Our guest blogger James Gill is an F1 doctor. In this series, he writes about his personal experiences of that very special time starting out on the wards as an F1.
F1 is luck of the draw – F2 is up to you!
By now, three weeks into the job it seems that most of our F1’s, whilst they may not have found their feet completely per se, have managed to work out the various tricks in order to survive, and most importantly serve the particular whims of their consultant.
Photo by barelyanythingAlthough in my experience, and my brief presentation to the new surgical F1’s yesterday, when I say working out the tricks to survive… what I mean is how best to divide their time between making sure that Mr Philips, their one and only patient, has had enough paracetamol to cover his headache whilst he waits for his op, and more importantly how to switch on the TV in the mess.
The surgical F1 jobs in the hospital can be really mixed bags, and it entirely depends on your consultant. One surgeon will micro manage his patients down to individual drug doses, whilst another will be content to NEVER STEP ON THE WARD, only interacting with patients when they are under anaesthetic. The point of this being that as a surgical F1 you need to address how best to use your time.
The Firm system is still in place for surgical teams and that gives the week to week ward work a different pace to medicine. In surgery you can be snowed under with patients and jobs one week, but until your surgeon is “On Take” next, every patient who is discharged is off your list and won’t be replaced. Thus its quite feasible you may end shortly before the next “On Take” of having only one remaining patient to look after – USE THIS TIME!
Surgeons love an audience, if it is your thing use the time you have when the wards are quieter to get into theatre, ask can you assist, of if an exceptionally complex op, just ask to observe, its unlikely they’ll say no. Talk to your consultant as a human being (they might not be, but give it a try) there will always be opportunities, whether it’s getting in on a paper, or helping with a simple audit, but you’ll have to go hunting for them.
Your surgery rotation is a great time to plump up your ePortfolio
Now I’ve banged on about this hellish piece of electronic dictat before but it does have its uses. You might find yourself loath with an unearthly contempt your present job, be that colorectal surgery, respiratory or dermatology. If so your ePortfolio is your golden ticket out.
If you get enough bells and whistles hanging off this electronic annoyance you will be able to have your picks of the jobs for F2, and I cannot emphasise this enough. As a medical student, when you selected your jobs, you chose things you thought might be interesting, or that you might possibly want to have a career in.
Now you know the reality of those jobs good or bad. A well filled ePortfolio is your ticket out of your personal Hell onto the ward you wish you were working on – Remember a bad job on F1 is the luck of the draw, getting the best job for you and your career is entirely down to that electronic hoop jump, so learn how to make it work for you, and grasp whatever extra time you have.
Finally take heart, its payday next week – but more on that later!