Brownless Library Reserve - look at all those empty shelves! pssstt...last minute studying I guess - but why the textbooks??!!
Friday, May 27, 2005
Brownless Library Reserve - look at all those empty shelves! pssstt...last minute studying I guess - but why the textbooks??!!
The end of Chapter 1 of Med School
Today was the last day of Uni for the semester -- my last day of tutes, lectures etc that is based in the uni. How time flies, for in slightly more than a month's time, I'll be starting a new phase of my medical studies - learning about research methods and doing research at a public hospital (someone remind me how exciting that could be please??).
Truth be told it is actually quite a scary prospect to start a new research project from scratch, on my own(!!!) - well no doubt with, hopefully, lots of help from my supervisor and coordinator. No more going to lectures at 8am, nor going for 3hour pracs. What does the future hold? 9-to-5 research I hope not!
Truth be told it is actually quite a scary prospect to start a new research project from scratch, on my own(!!!) - well no doubt with, hopefully, lots of help from my supervisor and coordinator. No more going to lectures at 8am, nor going for 3hour pracs. What does the future hold? 9-to-5 research I hope not!
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Wah
Heh I feel a little guilty for not posting here for the past 11 days - but hey maybe I had better things to do than to write to a webpage no one's supposed to be reading. I've just bought tickets for Star Wars Ep.III - Revenge of the Sith to be watched on Tuesday afternoon after classes. I'm surprised I'm looking forward to it (after the lousy 1 and 2s); it had good reviews actually!
Exams in about less than 17 days - then - it's over for my preclinical years. I'll be starting AMS (which if anyone is curious, stands for, Advanced Medical Science) and then I'll be off to my clinical rotations at St.Vincent's Hospital (and it's associated hospitals incl. Geelong Hospital and rural hospital placements). Like I said before, Patients Beware!
Exams in about less than 17 days - then - it's over for my preclinical years. I'll be starting AMS (which if anyone is curious, stands for, Advanced Medical Science) and then I'll be off to my clinical rotations at St.Vincent's Hospital (and it's associated hospitals incl. Geelong Hospital and rural hospital placements). Like I said before, Patients Beware!
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Thursday, May 05, 2005
GPs and referrals - passing the buck
Usually it's the GP's job to pass the buck to specialists, hospital admissions etc. When I went for my clinical placement yesterday though, something unusual happened - a hospital referred a patient to the GP I was with. The problem was, my GP was not very happy at all. FYI, the GP was a lady who hasn't ever seen this patient before. And the other problem was, the patient had psychiatric (personality disorder, drug and alcohol abuse) problems and needs medical prescription; and oh yeah, the patient was just released from prison for manslaughter (nearly forgot that :P)
I think health authorities, or at least, hospital staff should be more sensitive towards the right doctor for the right patient. Doctors are still human, and whilst doctors are supposed to remain non-judgmental and not overly prejudiced against different patients, it is almost impossible to do so, especially when dealing with issues of personal safety, familiarity with psychiatric problems etc. (and yeah, the issues of stigmatisation of patients with psychiatric disorder and past convicts are obvious here!) I'm not blaming the GP, I might have done the same in her position. It's just illogical to just refer a patient which presented to an ED of a hospital to a GP when the patient has problems which may be better handled by a more qualified person such as a psychiatrist.
WARNING: I hope this post complies with the confidentiality issues involved in doctor-patient care relationship. This post has not revealed the names of the GP and patient, the location of clinic, the name of the clinic and hospital.
I think health authorities, or at least, hospital staff should be more sensitive towards the right doctor for the right patient. Doctors are still human, and whilst doctors are supposed to remain non-judgmental and not overly prejudiced against different patients, it is almost impossible to do so, especially when dealing with issues of personal safety, familiarity with psychiatric problems etc. (and yeah, the issues of stigmatisation of patients with psychiatric disorder and past convicts are obvious here!) I'm not blaming the GP, I might have done the same in her position. It's just illogical to just refer a patient which presented to an ED of a hospital to a GP when the patient has problems which may be better handled by a more qualified person such as a psychiatrist.
WARNING: I hope this post complies with the confidentiality issues involved in doctor-patient care relationship. This post has not revealed the names of the GP and patient, the location of clinic, the name of the clinic and hospital.
050505
Heh just wanted to note here that today's date is a bit special... wonder what the statistician would say about it...once in 1000 yrs occurrence maybe?
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Boring St.John meeting
Imagine my dismay after taking the time, effort and moolah to go to the St John meeting only to find someone tell me:
"Okay people, let's practice taking pulses..."
And then the person I'm paired with is a fellow Meddy who I don't know (and he me). I just recognised him from his name (and maybe his face a bit...).
"This is you take radial pulse. Try it on my hands. What are the reasons for taking a pulse?"
"Urm...to get pulse rate, check character of pulse, when taking blood pressure?" I said hesitantly (or as hesitant as I could get while cracking up inside).
"Do you know how to take carotid pulse? It's a bit harder if you take it lying down"
"Did you know that I'm in the same course as you?"
"Yeah...urm...same year?"
HAHAHA if you knew you wouldn't ask that!
And that was that...meeting ended about 15minutes later after discussing how to fill paperwork whilst on duty. People might not admit it openly, but legal complications from medical treatment (and even first aid) is making everyone paranoia and way to save our butts is to write everything down. Wouldn't know when a wacko patient might feel poor and sue our ass off our pants.
"Okay people, let's practice taking pulses..."
And then the person I'm paired with is a fellow Meddy who I don't know (and he me). I just recognised him from his name (and maybe his face a bit...).
"This is you take radial pulse. Try it on my hands. What are the reasons for taking a pulse?"
"Urm...to get pulse rate, check character of pulse, when taking blood pressure?" I said hesitantly (or as hesitant as I could get while cracking up inside).
"Do you know how to take carotid pulse? It's a bit harder if you take it lying down"
"Did you know that I'm in the same course as you?"
"Yeah...urm...same year?"
HAHAHA if you knew you wouldn't ask that!
And that was that...meeting ended about 15minutes later after discussing how to fill paperwork whilst on duty. People might not admit it openly, but legal complications from medical treatment (and even first aid) is making everyone paranoia and way to save our butts is to write everything down. Wouldn't know when a wacko patient might feel poor and sue our ass off our pants.
Exams soon...
The exam timetable's out - Exams are quick and short death of me this time - all papers are in consequtive days, between 7 and 10th June (and that's not very long away!). Scary how time flies, for not long ago, I just started this sem, being the last of my pre-clinical semesters in Melbourne Uni. It won't be long now before I get to start on my clinicals, so patients BEWARE!!!
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Surprise!
Happy birthday Wai May!
Anyways yesterday we've celebrated Wai May's 21st and Su Ling's 22nd birthday. It was a supposed to be a surprise party...Su Ling was but Wai May caught a whiff of something fishy when people called her and sms'ed her so many times when she said she might not be able to make it!
It was a great night...a good spread of food and nice dessert (oreo smoothie kinda like mcflurry, pistacchios
Anyways yesterday we've celebrated Wai May's 21st and Su Ling's 22nd birthday. It was a supposed to be a surprise party...Su Ling was but Wai May caught a whiff of something fishy when people called her and sms'ed her so many times when she said she might not be able to make it!
It was a great night...a good spread of food and nice dessert (oreo smoothie kinda like mcflurry, pistacchios
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
