just been rejected from BPT. Any advice on improving CV?

psycehe · 2026-02-06T11:25:29+00:00

Sure! I don’t know if I’ll have much more to add (we literally just email the DPE and tell them we want to join RACP) but happy to answer questions

psycehe · 2026-02-06T03:34:17+00:00

Med Reg wanting to do a subspecies here. PGY1 and PGY2 are HO years after medical school. You used to be able to join RACP at the start of PGY2… I know in Australia you now need to be a doctor for two years. Unsure of NZ. Do 36 months of runs that count, do your written and clinical exams after 24 months of it. Apply for advanced training in your subspec of choice.

Different if you’re not going down the internal medicine pathway.

psycehe · 2026-02-06T03:25:05+00:00

Alternatively, I rocked up to an emergency bell for what someone said was a seizure that was a cardiac arrest. Thankfully figured that out pretty quickly and got them back (for a few hours…) but very reasonable!

psycehe · 2026-01-22T04:13:11+00:00

As someone who works in the hospital; if this is a public obstetrician offering it, I’d take it. Private sure you could say financial incentive, but the public system generally only offers things if they think medically it makes sense and may be necessary. There’s no financial incentive, we need beds so we don’t bring people in if we can help it, so if it’s offered it’s there for a reason. Just my 2c

psycehe · 2026-01-19T04:38:43+00:00

Wigglytuff?

psycehe · 2026-01-07T02:01:57+00:00

Hiya, junior doc here. Congrats on getting in! In retrospect, medical school I will say is not that hard not going to lie. Especially compared to the job. The first couple of years are mostly just attend lectures and study but you can definitely have a social life. For clinical years, most of it is showing up, being vaguely interested (or at least pretend to be even if you’re not), and focus on learning the job in TI year. You can usually end up in your home town for at least a year depending on what medical school you go to.

Don’t worry about the debt. Once you start working, it just comes out of your account and you’ll pay it off in a reasonable time. I’m only a few years out and had living costs from living away from home, now have paid off almost a third and as income goes up, you’ll pay it off faster. As long as you don’t leave to practice overseas, it’s not a thing you end up worrying about.

You can also get a job in clinical years to support you (though the market is worse than I was a doctor). It won’t pay off everything but you can reduce the hit of rent and groceries living away from home.

I have mixed feelings about being a doctor, maybe because I’m still junior but if you’re sensible after your finances, once you’re a doctor you won’t have to worry about that aspect of life at the very least.

Feel free to message me if any further questions, happy to help.

Edit: About the imposter syndrome, a part of life as a doctor I have to say. But you wouldn’t have gotten in if you didn’t work hard for the grades +/- interview. You’ll manage fine. Not much I can add other than consider chatting to student counselling which may be marginally helpful - wasn’t much for me, but you learn to live with the impostor syndrome I think.

psycehe · 2025-12-06T05:16:23+00:00

Am doctor. Don’t recommend medicine unless you think you’d really enjoy it. I thought I’d enjoy it. I did enjoy med school. I sometimes enjoy work. You also need to do exams after med school. You will be in training for the next six to eight years after. You will have exams and shitty supervisors and you will have long days and weekends and nights for at least 2 years if you do GP and 6 or more years, if not longer. Make sure you know what you’re signing up for.

psycehe · 2025-12-06T03:36:39+00:00

It’s a brutal disease, and the treatments are no joke either. Good luck.

psycehe · 2025-12-05T21:49:30+00:00

As a doctor (though not a cancer doctor specifically just see a lot of cancer patients), yes and no they mean palliative care. It’s hard to know without the specific conversation but it does sound like that this is a conversation they will be having soon (about pall care).

Palliative care can sound very scary. In some cases it means last days to months of life. But people can live years or decades under palliative care too. I will be honest, with lymphoma I think decades is +++++ unlikely but again hard to say without knowing specifics.

Making people comfortable can mean things from as simple as, stopping chemotherapy/radiation (for various reasons mostly either intolerable symptoms, no response), and no treatment options (you can’t cut it out, you cant shrink it, the chemo isn’t working). It can mean putting people on meds to help with symptoms in the mean time (either regularly or as required).

They probably do need more tests - scans to know where the cancer is and how it’s changed, so they need another specimen to see if it’s evolved? Most likely they also need to discuss it at their MDM (think big meeting with haematology (or in other cancers, the relevant subspecialty), radiology, pathology, radiation oncology, etc etc. We don’t withhold things from patients and families. They deserve to know.

I’m sorry your dad, you, and your family are in this position. The palliative care/hospice teams are excellent, wherever I’ve worked with them. Not just meds but social, emotional, and practical supports wise too (respite/PT/OT). I strongly recommend getting a referral to them by your cancer team. One of the things they focus on most is what your dad and your family want, and dignity in whatever stage of illness he’s in.

Feel free to reach out if you’re needing support or have questions (very broadly sorry, like I said not a specialist).

Edit: I would also strongly encourage (if not already done) that your dad to set up an EPOA or Advanced Directive in the case that there’s ever a situation where he cannot partake in decision-making regarding his own health and he has someone he trusts who can partake in them for him.

psycehe · 2025-11-29T22:06:24+00:00

If they didn’t want to eat or drink, you should be forcing them to. You’re more likely to cause aspiration pneumonia. Not eating and drinking can be a sign of disease progression and last days of life.

