7:30am
My alarm rings and I get up straight away this time; I can’t afford to be late for my GP placement. I had to wake up earlier than usual today to take into account how busy the roads can be so early in the morning.
8:50am
Finally arrived…the traffic in the morning is honestly so unpredictable, not to mention extremely busy. I go into the GP surgery, sign myself in and am told to wait until 9:30am when the clinic starts.
9:30am
Me and my clinical partner sit in on the clinic with the doctor and watch his consultations with a few different patients. They all come in with many different problems and it is really interesting to watch.
We are told to note how the doctor communicates with the patient, as soon we will be seeing a patient by ourselves.
10:40am
Our patient arrives at the surgery, so me and my clinical partner are given our own room where we can talk to her. We are told to call her in from the waiting room and to find out about why she’s come to the GP today, the medical problems she has and the medication she is on.
We both talk to the patient for a while and then make notes of what she’s told us, ready to feed back to the doctor.
11:00am
After we tell the doctor what we had learnt from our conversation with the patient, he calls her in and we are able to watch the doctor’s consultation with her.
This is very insightful and really helpful in allowing us to see the different approach taken by the doctor to gather all the necessary information as quickly as possible.
12:00pm
Placement finished. Now I must make my way back to the University for the lectures awaiting me this afternoon.
1:00pm
I manage to make a quick trip back to my flat, get some lunch down me and also change into some more comfortable clothing before heading out for three hours of lectures.
2:00pm
Lecture 1 on the immune system is underway. This one is pretty much a recap from last week’s lecture.
The next lecture is on allergy, which is where it starts to get a little more complicated. And then the final lecture is titled ‘Biological Barriers’…all about the skin!
5:30pm
I decide to head off to an inspirational talk about spirituality for ISOC‘s charity week. The fee to gain entry will be going to help refugees…so it’s all for a good cause!
I also bump into a few friends here, which is really nice!
7:00pm
After the talk, I go out with a couple of friends for a quick coffee and a bite to eat at Costa. It was nice to spend some time catching up after a long day!
9:30pm
Decided to make a start on typing up my PBL questions and re-organising them before I get too tired.
I also take a bit of time to make a note of what I saw on my GP placement, so I can type up my reflections in detail for my PPD portfolio at some point!
I wrote this post for the Manchester, Biology, Medicine & Health Blog. You can view it here.
Life of a Medic 