Hey everyone, I'm back again
Just thought I'd report what I've been up to
This week I've been doing Work Experience in my local hospital. It was first time doing medical work experience (I'm late to the party), but now it has made me want to be a doctor more than ever.
Day 1 - Stroke Ward - I spent the morning following the nursing staff and helping them do jobs like cleaning, making beds, handing out meals and talking to the patients, who were all so lovely! I ate lunch with some junior doctors and medical students and then followed them round the wards in the afternoon. I loved it, one doctor gave me lots of great advice for interviews!
Day 2 - Cardiorespiratory department - I was just observing all day but it was very fascinating, saw ECGs, Exercise tests, BP tests and Echos. I loved the Echos. Went round a few wards to see some portable ECGs too. Ate with the same junior doctors again who were very friendly.
Day 3 - Pathology, lots of observing, got to look down some microscopes, it's all a bit of a blur to me now, made me sure I wanted to have patient contact and not be confined to a lab.
Day 4 - X-ray and diagnostic imaging, saw MR and CT scans, X-rays and some ultrasounds. I got a tour of A&E too, but it was very quiet, nothing really seemed to be going on at the time.
I think I enjoyed the ward the most, I enjoyed how much I actually got to talk to the patients and do things for them
I am however concerned that I'm never going to have enough work experience... other than this I've only had a week in a primary school. This hospital week took months and months to come through, I've called so many GPs and they don't do WE or are booked up and I have absolutely no contacts. I do however (fingers crossed) have weekly hospital volunteering coming up soon, so that should be good.