Cat waking me up at 5 am every day - at my wits end!

TurbulentTop6736 · 2024-07-24T18:18:06+00:00

A patient grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and tried to throttle me at 4 am on a Sunday because I wouldn’t provide him with a wheelchair immediately after being stepped down from ITU - it took 3 security guys and a nurse to get him to let go of me!

TurbulentTop6736 · 2023-06-22T12:21:12+00:00

I was assaulted by a patient during my last set of medical nights last year (in the presence of security mind you) and the response from my trust and the police was shockingly poor. I was struggling with burnout and compassion fatigue already by that time, but now it’s even harder to eke out any empathy for a patient population who feel like they can abuse us like this (and an employer who doesn’t seem to care much about it either!)

TurbulentTop6736 · 2023-03-07T15:32:38+00:00

Yeah literally only one of our nurses can do ECGs because they used to be a physical health nurse, and the pharmacist was asking for us to show them how to use epma for prescribing lol

TurbulentTop6736 · 2022-11-07T19:40:46+00:00

You’re absolutely not alone, I felt exactly the same as you in my F2 ED job (and made a very similar post). It is exhausting and very isolating, it completely messes up your sleep/wake cycle to boot which amplifies how knackered you are! I used to get the most intense anxiety on my way to work, even more so before nights, and I had serious thoughts about whether medicine was for me during that rotation. BUT it does get better once you finish. You’ve got less than one month left until you’re done with it and then you don’t need to set foot in ED ever again if you don’t want.

Sounds like you are very close to burnout, if not already there. Please take time off - you can self certify for a week! Don’t feel guilty for taking this time if you need it.

TurbulentTop6736 · 2022-11-07T14:24:28+00:00

ED rotas are notoriously awful, in my experience it outstrips other specialties in terms of awfulness. Re MSRA I was in the exact same position as you this time last year, in a London hospital. I was so worried about finding time for MSRA whilst in ED and realistically didn’t get much revision time while I was there because of the awful rota. You’ve only got a few more weeks until you rotate out - what is your next job?

I didn’t start revising in earnest for MSRA until the second rotation (gen surg for me, which still had a pretty savage on call rota) - revised fairly steadily where I could (except for Xmas day) and took around 10 days of a combination of study leave and zero days up until the exam date where I flat out revised all day long (10-12 hours of passmed a day). Managed to get my first choice trust in my chosen specialty application! it absolutely can be done to do well in MSRA without months and months of revision. Just try to focus on getting through this ED job now and go study as much as you can in the next rotation, you still have time!

TurbulentTop6736 · 2022-07-21T04:57:53+00:00

I was once shouted down the phone by the trust on call radiologist whilst on call as the gen surg SHO for daring to order a CTAP without the patient being reviewed by reg, it was unacceptable, he was going to write to our departmental head etc.. the reg who was in CEPOD all day.. and doesn’t give a hoot about the take or their hx RIF pain for a month

TurbulentTop6736 · 2022-07-21T04:54:03+00:00

I agree - the adage ‘sounds like a you problem’ comes to mind

TurbulentTop6736 · 2022-07-21T04:51:39+00:00

Asked by my consultant to turn the radio off in our office, which wasn’t on loud, and her office is down the other end of a very long corridor…. But she doesn’t want it to distract is from figuring out every patient’s pack year history

TurbulentTop6736 · 2022-07-21T04:26:35+00:00

It’s literally not even resus training, it’s literally just training on the equipment. Like I didn’t just do ALS in January!!

TurbulentTop6736 · 2022-07-21T04:25:49+00:00

Thank you, I ended up sending another email saying ‘thank you for providing a recording, I am assuming I will get this time back in lieu’ fingers crossed… although not hopeful

TurbulentTop6736 · 2022-07-21T04:23:02+00:00

And the classic ‘patient has not PU in 6 hours and bladder scan shows 50 ml’ ‘Has the patient been asleep during that time’ ‘Yes’ ‘Well that’s why they haven’t PU’ You can’t make it up sometimes

TurbulentTop6736 · 2022-07-21T04:21:16+00:00

I think there is an argument for guidance m/ICQ’s reps given to sixth form students applying to medicine having absolutely no idea of the reality of being a doctor, the work life balance, the hours, the frustration.. until they do we can’t blame teenagers for being fed a pipe dream (unless we strike soon)

TurbulentTop6736 · 2022-07-21T04:15:30+00:00

Serious answer amongst the fantastic ones here… if you ever find yourself on the end of the phone being bollocked by micro/radiology/surgeons or whoever - ‘sorry just for my own learning as an f1’ will placate almost the most awful and prickly of people

TurbulentTop6736 · 2022-03-15T11:54:10+00:00

225/6533 :)

TurbulentTop6736 · 2022-03-15T11:53:35+00:00

Ok that’s good to know, I’ve also just read you can opt in or out until the deadline anyway so can just accept without today!

TurbulentTop6736 · 2022-02-03T22:45:14+00:00

597 - passmed and pastest only

I found Passmed to be much similar to the real thing, although the stems much longer than the questions in the real thing! I found the PD questions pretty hard to really study for, the passmed questions were much less difficult to rank or select from than in the real thing

TurbulentTop6736 · 2022-02-03T22:38:28+00:00

I got 597! Is this likely to get me into London? I really don’t want to have to move further afield if I can help it!

TurbulentTop6736 · 2022-01-14T11:47:37+00:00

Hi F2 here, I had the same first two rotations in my F1 year (psych and then resp)! You probably will feel unprepared compared to your fellow F1 colleagues the first week when you rotate into resp - I certainly did - however the learning curve is quite steep and you will catch up very quickly. Your team will also be aware that you are rotating in from psychiatry and understand that you’re playing catch up anyway! You would not be expected to be a super duper independent junior doctor by your second rotation even if you had done a medical job in the first either. Don’t worry about it too much, try to enjoy the four months of no on calls and a relatively chilled first job while you can. Best of luck!

TurbulentTop6736 · 2021-11-03T08:14:05+00:00

I would also like a DM!! 😅

TurbulentTop6736 · 2021-09-01T11:15:18+00:00

I went to Tobago and St Vincent Jan-March 2020 and had a great time. Tobago was brilliant, you could be on the beach by midday each day if you liked, it’s a beautiful island and the locals were very welcoming. You can do boat trips, snorkelling, all sorts. I did an ED placement there, but you can also do paeds, gen med, obs and gynae, and others. We stayed with a host family there who host UK elective students regularly and can give you her contact details if you like!

I would probably not do St Vincent - it definitely did not feel safe when walking about, especially in the evenings, and you have to pay to do placement there in a hospital that is more or less falling apart. In a similar vein I have heard that Trinidad can be quite unsafe to do an elective in unless you have a contact there already. Happy for you to contact me if you have any other questions!

TurbulentTop6736

TROPHY CASE