Today I carried out lots of little errands in the Urgent Care Centre. I was involved in various parts of the centre and was able to appreciate the variety of roles Medical staff are expected to complete with competence. For all the weeks I have been here, I have not seen the same doctor twice and every doctor I have spoken to has told me that it’s their first or second time in this hospital. From this I have learnt the importance of possessing the skill of being able to adapt to different situations easily. As a doctor you will constantly be expected to work within different teams, in different places and perhaps even in different departments. This idea of variety excites me and it something which I would love to be able to rise to the challenge for.
Medicine is a fast-pacer career. This is something that I’ve learnt with even the simplest of roles of having make a cup of tea for a patient who has asked for one. In the Urgent Care Centre I have to do it quickly, so they can receive it before they are referred to another department. This is also something I was able to observe with a 3 year old girl who came to the Urgent Care Centre. She had been involved in a minor car accident in which nobody was injured. However, following the incident she had been extremely wheezy. When the girl first came in, she was placed on a monitor to check her oxygen saturation levels. They were all normal, but doctor and the nurse practitioner quickly identified that her breathing rate was alarmingly high and she was taking many short breaths. The doctor quickly placed her on a nebuliser to calm her down before transferring her to the Paediatric centre where they would be able to carry out further assessments. I thought it was a really great insight to be able to see how this momentarily panicked situation was managed and controlled so quickly. I also learnt that despite her showing symptoms of asthma, she couldn’t be diagnosed with it yet due to her age, which I found to be quite interesting.
Life of a Medic 