Is there such thing as specialising in ICU medicine?

Hi all,

Thinking about careers (had a lecture on it after 1st yr exams) and was wondering if you can choose just to specialise in the ICU? I heard that generally the clinician who admits the patient to the ICU then is responsible for their care...so does that mean there are no ICU doctors as such?

Cheers

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Reply 1

friendlyneutron

signor87

I think anaesthetists do a lot of work in ICU?

Reply 2

Renal

Does talking to vegetables sound appealing? :wink:

AIUI, ICU medicine is a subspeciality of Anaesthesiology (i.e. FRCA) although I'm not sure if this is a hard and fast rule.

Reply 3

randdom

we had a table for it at our careers evening and from talking to the doctor on it he said that it was quite competetive. There is something called the intensive care society who have losts of information about it on their website

www.ics.ac.uk

Reply 4

tokay

Everything about medicine seems competitve these days.

Reply 5

randdom

tokay

Everything about medicine seems competitve these days.

Pretty much :frown:

Reply 6

Renal

We're all doomed. :frown:

(Unless you're a knobber (or not, but likely) in the top 10 of your year)

Reply 7

j00ni

Renal

We're all doomed. :frown:

(Unless you're a knobber (or not, but likely) in the top 10 of your year)

Or are effective at bigging up your mediocre achievements on an application form :wink:

Reply 8

Renal

j00ni

Or are effective at bigging up your mediocre achievements on an application form :wink:

See I'm quite good at that, what I'm not good at is working harder than I have to.

So I'm buggered by all the berks who started shouting and demanding that getting an A in a neuroscience SSM made you a better doctor than being union president or rugby captain or something.

Reply 9

cookie monster

Renal

Depends what qualifies 'a better doctor' really. I remember a BMJ devoted to 'what makes a good doctor?' about 3 years ago - I might try to dig it out.

Re: getting jobs - get hold of a person specification form for the job you're trying for. The interview panel will base their points scheme on this.

RE: being a good doctor - you can't go too far wrong if you treat everyone (patients and staff) with respect, are competent at your level, and know when to ask for help or advice.

Reply 10

cookie monster

Blast, I was out by 9 months (damn my senile dementia-related memory loss) the issue was September 2002

Reply 11

Renal

A bit semantically, that article discusses what it means to be a good diagnostician, not necessarilly the same thing.

Reply 12

cookie monster

Renal

A bit semantically, that article discusses what it means to be a good diagnostician, not necessarilly the same thing.

Are we reading different articles? :biggrin:

Original post by 28 BMJ 2002

Editorials
What's a good doctor, and how can you make one?
By marrying the applied scientist to the medical humanist

Reply 13

Renal

cookie monster

Are we reading different articles? :biggrin:

Hopefully not.

But a good doctor doesn't just deal with patients, they get on well with all members of the MDT.

Reply 14

Fluffy

Renal

So I'm buggered by all the berks who started shouting and demanding that getting an A in a neuroscience SSM made you a better doctor than being union president or rugby captain or something.

What about a little bit of column a, little bit of cloumn b?

To be fair, if you're more into study, you're always going to see that as being the most important attribute. If hte social is more your thing, then that will be your argument. The key skill is to find the middle ground...

Reply 15

cookie monster

Renal

But a good doctor doesn't just deal with patients, they get on well with all members of the MDT.

Um, yep... I agree, and so do the BMJ articles :smile:

Reply 16

cookie monster

Fluffy

The key skill is to find the middle ground...

Exactly! The alternative of course is to excel in every area :smile:

Reply 17

RetiredAccount89

Renal

And how do you think people like myself who chose to be a sheep feel?
i can kick ass in my exams (tho never enough to come top) but because i don't go in for the whole popularity polls (running for pres etc) i lose points.
joy

Reply 18

RetiredAccount89

Renal

Hopefully not.

But a good doctor doesn't just deal with patients, they get on well with all members of the MDT.

A good doctor recongises that half the members of the MDT are wastes of space and catches up on his/her paperwork whilst said members are speaking.

in my humble opinion of course.

Reply 19

cookie monster

Robot Chicken

A good doctor recongises that half the members of the MDT are wastes of space and catches up on his/her paperwork whilst said members are speaking.

in my humble opinion of course.

Yowser... the trick is (in my humble opinion) to try to get on with every member of the MDT - or at least pretend to get on with them - even if you don't understand the importance of their role, or even know what they do.

When I was a student, I used to wonder why everyone on the wards was so polite to each other even when the sh** was hitting the fan. Once I got to that stage, I realised that was the only way to keep some semblance of team cohesion.

The other way to look at it of course, is that if you smile and greet every MDT member in the corridor every morning, they'll like you, and they'll be more willing to help you out. A few smiles here and there actually keep NHS teams functioning, I reckon (well, that and chocolate. Nurses love to be given chocolate)