Chesterfield Hospital Placement

Chesterfield Royal Hospital placement

This five day long placement was particularly beneficial to me as it gave me a wide range of experience into the medical profession. Shadowing a doctor was particularly helpful as it gave me a practical insight into the responsibilities and roles that I would have to undertake when I gain a place as a doctor. One case I saw which I found especially interesting was observing an MRI taking place and looking at the results where a lady had a football sized cyst containing ovarian cancer in her stomach. This allowed me to showcase my observation and analytical skills through this experience as the consultant taught me how to read the MRI results and interpret these correctly. Details of this case must be kept private due to confidentiality agreements. I support these agreements and have the highest respect for patient privacy and confidentiality; I ensured I adhered to these rules even when discussing the placement with family and friends.

Another large aspect to this experience was the gaining of elementary life support and clinical skills. I previously have medical training due to being a Young Leader at my local Brownie unit yet I found this training to be more specific and highly interesting. I enjoyed working with the resuscitation dummies which we had to treat as if they were patients. This gave me a taste of the rapport and treatment that I would utilise when working with patients. I also took blood from a dummy arm, learning the sterile procedure and I succeeded in gaining blood in my first try. This skill will be of great significance as a doctor. It also showed me how it can be very hard to gain blood from patients as they may move or have weaker veins as some colleagues experienced. 

During the experience I did a lot of questioning of patients about the symptoms they have been experiencing and the rehabilitation procedure they are going to take. I found this to be a range of things from having carers come into the house each day to moving to another specialist, smaller hospital which will help regain the mobility of patients after life changing surgery. This was seen on the medical ward with a gentleman who had to have his leg amputated due to gangrene as a result of diabetes. The one-to-one contact with patients was an area I found I thrived in; I perfected my bedside manners and enjoyed building an understanding of the patients beyond their mere ailments. I believe it is so important to see the whole patient and not just see the sickness that they have. This allowed me to take a great deal from this experience.

Gaining an understanding of the geography of the hospital was also important and through visits to theatre and other departments such as pathology I was able to gain a wide knowledge of different paths I could possibly specialise into. Working in these different departments made me more dedicated to pursue this interesting career path. It also highlighted to me what goes on in each individual department such as the biopsies, blood tests, transfusion matches and microbiology which were all in one section.

My certificate of attendance

I had to modify my appearance to adhere to a strict dress code for safety and hygiene reasons in particular but also to uphold the reputation of the medical departments. I found this easy and it gave me a snapshot of life dressing as a doctor and following safety procedures such as washing hands at washing stations after using the gel five times to ensure the maximisation of killing germs to prevent cross-contamination. I understand the importance of limiting infection and ensuring that I am clean to guarantee the safety of patients, especially when they are elderly or severely ill as they have a reduced immune system. 

Touring A&E allowed me to see the intricate details of running the department behind closed doors, this showed me how there are government targets which the multidisciplinary team have to achieve, for example, treating every medical issue within four hours. It also allowed me to see the resuscitation rooms, ask questions about the life support machines and the running of the care of the patient. Of course it showed me how busy the department is constantly and the wide range of medical complaints the doctors deal with on a day to day basis.

The paediatrics tour also showed me how it can be very hard to question patients when they feel scared and alone, this means that the approach of talking to them has to be reassessed to gain the knowledge you need. Especially with the babies, there was more emphasis on blood tests and primary assessments to diagnose the patient, as opposed to questioning as seen more with adult patients. Being able to adapt my attitude to the situation I am in is something which I excel in as I volunteer with young children, teenagers and adults.

The week has portrayed to me the life of doctors on both medical and surgical wards highlighting the difference between the two. The main differences are the length of the ward rounds; medical lasting between five and six hours as opposed to surgical whose duration was just over one hour. Another difference was the severity of the patient as many of the surgical wards beds were filled with arranged operation patients who were not in need of medical attention to the same extent. The two days in the separate doctor roles also showed me the difference between an F1 doctor and becoming a SHO as you do less paper work and have more responsibility, for example with the F1 there was three additional doctors to herself on the ward round and with the SHO he was the only doctor from his team on the ward round.

Overall, I thought this experience was particularly rewarding. I found the varied experiences very involving and this placement has certainly solidified my resolve to pursue a career in medicine. 

My schedule for the placement