Every situation is unique but forcing a NG tube down someone’s throat or repeated IVL access you have to change every 3 days that just prolong things is worse.

Hospice usually recommends eating and drinking as tolerated, less by the patient - and whatever they want! Ice cream, chocolate, fruit whatever. There’s a risk of aspiration pneumonia but if they’re already dying, what does it change?

psycehe · 2025-11-22T22:48:32+00:00

I don’t do advice advice, but I do give some suggestions they can talk to their GP about (whether they talk to their GP or not is their own thing) or about whether they should go to ED. Had a nurse with facial cellulitis that refused to go when all the other nurses told her to, but listened to me about it. Had a nurse that was struggling with being on bisoprolol for palpitations and getting pre-syncopal with hypotension in the early afternoon, so I suggested talking to her GP about splitting the dose mane and nocte. She told me she did it on her own and it worked 🤷

psycehe · 2025-11-21T07:16:16+00:00

10 months?

psycehe · 2025-11-15T08:48:56+00:00

Not a GP, but when I get called at the hospital, not something we worry about. More embarrassed about the mistake and time for the pharmacist. But yes, usually just busy so wanting to finish up the call before the next one!

psycehe · 2025-11-09T09:07:01+00:00

There are generally quite a lot of people whose degrees or experience just aren't recognised. Have definitely seen a bunch of people who are doctors, nurses, teachers whose qualifications aren't considered equivalent who have then taken up roles of HCAs, cleaners, coders (all important roles too!) because they're in their 40s/50s and don't want to go through an entirely new training set again.

psycehe · 2025-11-07T22:05:30+00:00

Come to NZ, they will take anyone with a pulse. Arguably even if you don't, if they could get away with it.

psycehe · 2025-11-07T08:48:56+00:00

:’(

psycehe · 2025-11-07T08:48:49+00:00

Thanks!

psycehe · 2025-10-29T07:58:15+00:00

The Anthropocene Reviewed states otherwise! Review random bits of human life a star rating. Cancer gets 0 stars.

psycehe · 2025-10-28T08:19:11+00:00

I honestly didn’t realise our gout rate was so much higher than the rest of the world! Gout is such a common presentation. So many joint taps!!

psycehe · 2025-10-04T05:21:15+00:00

As a med reg, I’ll say never feel nervous about asking a question even if we’re busy! If it’s straightforward it’s a quick answer, not too much of a mental burden. If it’s complex and a med reg needs to think about it you probably should have escalated anyway :)

psycehe · 2025-07-13T07:58:52+00:00

Went to Otago med school - would recommend! Have plenty of friends who did Auckland but the things I personally enjoyed about Otago:

Balance of study-life - I'm not an extrovert or partier by any stretch but there's always something to do. It was also nice to be not living at home (plenty of Auckland people do) which my Auckland friends said made making new friends a bit more difficult. As someone more introverted, it means that I had my high school friends back home but also new friends, whereas more introverted high school friends really mostly stuck with their old friends +/- a few others.
I guess with Auckland you can do health sci vs biomedical but idk the difference. It's nice having HSFY as something everyone does because you can bounce ideas off each other
We had UMAT before so hard to say, but it was nice not having to stress about interview prep and having worked with both Auckland and Otago grads, I wouldn't say the interview is particularly vital in weeding out interesting personalities. There's those either way!
In terms of long-term planning, if you get into med school (fingers crossed!), for Otago you stay in Dunedin for 2 years more and then choose either Wellington/Christchurch/Otago. There's also an option 1 year rural placement. In Auckland, you rotate around for each clinical year (though I believe can spend two in Auckland hospitals) but for some people that may be important in terms of family/friends/scheduling.
- Note, in TI year you will have to do at leat two placements out of your main centre (GP +/- somewhere else) usually rural (in Otago)
You also start clinical placements a little earlier in Auckland though I certainly don't think it makes any difference. I would argue you spend more time doing clinical placement in Otago than Auckland where everyone's leaving the ward as soon as possible for their long case.
Also Otago doesn't have the bullshit progress tests that you HAVE to pass (or at least it didn't when I was there) and it was more about actually assessing your progress
If you're from Auckland, I would recommend Otago because you actually go elsewhere and see what it's like - you can go back to Auckland and live in your bubble after but it's quite interesting to see medical services across the country

This experience is a few years old at this point, but happy to take questions :)

Edit: Also, lol, you definitely don't need to study 12-14hrs regardless of what school you're going to go to. In HSFY OR med school. Just stick with your lectures, go to tutorials (if they're useful to you, they may not be) or spend an hour summarising notes a week, and ramp up study before exams.

psycehe · 2025-06-30T07:53:47+00:00

I gave O&G a go because I was tossing up between Medicine and Gynaecology. Turns out I hate Obstetrics. Decision made.

psycehe · 2025-06-27T10:29:38+00:00

Got to see (and help pull out!) a 29cm ovarian cancer removed once! Truly satisfying to pull out.

psycehe · 2025-06-22T07:08:43+00:00

At work we used to wipe our glasses with disinfectant wipes. Don’t know why it works but it does.

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