Medsim

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the Medsim course in Nottingham Uni. It was a fully packed weekend, filled with Clinical Skills (like Ultrasound, taking blood pressure, using stethosccopes) and practicing talking and diagnosing patients. In one session (claimed to be Clinical Analysis), one of the helpers ran in halfway through, shouting that there was an 'emergency' that we needed to help with. There were 3 different scenarios we worked our way through, including a car crash, a drug overdose and a woman who had had a heart attack. As a group we eventually got better at keeping calm and managing to keep the 'patients' alive. It was a very exciting evening, where I learnt a lot about the correct protocol and behaviour in an emergency. Overall I had a really great weekend (especially as I wore scrubs all weekend and got to take them home - guess who has some new pyjamas! :) ).

A very cold collection

Once again, we braved the elements to do a collection outside the local farm shop for CHSW. It rained. It was cold. And it was windy. After 6 hours collecting, we were very cold, but it was worthwhile as we raised just over £200 for CHSW.

Infection Prevention and Control

There's been a lot in the news about bacterial resistance to antibiotics - how this is increasing and new antibiotics aren't being developed quickly enough. I had the opportunity to spend some time this week with the Head of Infection Control at Musgrove Park Hospital. Big improvements have been made there in the number of MRSA infections, where they haven't had a case in over 700 days! Also, in C Difficile and Norovirus, there are decreasing numbers of cases. We talked about the importance of the right antibiotic prescribing in preventing C Diff and quick identification of patients with symptoms to allow early isolation. I read recently in New Scientist that it only takes 18 cells of Norovirus to cause an infection, so you can see why it is so contagious and difficult to control in hospital and care-home environments.

Easter Bonnets at Rowden House

Recently, I went to Rowden House (after being unable to the week before due to Norovirus) and we got there just in time to see their Easter Bonnet parade. The staff invited all of the residents to the dining room, where I was playing my saxophone, playing some hymns that I had been practising specifically for Easter. Whilst it took them a while to congregate in the dining room (about 45 minutes!), a quick quiz all about Frome began, which no-one seemed to know any of the answers to due to the ridiculousness of the questions! After the quiz, the judging of the Easter bonnets began! All of the residents had already made their bonnets with their entertainer, although some had to swap owing to the size of their hats. In the end, the best bonnet won first place, but we were unsure about the following ones! It was really nice to see the effort that had gone into it, and the fun that all of the residents seemed to be having.

One of my favourite residents (Doreen) and I

First and Fourth prize winners!

First Aid Qualification

I recently gained a qualification that allows me to be a first aider in the workplace. I have been training for it in my general studies lessons and took a 3-hour practical and multiple-choice exam. The practical skills side of the course entails: being able to assess a situation and decide the best course of action, the recovery position, chocking, CPR, using an AED and how to deal with cuts and bandaging (among other things). I really enjoyed learning about first aid and am glad that I now know what to do in case of an emergency!

The Haven

It’s been about 6 months since I started visiting a nursing home once a week – The Haven - in addition to my current residential home – Rowden House. Whilst both seem to be very good homes, they have some fundamental differences that I’ve noticed, probably due to one being a nursing home. Firstly, the people in The Haven all have severe dementia, which is less severe at Rowden, owing to the higher level of care that they require. This means that it is a lot harder to have a conversation with them (though we still try!), but they do still like the saxophone! Secondly, the security at The Haven seems to be a lot tighter, including an alarm going off whenever the door is opened and a keypad to open the door, in case people forget that they probably shouldn’t go outside, especially as it is near a road. Also, whilst Rowden is a lot bigger, both homes have about the same number of staff, again due to residents needing a higher level of care. 

Medlink

Last Sunday, I went up to Nottingham University to spend 4 days at Medlink, a medical conference. After finding my halls of residence (which was amazingly close to where most of the lectures were), I went to the sports hall for our first lecture. After a brief introduction on how to make the most of Medlink, we had our first talk on Paediatrics then General Medicine. Both were very interesting but were mainly talks encouraging us to join that particular specialty. We then had a talk from a man in the air ambulance, who told us some fascinating stories from his time on the air ambulance after showing us a video of people breaking bones (and often subsequently standing on the bone). It was a really interesting talk, and everyone seemed to leave the talk wanting to either hear more or join the air ambulance immediately. 

The next day, the morning involved more talks on specialties (Surgery, General Practice and A&E) and a talk on “What kind of a Doctor would I make?”. I enjoyed learning more about the particular specialties, and more about the history of surgery. Safe to say, I would not have liked to have needed surgery long ago, when sterile environments were unheard of and any old person could perform it. We then heard about the opportunities provided by studying medicine in Europe and did a casualty-alert simulation, in which we had to try and diagnose 2 people before they infected everyone else. Considering one of the people had a heart attack and the other had diabetes, we were all a bit confused by the spread of the disease. We also listened to “Life as a Junior Doctor” from a man who had worked in the Navy, which was very engaging. 

On Tuesday, we had another talk on studying abroad, this time in Grenada at St. George’s University. We also learned more about the different styles of teaching medicine, and had a lecture from a woman who specialised in geriatrics, which was particularly interesting considering my experiences at Rowden House. In the afternoon, we had a Q&A session with current med school students, and it was interesting listening to their answers and opinions on their med schools. We also spent some time doing clinical skills (‘patient’ diagnosis, using a stethoscope and using otoscopes and opthalmoscopes), which I enjoyed. Otoscopes were particularly interesting as I had never used one before. In the evening, I went to the optional ‘The EDGE’ session, which was fascinating as we learn different routes into both med school and medicine.

On Wednesday, we initially went to the Exhibition, where it was nice talking to different universities and looking at opportunities that you may not have previously considered. We also had a talk on the UKCAT and winning and keeping a place at med school (which was very similar to the EDGE). I also spent the afternoon at the optional Oxbridge session, where it was interesting to see how different the BMAT was to the UKCAT and listening to the talk on Oxbridge admissions.

In general, I had a great 4 days, as the talks were really interesting, I met a lot of new people and learnt a lot, but above all, I enjoyed feeling as if I were at university, as it felt like I had finally achieved my dream.