The MDT

-
It has been a smooth transition for me, from being a student to working as a doctor. There is not too much work to be done on the Stroke Unit, unlike the other units which have the interns flying around and coming in over an hour before they need to and clocking way more hours than they are paid to do. I think it is testament to how well the multidisciplinary team works in this setting. The Stroke NUM, physios, speech pathologist, occupational therapists and dieticians spend most, and sometimes all of their time working on our patients. We have a pharmacist, who covers all of this ward (so not just the stroke patients) and then there are the doctors.

The allied health people, coordinated mainly by the dedicated Stroke NUM communicate every morning about our limited number of patients. By the time the doctors are in from our morning handovers the NUM is able to update us and let us know about any pressing issues. Then there are admissions, and tests to be ordered, but when everything is so organised, and set out so well for us, when the stroke NUM (being dedicated solely to stroke patients) is so well versed with what should happen with the patients, it just makes any additional input by doctors so easy, sometimes, almost unnecessary. I guess the situation is similar to Obs & Gyn where midwives are capable of carrying out normal births and doctors are there mainly to deal with complicated pregnancies or manage any problems that arise, but as a junior doctor still trying to find my feet, it's been such a blessing to have the experience and guidance of the MDT.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Brugada Syndrome

-
Image
I don't think I will ever be a plastic surgeon. Not because I like plastics any less but because I cannot let cardiology go. Today I started studying cardiology cases for my exams and came across a segment on Brugada syndrome and the ECG patterns that are typical to this condition. I was surprised to see that this condition was discovered and described as recently as 1992 by a family of Spanish Catalan doctors (the Brugada doctors). I love finding 'new' cardiology information because the problem with being so interested in something is that I sometimes run out of novel 'findings' to keep me interested in the field. Lately I have been reading about microvascular dysfunction (related to womens cardiac conditions) and today Brugada ECGs. I think I could do this forever.
Read more

Reflections

-
The number of times I have felt slighted because of my gender has been countless. The number of times my male (and female) counterparts have silenced me, or taken me less seriously, are many. People will not acknowledge a problem that exists, if it does not exist in their world. If they do not experience the slights because they are any combination of rich, white, or male. We have come to a point where people will accept the presence of 'White Privilege' as a concept, but they do not truly believe that their accomplishments are any easier to come by as a result. And they do not care. Why would they when the establishment is in their favour? I have come to learn many things about being female. I have learnt that some times we play a role in our own destruction. We wait to be rescued, or to be handed a hall pass, because for many years we have not been expected to excel on our own merit. We wait for mentors, without realising that mentors pick people in whom they see something
Read more

Reflections - On whether I am on the right path in life.

-
I have spent the past 3 months working with a particular resident at my hospital. Some times when you walk around the hospital it is like walking in a Marcs/Country Road/CUE showroom. Many of our doctors come from affluent backgrounds - whose fathers, and sometimes mothers are doctors, university chancellors, business-people, lawyers, politicians. I often wonder if they have ever had difficulties in life. If they know what it means to earn your keep, and to actually have to work for their 'achievements'. Many of them live at home, or in homes paid for by their wealthy and protective parents. Their biggest problems is probably divorce between those parents. They travel extensively, with numerous photos of their exotic exploits posted onto Facebook. They are athletic, intelligent and beautiful. They will often go on to marry other wealthy individuals, usually surgeons, cardiologists, lawyers. They have massive impractical heirlooms on their ring fingers. They are entitled. They w
Read more