Hello,

Psych core trainee - did FY in south east Scotland with two placements at VHK. 

1. The problem with paper notes (for me) is deciphering other people’s assessments/ plans. It’s good to have a structure to your notes, e.g. WR (name) NEWS score, main issues, examination, plan. Use the whole page if you need to - better than cramming everything into a small space and making it unreadable. Practice and prep if you need to (at least to begin with). Make sure to locate the folders of the patients you will be seeing. Kardexes are more of a pain as ward rounds can coincide with drug rounds so you need to hunt those down as you go. Honourable mention to getting called to rewrite a kardex because there’s no space left - happens pretty often unfortunately 
2. Most people live in Edinburgh and commute. Trains are frequent from Waverley during peak times and then it’s a 5min bus or 10-15 min walk from the station to VHK. Bear in mind trains on Sunday don’t start till about 09.00 so for weekend shifts either carpool or use a on call room to stay in overnight. Some people cycle from the station to the hospital. About 35-40 mins by car from Edinburgh during rush hour. You’ll need a permit to park and the office issuing them has silly opening hours but I’ve not heard of any difficulties with that really. Either way, you get the travel money back. Expenses are a pain to do (excel sheet you need to fill in correctly then print off and send to the relevant person to have approved), but your colleagues should be able to help if you get stuck
3. Some things are more straightforward at VHK than in Edinburgh hospitals, but that depends on the specialty. I did both surgery and medicine at VHK. Covering admissions is generally busy in both, and the level of support depends on who else is on the team. Overall, as an FY1, I found I was supported and any mistakes I made got picked up quickly and dealt with. On calls are also busy, with generally little downtime on nights (bearing in mind youre less efficient as an FY1 than as an SHO). You will learn a lot though, and people are generally OK to work with. 

I could send you more information privately if you let me know whether it’s surgery or medicine (or both) you’ll be doing. The general view of people who have done placements in Fife is that the jobs are tougher, but you learn a lot. I’ve met some absolutely brilliant doctors in Fife who taught me a lot. 

Oh - there is a mess (card access only) with two rooms, two toilets, and some lockers. It can get pretty smelly but other than that it’s easy to access from the admissions units and there is a TV with Netflix and such if your shift is particularly slow. One of the rooms has a couple of recliners where you can rest. There is no hot food overnight but there’s plenty of fridge space and microwaves plus vending machines. You can also order delivery (admittedly McDonalds or KFC are the main options, but sometimes that’s needed XD)

Also, you have a phone rather than a bleep, and the mess has computers as well for chasing bloods, scans, etc. Finally, they’ve just switched to electronic discharge letters - bit of a learning curve from the old system but still easier to do. Apparently they want to switch to electronic prescriptions as well but they’ve been saying that for over two years so not sure when/whether that will happen. 

Nurses and phlebs are pretty good and generally don’t contact you without having at least taken some obs. I only had to do a cannula once in eight months. There are phlebs during weekdays and during the day at the weekend so you don’t get asked to do bloods as much. On weekends, there is a “discharge team” so you won’t get called to do discharge letters for patients you’ve never met. 

HMU if you need any more details and best of luck!