatients notes”
“you’re going to get me sued, go stand in the corner”

Thanks doc.

The list goes on and on
“don’t you know how to hold a laporoscope?”
“don’t you know what causes a haemolytic reation when you eat fava beans?”
“oh sitting down in theatre? Am I boring you? How can I entertain you? should we all dance?”

I hate surgeons. I like surgery, and hell my top three professions are all in the surgical field. But by god so far general surgeons are giving me hell. I stay until 9pm 2 nights a week, then they tell me that I’m not seen enough and have to come in on weekends! I say, well I work at 5pm, so i can stay 9-5.
“you have to make an effort, you cant be seen to sneak off when the going get’s tough, all the good stuff happens at night!”
EFFORT?? EFFORT!!?! IM COMING IN ON MY DAMN SATURDAY! EFFORT!!!!

Anyway.
The point is you don’t have to be grilled to learn. In fact it’s rather counterintuative. All my other rotation’s I would be asked the question, and if i didn’t know they would tell me, simplfy it, then give me a way of remembering it. I never forget it that way. It’s stuck in my head.
The way not to learn is to be asked a bloody tough useless question, be called an idiot of the new generation of med students, then be thretened with failure on a consistent basis.
So to whoever ends up on the same unit as me one day, remember to remind me if I ever snap, be mean, rude, or nasty, tell me that i was a med student once, because I will make every effort to be the best damned teacher that I can be.

Other than that, enjoy pre clin as long as you can! It’s like when you get into uni, and miss high school.

Peace and much love.

DC.