I just finished my Orthopaedic (Or-tall-pee-dick) rotation. 6 weeks of it in total. Overall it is a good experience. For this rotation i was based at Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH), the largest hospital in South Australia and possibly the best in South Australia.
RAH in the morning at 7.15am
When i first started my orthopaedic rotation, i was happy as i would have more chance to talk to patients and the best part of this rotation was you get to help the interns. You help the interns with blood taking, checking on how the patient is progressing and do IV cannulas. Cool right. Its like you are the doc checking on your patient's progress. Sometimes i took a full history and write it in the case notes, but usually it was already written hahahahahaha (Just got too much time, so decided to do something to kill time).
Then there was those Clinics that you have to attend. Either you sit and follow the registrar around or you act like you are the doctor and see the patient and present it back to them. I did the latter most of the time, and i enjoyed it. Instead of following the registrar around which i would most certainly yawned 20 times in 30 minutes and closed my eyes for a rest every 15 minutes. I would rather choose to see the patient, present it to them and learn from them.
Finishing with the clinics and ward work, the next section is tutorial and "micro' teaching. The consultants were very keen on teaching and i really love them. Mr Pohl and Mr Chehade are two of the consultants that love to teach. I would miss them. Tutorial was mainly theoretical stuff which you could just flip open the books and read them yourself. But paying attention on the tut even though you could read it at home is good too, cause you will learn how to manage those conditions base on their opinions (but i usually just want it to be over quickly so that i can go home).
Next is the theatre. I didn't get to scrub in this time. Oh well i don't really enjoy scrubbing in as a student anyway. Its just annoying to change your clothes & wear the protective wears (mask, and the head thingy). Then if you want to scrub in you have to wash your hands and arms with soap 3 times, gown and glove and stand there holding those equipments and pray you don't fall asleep.
Ward work is more fun. Take bloods, see patient to take history (you can practise for exam at the same time), put in an IV cannula. Heck me and one of my friends from another group always fight for it hahahahahaha.
Oh and there was the ward rounds and consultant rounds. Ward rounds are fast (like extremely fast). The first day i did it, i didn't even step into the room and they were all walking out to another room. Basically they finish ward round in 30 mins for 27 patients (average time spend is 1 min for each patient), then they have coffee which they will buy for you if you want (i usually decline la duh. being humble ok).
Consultant round was pretty much easy. Just hold up the x-ray film for the consultants. If they want to have a better look, pass it to them. Take it back when they were done and keep it away. No case presentation, no questions asked.
Oh well ortho is over, now i have to pray that i pass this rotation. PRAY HARD-HARD.
Cheers to those who are still following this boring blog!!!
