Taking bloods and wearing scrubs

Although we're in hospitals now, we can't really escape the GP placements, and neither do i want to escape from them either.. i actually really enjoyed them last year.. and i think i love this gp practice even more!

Dr D. sat on the corner, and gave me his seat behind his desk, and for that morning, i took the history for every patient that sat in, including a deaf patient which was definitely an experience to remember. I gave a handful of flu vaccinations, did a few examinations, and felt lymph nodes the size of £2 coins (this was a patient with CLL, Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia). I also had to take blood from an 83 year old gentleman, who despite his age, had lovely veins which i managed to take blood from on the very first hit... Success!

This was however, very different to my first attempt at taking blood at the hospital...

Whilst heading to the doctor's office to grab my bag and head off home, a random FY1 stops me, and asks "are you a 3rd year? wanna take some bloods?".. this was so random.. as i had never met him before, but as i've never done it before so..hell yea! This enthusiasm was however shortlived, as he took me to a very ill patient who was sat up in bed and very short of breath. The patient was more than happy for me to take his bloods, but his veins were very hard to bleed, and after 2 attempts, the FY1 had to take over :( This was a bit of a downer, and i felt awful for having tried to take blood from him and failing twice, when he is so ill.

I'm not going to lie, but on a few occasions, particulary in the first week i did feel really lost and even a tad down. I simply just did not know what i was meant to be doing there as a medical student. However, what they say is really true.. if you don't ask, you don't get. With that in mind, i randomly asked a dialysis nurse if i could go watch a fistula being done.. and it was as simple as that.

Friday morning, 8am i was in some rather comfortable navy scrubs and some comfy crocs, standing in on a minor surgery, but surgery none the less =) I do have a surgical firm at the end of the year, but this was good enough for now, seeing that otherwise i was going to spend friday morning on the ward which i do everyday anyway... this was a nice change!!