My Week At Medical School - Wednesday.

7.55: Alarm goes off. I feel rather nice that I'm waking up when the sun has already risen. Have breakfast and get ready with a smile on my face.

8.40: Leave to catch the train. Half way to the trains station my shoes start rubbing. I haven't worn them for about a year and I was sure they were comfy. Comfortable shoes are vital for a good day at uni. Sore shoes always cause me to get grumpy. Nothing worse than spoiling the fun of seeing patients with achey feet.

9.30: Get to uni early because of erratic train times so have a cup of tea and a chat with some uni chums.

10.00: Off for teaching on one of the wards. We get to see and examine 3 really friendly and helpful patients. It's amazing how much everyone's examination teachnique has improved since we started a couple of months ago. I remember thinking I'd never feel confident doing it and now I completely don't mind examining a patient with other people watching because I'm starting to think that I know what I'm doing. All the steps of the examination also mean a lot more to me now that I've seen most of the signs on patients and thought through them more. My teaching group gets a round of applause from the nurses on the nursing station because unbeknown to us they were spying on us and noticed that every one of us washed our hands before and after each patient. Go us!

11.30: My last case presentation of the year... hurrah! We got started late because of a meeting in the room. Kindly the people having a meeting left us a box of mini flapjacks and mini chocolate cornflake cakes to make up for having to start late. Yum yum yum. Had a bit of an internal panic when my titles weren't animating right in powerpoint but it went well overall and I got a nice high mark. Presentations are another example of how my confidence has soared since starting clinics at the end of September. At first I was really nervous at presenting and now I don't get nervous in the slightest.

13.00: Grab some food and head off for a big trek between two campuses.

14.00: Had an hours practice session at taking blood from plastic arms. Although I've got a lot of practice on real people coming up it's vital to know how to take blood from plastic arms for my practical exams (OSCEs). We also need practice at just using vaccutainers with a needle as opposed to taking blood using a vaccutainer attached to a butterfly, because although as a rule butterflies are used on patients, just the ordinary vaccutainers are used in exams.

15.00: A demonstration from an FY2 on respiratory examinations. Very useful as she graduated from my uni so knows what they look for in OSCEs. Also useful as I haven't had much of a chance to practice. Almost forgot my nice stethascope in a pile of not so nice ones.

16:00: A different FY2 showed us all cardiac exams. By this time I was getting a little tired, so probably didn't pay as much attention as I should have. I'm not too worried about this because I've now done probably near 50 cardiac examinations and feel pretty confident with them. Granted I need to practice more before exams, but I think I just need more practice as opposed to more instruction.

16.40: Got to leave at a reasonable time. Hobble to catch the train and then hobble home.

17.10: Get home and have a cup of tea. Read the paper curled up on the sofa. Think a little about what I'd like for dinner.

17.40: Cook a lovely dinner of garlicy chicken and mushrooms with pasta and spinach. I feel really good today because I've had a little more time to myself. I even do the washing up without a grumble.

18.40: Chill out in front of the TV. I know I have some work to do for my special study module tomorrow but I'm not in too much of a panic. I really need to unwind so I'll probably try and get it done while watching a bit of telly over the evening. Thankfully it shoudn't need too much brain power.

Lily xXx