ITU REG: Tofu, what's the difference between A&E and ITU?
TOFU: Well, it's a lot calmer in ITU, i mean, a lot of the patients are intubated and asleep...
ITU REG: Quite right! The difference between A&E and ITU, is that in A&E they do very non specialist things in a busy environment, and in ITU we do highly specialised things in a controlled environment
Whilst I find it a bit cringe worthy when someone in one speciality makes a comment about another, but I suppose he has a point about the environment.
My 3 weeks in Anaesthetics went by quicker than I imagined, and I was surprised by how enjoyable it was! Probably a tad unfair, but I didn't expect much from my anaesthetics placement, and did expect it to be pretty sleep inducing ..ha!
The placement itself was probably the most well organised placement i've had to date, with a week tagging along to anything I want in the realm of anaesthetics (on call, O&G, pain clinics etc), a week of surgery (i went to a different one every day), and a week jumping between HDU & ITU.
I know this really shouldn't be a bonus point... but this placement got a lot of the bane of my life logbook ticked off too, so that has to count as a bonus!
Oh, and that time i asked if i could do a chin lift, and the anaesthetist casually passes me the LMA mask and asks me to insert it into the patient whilst i'm there by the head was pretty decent too. I was pretty worried at first, seeing that i've never done it on a person before, but in his words "just shove it in, don't worry".
So that was anaesthetics... it's 3 weeks of Vascular surgery when I'm back after the new year... !
