Day one - woo!

Started elective – woo hoo! So how was it? Honestly? A little slow, but a good introduction. Started off with a mini adventure trying to cook porridge in the microwave oven – have always done porridge on a hob before, so when after 2 minutes my porridge started exploding round the sides of the bowl I was not off to the best start in the morning. After a quick coffee to power me through the morning I set off with Helen to walk into the Belford. Pretty pleasant really to be able to walk to the hospital in 15 minutes, with great views of Loch Linnhe on the way!

We were due to meet in the canteen at 9am, so arrived a few minutes early. On the way we hooked up with Tom, one of the other lads from Glasgow, before meeting Brett, from Leeds, at the hospital. There are 4 of us in total on the placement, Brett and I have just finished fourth year whereas Tom and Helen have just finished third year. Janet arrived and gave us a warm welcome, followed by paperwork and a brief intro to the computer systems. It’s a bit crazy; the elective placement here is administrated by Edinburgh uni, so I’m now the proud owner of an Edinburgh University photo ID card that apparently lets me into all the uni libraries in Edinburgh... Useful for my 4 week placement in Fort William ;) A tour of the hospital followed, where we were deposited in the doctors office to be tended to by the F1s and F2s. I think there are 2 F1s here, and 3 F2s. Interestingly there are no middle grades though, so it goes from maybe one GP ST1 straight to consultant! Consequently overnight the whole hospital is covered by one F2 – crazy! Got consultants on call who can come in, but still pretty intimidating I imagine to be faced with running a hospital for 12 hours, including the A&E, just 12 months after graduating. Guess you’d learn quickly!

I spent the morning in the CAU, or combined assessment unit, where Tom and I were taking histories from patients coming in, either scheduled admissions or referrals from GPs. Not really sure how much I’m going to be able to write about the patients on this blog, as obviously it’s not a massive hospital so in terms of confidentiality it might be a bit tricky! But the patients were interesting, mix of conditions and it was good to get back into medic mode and start thinking about investigations and differentials to exclude. Quick lunch in the canteen and then spent the afternoon in A&E – steady trickle of minor stuff followed by a helicopter admission which sounded exciting but on arrival was actually fine, just a bit battered and bruised! It was good to get back into the flow of things, taking and writing histories, interpreting blood results, examining patients etc. The team is really friendly, and there will definitely be opportunities to get involved with stuff if it comes through the door. So at 1630 we clocked off and headed back to the house – successful, calm, welcoming first day!

After relaxing at the house for an hour or so we headed back into town for 1900 to the Grog and Gruel, an award winning pub on the main street. Noel came down, and I introduced him to the other students, including Eleanor and Pippa who are on a longer placement here from Edinburgh uni. Food was consumed (pretty good venison burger), beer was drunk and good conversation flowed – really fun evening! Noel had had a fun day out in the drizzle mountain biking, he was showing off his wounds after going over the handle bars – fortunately didn’t end up in A&E! Some of the evening was spent talking about the different uni’s medicine courses, and foundation placement areas and applications. After a few pints we were debating whether to stay for another and Noel asked what time it was – only 2130, oh dear! Decided to call it an evening anyway and headed off.

So tomorrow will be more of the same I think. Get to meet some more of our consultants on Wednesday, they are just on leave for the first two days of the placement unfortunately. Also realised today that we’re going to be here for the craziness of F1/2 change overs! Didn’t think of that. So on Wednesday the newly qualified F1s (me in a year hopefully!) will be starting, and the old ones moving on – expect lots of confusion and disorientation! Have to play it be ear basically. Also hopefully later this week we’ll get to find out what’s going on with theatres in terms of getting involved with some surgery and anaesthetics. Overall a successful first day, great evening out getting to know everyone and looking forward to the rest of the placement – just hope the weather improves!