Friday, February 4, 2011

What do fourth-years do?

Five weeks into my final year of medicine, and I am still puzzling over what to do. Not in a philosophical 'what am I doing with my life' way, but more of a 'what am I actually meant to be doing right this minute' kind of way.

In the beginning I would follow the interns eagerly, doing all of the jobs they gave me - filling out medication charts, taking blood, putting in jelcos and seeing patients. And then the Professor kindly gave me an audit project and for a while I dedicated all of my time to wondering what that was all about. 

And then we went from three interns to two, so I switched back to "helping out the interns" by filling out med charts, seeing their more stable patients and fetching coffee (we no longer have time for regular post-ward round coffee breaks). Not that anybody asks me to do anything, and they always look genuinely surprised when I do something, so I'm not entirely convinced that they need me there. 

So my working hypothesis is that fourth-years do whatever they want

I'll let you know how that works out once term ends and I get my first piece of feedback for 2011.

1 comment:

pAnDaR~ said...

I THINK this is where you pretend to be the doctor, with full consultations from your supervising one. ahem.