Work Experience

To be able to choose a career it is essential that you complete work experience to gain a realistic understanding of what you would actually do, not the glamorised and romanticised versions of the job that you see on the TV or hear about. This is extremely important in medicine because being a doctor is often made out to be far easier and glamorous than it is in reality.

The past 3 days have been my 3rd amount of work experience (if you ignore voluntary work), and I have been fortunate enough to be able to complete all of my work experience in different hospitals, this time at the Queen Elizabeth hospital, Birmingham. Previously I have spent my work experience shadowing different consultants and even one medical student, and whilst in there own right this was extremely useful I wanted to be able to shadow some Junior doctors and doctors in their foundation years to be able to understand what I would be doing immediately after leaving medical school, and after 3 days I can confirm that the work experience has only solidified my desire to study medicine.
Throughout my time at the hospital I attended many different ward rounds, I saw a lumber puncture, several blood tests, a cannula being put in to a patient and also attended a radiology meeting, which particularly fascinated me as I was able to see many different MRI scans and CT scans.

Whilst I won't go into detail of the patients I saw, as I feel that is not appropriate due to patient confidentiality, I will say that I was amazed by the range of people I saw. I saw all ages from a 19 year old boy to a late 60 year old women, all with different neurological disorders. I was particularly fascinated by the disorders that were verging on to psychological disorders not something like a inflamed spine (although that was interesting too).  I suppose the diversity of each day is what intrigues me and is one reason why I want to become a doctor as each day of my work experience was completely different.
I recorded all of the diseases that each patient had in a book so that I can further research them during the summer holiday, so I will include fact files on some of them throughout the next few weeks.

Volunteer diary 1 - Gone off alcohol

As well as my reviews I am now going to start including my experiences when completing my voluntary work. I have previously volunteered for my local Marie Curie hospice, but I want to experience a wide range of areas and work with as many different people as possible. Therefore more recently I have started volunteering for a local charity who work with disabled children.

I now spend my Friday evenings taking a group of children, most with mild disabilities, though some are severe, with the help of 8 other volunteers ice skating. I can honestly say that it has to be the most rewarding thing I have ever done, because after merely a few hours with these children you leave with a huge sense of accomplishment, knowing you have improved their day.

Obviously due to privacy for the children who I volunteer with I will not mention either there names or delve into too much detail of the conditions, as frankly I think it unnecessary. I will however include on my blog moments that have inspired me, and have taught me something new.

I find it very hard to believe that the children I volunteer with have disabilities, some as extreme as severe autism, because they are the most polite, kind and entertaining children I have ever met, who coincidentally are a thousand times better at ice skating than myself. One of the biggest lessons I have learnt from them so far is that as teenagers we have a tendency to 'sweat about the small stuff' - I believe that is the correct phrase - because these children despite their disabilities always have a smile on their face. To me they are truly inspirational and never fail to make me laugh.