Venue: Caritas Group Practice

Today I sat with the practice nurse in the diabetic clinic. I learnt about the regular checkups that patients must attend in order to mange and control their diabetes including eye checks and foot checks. I also watched her break the diagnosis to a patient that they now have diabetes. I found it really concerning that in both of my few day placements at GP surgeries one of the consultations I observed was a person being told that they were diabetic. This expresses how major a problem diabetes is as well as the scale of people it affects.

Venue: Caritas Group Practice

In the morning I sat in on the ‘on the day’ appointments with a registrar GP. It was really enlightening to see the variety of concerns that patients would come to the GP with as a matter of urgency. Some of them were less urgent and others were quite critical. One of the things that I noticed was that there was a lot of patients who came with concerns about depression. This was something I found really interesting as in my previous GP placement, mental health wasn’t even mentioned once. This allowed me to to reflect on cultural differences as the previous GP surgery was in a predominantly Asian area and this one was in a predominantly White area. This enabled me to understand the greater stigma of mental health within the Asian community. Continue reading “CULTURAL DIFFERENCES, EMERGENCIES & TEACHING SESSIONS” →

Venue: Caritas Group Practice

Today was my first day at this GP practice. I observed a patient being given a joint injection and how the doctor explained the risks that the particular treatment could have on him. I also noticed how he explained that the treatment wouldn’t necessarily be successful as only some people respond positively to it. I recognised how vital it was to be honest with the patient and ensure they understand and accept the treatment they are being given. Continue reading “JOINT INJECTION & WORRIED PARENTS…” →