Internship: Term 4 – General Surgery

My fourth term was back at the main hospital doing General Surgery.

I was terrified about my surgical term. I'd heard about how unsupported you are on the wards, with your registrar stuck in theatre all day. I felt like I was about to be exposed as a really crap doctor. Imposter syndrome strikes again!

On day 1 I introduced myself to my registrar, and mentioned that I wasn't a complete newbie intern like the others. He nearly hugged me! He was studying for exams and was hoping to have plenty of time to study on the days when he wasn't in theatre, leaving me to manage the wards. I wasn't particularly thrilled about this, but it turned out fine: he was always available when I needed him. I never felt unsupported; quite the opposite. My registrar was amazing, actually - every day he'd call me at lunchtime and make me take a break, and he'd often buy my lunch. He was great with the students too.

My bosses were very good (and very nice - another myth busted!). I didn't have much to do with the bosses during the day - they did quick ward rounds in the morning and then disappeared. One of my bosses trusted my registrar to run everything and so didn't even do ward rounds - I didn't meet him until week 4 of the term! Two of my bosses were general surgeons who did elective breast and abdominal procedures (e.g. cholecystectomies and hernia repairs), and the other boss was a head and neck surgeon.

I'm not interested in surgery at all (duh), and I was worried that I'd be expected to spend a lot of time in theatre, holding retractors and being bored, and then staying back late to finish my jobs on the wards. Instead, I was only called to theatre on a few occasions, and I actually never operated with my registrar! There were always junior registrars or interested interns and residents, not to mention medical students, who were more than willing to take my place in theatre. Everyone's a winner!

This meant that I rarely did crazy long hours. We started early (7am) but if I was well-organised I could usually leave by 4:30pm. With daylight saving still in force, this meant I could enjoy my summer evenings.

The other good part about the term was the real sense of camaraderie amongst the surgical interns, residents, and registrars, and also the Anaesthetics registrars. There was a social activity at least once a week, and these have continued into the next term too.

At the end of the term, I would describe myself as an excellent surgical intern - organised, aware of the status of all my patients, available when needed in theatre, friendly to nursing staff, etc. I think I have a lot more work to do before I'd be confident calling myself a good doctor, but that'll come.

Term 5 was General Medicine (Geriatrics). I just finished the term (and internship!), and will summarise it soon.

Easter long weekend in Paris, France

It seems an appropriate time to post this, even though Easter was at the beginning of April last year.

I met Mum, my sister, and her husband in Paris for the Easter long weekend. We stayed in a fantastic apartment in the centre of Le Marais, and had a great time despite the cold and rainy end-of-winter weather.

Sacre Coeur

View from Sacre Coeur - that's the Pompidou Centre in colour

Arc de Triomphe

Ladurée, famous for macarons

Eiffel Tower

Family + Eiffel Tower

Pont Alexandre III

Notre Dame de Paris

Easter Sunday afternoon beers and some rare sunshine

The most amazing restaurant, Robert et Louise - heaven for carnivores!

See what I mean?

Jardin du Luxembourg

Next: Reims & Épernay, Champagne, France…

Lake Bled, Slovenia

A quick trip to Lake Bled in the Julian Alps, a gorgeous place, though a bit grey in the transition from winter to spring. In summer it's a huge destination for watersports; in winter it's all about the snowfields. At the beginning of April, it's fairly quiet – I did lots of walking and a bit of climbing too.

(Pro tip: In this and all other posts, click each photo to view it at a larger size.)

Lake view from the balcony of my hotel room

Walking clockwise around Lake Bled, which took all afternoon (including several stops along the way)

View of Bled from Bled Castle

Framed

Chapel inside Bled Castle – I love this

Swan Lake (Bled Castle and Church of St Martin in the background)

Taken from a boat on my way to Bled Island

Church of the Assumption on Bled Island

Lady of the Lake

Dwarfed by the mountains

Bled Island

A new day, and some more photos from my hotel room balcony

Lovely morning! (Bloody cold though)

Swan fight!

Next: An Easter long weekend in Paris, France…

Internship: Term 3 – General Medicine (rural)

My third term was at a rural hospital in Nowra doing General Medicine. Just about anything can come in under Gen Med – patients aren’t admitted under specialty teams. I really enjoyed the term. My registrar was awesome, and my bosses were great too.

Nowra is about 2.5 hours south of Sydney, and about 1 hour south of Wollongong. I stayed in hospital-provided accommodation during the week, and drove home to The Gong on weekends.

Fun fact: Nowra is my Mum’s home town, and I spent all my Christmas holidays there as a child. The house I was placed in was 4 doors down from my Nanna’s old house (she died in 1998, and it was sold). I still have aunts and uncles in the area, and it was great to catch up with them.

It was also fun being in Nowra over the Christmas/New Year period. We had a few parties and big nights out, and there was great camaraderie amongst the group of interns, residents, and registrars in medicine, surgery, intensive care, and anaesthetics.

The medicine itself was OK I guess. As an intern on a Gen Med team you’re really a glorified secretary – writing in the notes, typing discharge letters, writing medication charts, etc. I didn’t get to perform any interesting procedures, but I saw some interesting patients.

One strange coincidence was when a direct admission under one of my bosses turned out to be the mother of my GP, who lives in Sydney. It was weird talking to my GP not as my doctor, but as the doctor looking after her family member.

So I enjoyed the term and saw how it’s possible to have a Gen Med rotation that doesn’t suck. It almost made me consider doing Physician’s training. But after seeing how much junior Medical Registrars (Basic Physician Trainees or BPTs) appear to hate their lives – at least for the first few years – I don’t think I could do it. If I was thoroughly passionate about a particular area, such as Cardiology or Gastroenterology, then maybe I’d be tempted. But I don’t have a passion like that – I just want a good job and a nice life that doesn’t suck. (Yes, I know that eventually life gets good for Physician trainees – I’m just too old and not interested enough to make it through the awful years first.)

Term 4 is General Surgery. I finish at the end of this week, and will have more to share with you soon.

Ljubljana, Slovenia

I spent a couple of days in lovely Ljubljana before heading to Lake Bled. Another small city with a great vibe – shame it was so cold and rainy while I was there. I think the riverside would be fantastic during summer.

Church of the Anunciation

Looking across the Ljubljanica River to the Church of the Anunciation

Plečnik Colonnade

Ljubljanica River

Ljubljanica River

Tweet!

Dragon Bridge

Dragon Bridge with Ljubljana Castle in the background

Robba Fountain and Town Hall in Mestni trg

Looking back towards the Cathedral of St Nicholas

Doors of the Cathedral of St Nicholas

Ljubljana Castle

Chapel of St George

Fantastic pews in the Chapel of St George

View of the city from the castle (shame it was so rainy and foggy)

To escape the rain, I visited the City Museum. It was very cool! And then I found this bloke in a corridor. Don't you think he looks like The Hitcher from The Mighty Boosh (sans Polo mint)?



Next: Lake Bled, Slovenia...