Semi-Responsible Bean

I love Peninsula.  Just when I was starting to panic a little that everything was getting on top of me SSU comes along and I get a chance to breathe which is nice.  Other people seem to be stressing about coming up with a title for their essay so they can get started but my facilitator doesn't seem too bothered about us getting to the stage where we are ready to come up with a title yet.  So I have a few days to just relax and do what is for me, a bit of microbiology revision.  So today I had my first lie-in in ages :)  Awesome.

Also, today I had a little bit of a taste of proper medical decision making, which was a little weird to be honest.  I was at work at the GP's on the front desk for the second time ever, under supervision taking the phone calls.  I kept having phone calls from patients wanting appointments for the same day, of which there weren't any left.  From taking a description of the problem I had to decide if they needed a call from the Doctor which could turn into a home visit or late appointment if necessary, or an appointment later on in the week. I know that this is small fry compared to what I will be faced with, but having so little experience and faced with a crying mother on the phone because her toddler still has a fever from yesterday when the Dr saw them, I found it quite strange to try and strip away her emotion from what she wanted me to do, logically assess the situation and balance that with how annoyed the Dr might be with me if I keep adding appointments to the end of their clinic.  Luckily I had my boss next to me who was really patient with me as I consulted with her on every case like that, and the magic words "Sorry, I'm new to this, I'm in training, I'll just check" to brandish.  I honestly have no idea how the receptionists with no medical training at all handle those sorts of things, because it felt a bit like being a triage nurse.  I guess it just comes with time.

I learnt a secret the other day I'll let you in on.  When I first got my stethoscope, obviously the first thing I did with it is put it round my neck.  Poking around on some other blogs I've seen some of the older medics and Dr's laughing at the young ones wearing the steths round their necks.  However, no one will ever tell you why it looks silly, or where you're supposed to put it.  The secret apparently is that if you keep it round your neck it gets warm, and if the tubing gets warm repeatedly it gets stiff and may even snap.