VICDOC Autumn 2023 - Magazine - Page 53
T
hat's how I would have liked to
start this article, had it been true.
Three years ago, I felt uneasy and
disquieted at the idea of being halfway
through medical school. I didn't imagine
graduation and starting an internship
could feel anything other than surreal
and apprehensive.
But now, after having been sidelined
from placement during a global pandemic,
and (for me) a year away from clinical
medicine, I feel satisfied with what I've
achieved in medical school, and ready to
be moving forward. “Sorry, I can't do that,
I'm just the medical student”, once a
reassuring fallback, has become tiring,
while “Sure, put their feet up, recheck the
blood pressure and I'll come review them”
is, for now, new and exciting.
It is refreshing to be able to take what
I've learned and apply it to patient care –
even if it is just to rechart an insulin order.
This is not to say, however, that I have
felt confident per se starting my internship.
In the grand scheme of things, I am acutely
aware that I know very little. This had
weighed on my mind, and I had anticipated
that knowledge gaps would be my biggest
challenge moving into internship. As
an example, the first time I prescribed
a medication on my own initiative was
for a stable ward patient with essential
hypertension and persistently elevated
blood pressure – a scenario that I'm sure to
most VICDOC readers is quite unexciting.
From medical school, I of course had “book
knowledge” of first-line antihypertensives
and their textbook indications – but how
hypertensive is hypertensive enough for
me, a newly minted intern, to prescribe
someone a medication for possibly the rest
of their life? For learning opportunities like
these, I've been grateful to have supportive
residents, registrars and consultants – indeed,
it was actually my consultant who talked
through the hypertension case with me!
It is refreshing to be able
to take what I've learned
and apply it to patient
care – even if it is just to
rechart an insulin order.
-
VI CD O C AUTU M N 202 3
53