Pathway to Medicine

Back from another 2 days at Musgrove Park Hospital where I have spent the time on the Pathway to Medicine programme. This involved a general introduction to the NHS and a talk on infection control, which taught me what I needed to do to minimise the risk of spreading infections. Then came the fun bit! I met up with an F1 doctor who was working in the respiratory ward and who I would be shadowing for the next day and a half. It was really exciting to get closer to patients and the different types of treatment. Some of the things I enjoyed seeing were chest X-Rays, blood tests and a diagnostic lung tap, to see if any fluid in the lung was infected. I was also lucky enough to accompany a long consultant ward round and it was interesting to see how the consultant talked to both the patients and the other doctors who were in training. It also showed me that being a junior doctor involved moments that may not have been exciting (i.e. paperwork) but that they were still really important to patient care. These two days have made me even keener (if that's possible) on becoming a doctor.