Resting Heart Rate

Today I was informed by a first year medical student that my resting pulse rate was 68 beats per minute. Five years ago it was 62 beats per minute. Does this mean I'm slightly less fit physically then I was back then? You can't really tell by resting heart rate but its nice to know that I'm on the healthier side.

But what is not helping to keep my heart rate down is an exam induced tachycardia. Note to the examiners, if you are going to have a question asking "identify the abnormality in the ECG at question 10," then please make sure there is actually an ECG reading at question 10, as opposed to a series of True/False questions on Congestive Cardiac Failure

Irked

At school I was taught creationism before being taught about the big bang. I remember opening a science book and learning about how we all really came about. I was a bit miffed by this, I had effectively been lied to by teachers at my primary school who took it on themselves to ignore all scientific evidence in favour of some superstitious nancy pansy.

Religion is bad for children. Today I spoke to a consultant about one case she saw of a child with Austism who was home schooled because her parents were devout christians.

Is this wrong? Kids deserve to be taught stuff backed up by evidence before stuff that isn't.

On a similar theme, another consultant then mentioned how she got in trouble with other parents over santa clause. Her children knew that jolly Nick wasn't really and at christmas they always used to pretend to leave stuff out for him. Is that taking rationalism to far? I dont think so, although I don't think with father christmas its imporant either way, as those kids will still have a wonderful time at christmas.

In other news examsare looming, so expect nothing at all for a bit or a rant at how medical school get people to become very good at passing exams, rather then being doctors.

Comforting and yet Scary

Medical Studentscan be spotted a mile of, usually, as those people onthe ward trying there best to make themselves seem small and insignificant. To be honest this is a good skill to master, it can be useful when you desperately want to avoid being picked on to do something during ward based teaching.

The alternative tactic is to stand out by being really confident. If you look like you know the answer then the teaching fellow/consultant/bored FY1 who is bemused to have four/five/six medical students following him.

Anyway I digress, the point of this post is to highlight two situations showing that I am at least making progress

1)Shadowing a registrar on AMU last week when I was mistaken by an FY2 as the reg, he had assumed that the actual reg was an FY1 shadowing me

2)Mistaken as a GP trainee by one of the nurses

Progress? Am I somehow walking/talking differently to how I did last year?

Teaching

All doctors (or potential doctors) should be able to teach there subject to medical students or to other doctors. Myself and some colleagues have actually already discussed how we might be considered when we do this. Most of the girls want to be seen as kind and caring. Others are tempted to be horrible to every other student/group and nice to the rest to mess everyone around.

Informally medical students teach already. We discuss cases with our peers and go over stuff with them for exams on topics we feel confident about.

Sometimes you get the opportunity to teach clinical skills to the first/second years. Which is what I did earlier this week, on the whole it was pretty fun and it was good to see I was getting better for every session I did.

This post is just an opportunity to share an anecdote with you. Twenty odd years ago, or something like that, temperature was generally measured by use of an oral thermometer. Occasionally the tea lady would give all the patients a coffee beforehand. Poor nurse would then report that all the patients have a fever

Enjoy the weekend!

Why

What makes a good blog? Is number of followers or comments received a good indicator of how good a particular blog is? I have been looking back at my blogposts over the last nine months and wondering what is it all for? My posts seemed to be slightly longer back then, but I am unsure as to if the quality of posts has suffered as the blog ages. I started off with lots to say, but I get the feeling I ran out of things to say or ran out of steam. Although even now, I take some pride out of this blog.

I set up this blog just because I could. I enjoyed reading medical and non-medical blogs and decided to give it a go. Then people started to read it and hopefully like it. I hope you all got something out of it.

So what is the point of this blog now? Are people expecting a funny story everynow and again, is its just one more blog to check on the list? Perhaps I should start telling stories of heroism that I have performed, rescuing twenty patients from a burning hospital? And what is the point of the wider medical blogosphere? Is it to make people laugh or think? Or is it to preach to the converted about how shit governments are and illustrate the inepitudes of managers in the NHS?

Have we made a difference? Is it our job to try and change stuff? Or is it just another hobby?

Lightning

If you are asked as to what can cause a particular condition, such as cataracts, the best solution is to say two common causes and then say something obscure. Hopefully said consultant or registrar will have a sense of humour.

Here are mine for causes of cataracts . . .

1)Age-related
2)Steroids
3)Being struck by lightning

Getting Sued

If you dont want to get sued, go and work in Intensive Care. This is because everyone expects the person to die anyway. I was unaware that research had been done into which speciality faced the most litigation.

A, B and not to Bad

The Fuddled Medic is now based at hospital A, which is a ten minute walk from his house. This is a good thing, previously I was sent to hospital B which was an hours drive away. Hopefully this means that the chap who was based at hospital A, but lived next to Hospital B can enjoy a lie in to and two less cars will be on the road.

In other news my latest attachment seems quite nice. The conversation with the guy I'm working with went like this

"So, you've got exams in a few weeks haven't you?"

"Yes" replied the FM

"Well, dont stress out to much about this placement, make sure you leave yourself plenty of reading time to revise for those exams. Dont worry, we're quite chilled out here, do as much or as little as you want."

You are a legend