A week in the life of a medical student
“Beep-beep beep-beep!”
It’s 6:15am on Monday morning and my alarm
wakes me up (earlier than usual!) It’s the first day of my Obs and
Gynae attachment and I have to be in Ipswich by 9am. My friend
Grace has a car and she’s offered to give me a lift. Once on the
road, I start to wake up and I enjoy watching the sun rise as we
travel east.
We collect the keys to our rooms and unload the car. We’re happy
to find the accommodation is good! We collect our timetables. I
will be spending the morning on the Early Pregnancy Unit. I’m still
weary from an early start and I’m worried that I don’t know much
about Obs and Gynae! Thankfully, the doctor is friendly and she
discusses each patient with me. Most patients have come to the
clinic because they have started to bleed during their pregnancy.
Many of them are worried that they are having a miscarriage. The
ultrasonographer checks that the fetus is alive and in the uterus
(rather than ectopic). We check that the mother is well and address
her concerns.
I quickly grab my lunch and then head up to the delivery suite
for the afternoon. The midwives are really friendly and introduce
me to a lady who has been in labour for 8h. This is her first
pregnancy. She is in a lot of pain but is very happy for me to be
there. I have never seen a delivery before and I’m not sure what to
expect! The midwife encourages me to take the pulse, blood pressure
and temperature measurements and shows me how to listen to the
fetal heart. It’s nice to feel I can do something useful! After
several hours of waiting, we start to see the top of the baby’s
head and about an hour later, the baby finally arrives. What an
amazing experience! I can’t quite get my head around the fact that
one moment there is just Mum and Dad and the next minute there’s a
baby there too!
At 8am on Tuesday morning, I meet my consultant in theatre. He
encourages me to “scrub up” so that I can stand closer to the
patient and get a better view. I watch two Caesarean sections. I’m
allowed to assist as one of the junior doctors closes the
wound.
At lunchtime, one of the registrars teaches us on “Hypertension
in Pregnancy”. It’s useful to have some formal teaching and makes a
change from learning directly from my text-book. After lunch, I go
to the ante-natal clinic. It’s a busy clinic with lots to see. One
of the midwives teaches me how to examine a “pregnant abdomen”. I
amazed that I’m able to make out the baby’s head, back and limbs.
Wow!
I attend the infertility clinic on Wednesday morning. It’s an
intense environment, with many anxious women who are desperate for
help. I’m allowed to see one of the patients on my own and I
present my findings to the consultant before going back to see her
together. I learn about the different fertility treatments that are
available and how patients can access them.
In the afternoon I attend the family planning clinic. It’s not
the most interesting afternoon but I learn about the different
forms of contraception and see some coils being fitted.
I have an early start on Thursday morning in order to get to the
handover meeting on the delivery suite at 7:30am. One of the
advantages of living on the hospital site is that I don’t have to
factor in travel time. It takes me 4 minutes to get from my room to
the delivery suite!
There isn’t much going on when I arrive but I introduce myself
to the midwives and they agree to let me know if something
interesting happens. I join the consultant’s ward-round at 10am. We
see the patients who are in labour and those who delivered the
previous day.
We have teaching at lunchtime – this time on menorrhagia. I
manage to get a quick bite to eat before heading back to the
delivery suite. I’m always convinced something exciting will happen
if I leave the ward… Typical! Two of the ladies have delivered
while I’ve been away! Things have gone quiet again so I settle down
in the corner of the ward office to do some reading. By 6pm there
are three women in labour. By chance, I manage to see all three
deliveries! The third delivery doesn’t go as planned… the baby’s
heart rate starts to drop. We can see the baby’s head so the
midwife urges the woman to keep pushing, in order to deliver the
baby as quickly as possible. Before I know it, the baby is in the
midwife’s hands… but he’s blue and floppy and he’s not crying… the
midwife panics… “Crash-bleep the Paeds!” In a rush of adrenaline, I
dash out of the room and find the number to call the Paediatric
team to the ward. When I get back to the room, the baby is
breathing. Phew! The paediatrician arrives 2 minutes later – short
of breath, having run the length of the hospital and up 10 flights
of stairs!
Time for some dinner. I’m exhausted after an early start. I
watch some TV in the doctors’ mess and then head to bed.
On Friday I’m in theatre again. It’s a “teaching list” to allow
the registrars to practise laparoscopic sterilisation. This is a
pretty boring procedure(!) and the anaesthetist offers to teach me
how to intubate patients (very exciting!) I’m pleased (and the
anaesthetist is impressed) that I manage to intubate all but one of
the other patients on the list!
We have teaching at lunchtime. I’m amazed at how much I’ve
learnt in just a few days. There is nothing timetabled for the
afternoon so we travel back to Cambridge.
I’m grateful for a lie-in on Saturday morning. It’s a beautiful
day and I go out cycling with the university cycling team. Since I
started clinical medicine, I haven’t had as much time to do sport
but it means that I look forward to my weekend rides much more!
After lunch I settle down to some work – there’s a lot of reading
to be done so I usually spend a few hours working each weekend. I
meet some friends for dinner and we have fun catching up on each
others’ news.
After church on Sunday I meet my boyfriend for lunch. We have a
relaxing afternoon – some much-needed rest after a busy week. I
have an early night ready for another busy week in Ipswich.
Being a medical student is hard work at times and it can be
physically and emotionally draining. But medicine is fascinating!
Each day there are new challenges, new experiences and new learning
opportunities. I love being made to feel part of a team and it’s
tremendously rewarding helping out and feeling you can make a
difference – even if only in a small way. I wouldn’t want to study
anything else.
Sarah Maidment (5th year medical student,
Cambridge)