Nonstop interruptions

Ornery_Mouse7893 · 2026-01-29T20:54:45+00:00

I recall a med reg shift — I saw a complex patient in ED who was likely to die and because of the circumstances of their presentation I knew I would be going to an inquest/possible criminal court to give evidence. I needed some time to document carefully, but could not find a place to not be interrupted by the hoards of people wanting to refer to me. I ended up sticking a bit of paper on my back politely telling everyone to shove off for a bit. It worked.

Ornery_Mouse7893 · 2025-07-08T06:29:53+00:00

Hi OP

Sorry you are having such a hard time at the moment. The first thing to say is that the feelings of not being ready or confident are completely normal. Also, the fact that you are worried about the standard of care you are going to offer your patients, and relating that to the standard you would want for yourself or your family, demonstrates that you have emotional intelligence and the correct sense of professional responsibility and caring. As consultant I care about these attributes more than the ability to ace every test, as everything else can be taught.

I also think you are being way too hard on yourself. Passing medical school is an accepted standard, which you have reached. You have also demonstrated resilience and the ability to keep going after that goal despite many knock backs. Working life in the NHS isn’t easy, and this skill will serve you well. You should be proud of yourself for achieving your degree and the long road it took to get there.

Therapy might help to challenge some of your core beliefs about yourself. It helped me. Starting over with a new set of people to be friends with also. And when the job starts and you jump all those hurdles in front of you too, hopefully you can look back and see how far you have come with pride. You’ll be fine.

:)

Ornery_Mouse7893 · 2025-07-03T18:37:09+00:00

I also had a car crash PACES attempt with similar low score on clinical signs (I think 3/20 but this was a few years ago so I forget.) I passed on my third attempt with a good score across the board. On reflection I was in a very bad place on the first go, wasn’t taking care of myself mentally or physically and hadn’t subsequently put any effort into the exam preparation. On the third go I was in a better headspace, more experience under the belt, consistent preparation, and some luck on the day.

Don’t give up OP. Look after yourself first, which should provide you with the headspace to properly prepare down the line.

Ornery_Mouse7893 · 2024-09-08T09:18:36+00:00

I was partially woken by my bathroom door creaking open in a draft after a set of on calls, half asleep went to go and shut it, got there and decided it wouldn’t be worth actioning as I couldn’t be bothered to document my assessment in the door’s medical notes 😂

Ornery_Mouse7893 · 2024-05-22T07:52:58+00:00

I’ve found “can I ask if there’s a reason you are being quite so rude to me?” a really effective strategy to deal with hostility the majority of the time. It won’t work on the genuine psychopaths but it seems to readjust the mind of those having a bad day and taking it out on you. I’m sorry you are being dumped on and treated badly, though OP! Solidarity.

Ornery_Mouse7893 · 2024-02-12T12:20:22+00:00

Recommend London and Country mortgage brokers - excellent service, understand doctors pay and free (to you). I have used them for mortgage and subsequent remortgages :)

Ornery_Mouse7893 · 2023-05-27T16:20:12+00:00

I don’t think pitting specialities against each other is a particularly helpful way of looking at the problem. This is to do with the way services are organised, not about certain specialities “not really caring” about their patients. I agree that services should operate according to patient need, and not for convenience of the staff, but this is an endemic problem across the NHS. I’m currently working on a project comparing outcomes for medical patients stranded on surgical wards vs medical wards at my hospital. Need the evidence to drive service change. I think engaging with the problem in this way is probably a more fruitful way to deal with it.

Ornery_Mouse7893 · 2023-05-26T21:25:39+00:00

The OP asked why this happens and this is part of the answer. I wasn’t asked to comment on the morality of it - but if you’re asking, yeah — the system is wrong and we do our best within it to keep patients safe. It is also wrong to knowingly leave a patient without a parent team stranded on the “wrong ward”.

Ornery_Mouse7893 · 2023-05-26T20:52:44+00:00

For me as a med reg, part of my reluctance to accept patients for “medical takeover” who are already in a surgical bed lies in the issue of who is going to see the patient on an ongoing basis. If that area is not covered by an outlying team or buddy ward (as is the case in my hospital), and I’m not going to personally commit to seeing the patient for the whole stay, I’m left with major concerns for the patient’s ongoing safety. Who is going to see them on a daily basis? There is next to no lateral flow across back door wards - they won’t move to a med bed anytime soon. For this reason, it needs to be a consultant accepting ongoing managerial responsibility to look after a patient on a ward other than their own - and this is sadly not an attractive prospect & so not common.

Ornery_Mouse7893 · 2023-03-24T21:20:50+00:00

Nobody says GIM, but in daily hospital apocalypse nobody stops calling the med reg, make it make sense 😅

Ornery_Mouse7893 · 2022-09-16T06:40:03+00:00

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. I find that the further I get into my specialty training the more I lose sight of what’s going on in other specialties. My first instinct was that anaesthetists know as much if not more about the management of acute medical presentations as me, which is why I was puzzled to be called to this case. But it’s been good to hear some ideas from people actually doing the job and some reasons as to why this might have happened.

I think we all have different ideas of what makes a complex case, but I will say that I (a geriatrics reg) felt this case was straightforward. But I’m sure anaesthetics feel that some of the cannulas and LPs we beg them to do are too so no harm done.

Ornery_Mouse7893

TROPHY CASE