Working as an F1 doctor

Hello and happy new year!

I am back from a blogging hiatus. It turns out being a doctor keeps you quite busy.

I am currently on my second block of F1 which is geriatrics, after a first four months of Orthopaedics.
I loved Orthopaedics! Everyone was providing me with horror stories of managing 60 dying patients alone as my seniors bullied me, but luckily this was not my experience at all. I had a fab team and I got on very well with the other juniors. Yes, the Reg's perhaps weren't the best with medical problems, but they were useful for Ortho problems and very nice to us all. I got quite a lot of time in theatre and in clinic, and I really feel like surgery is more for me. I enjoy the management side of things, being in theatre, the practical skills such as pulling a joint, and also that you often know exactly what's wrong with your patients.
Whilst Geriatrics has been lovely with a very supportive team, I don't particularly enjoy the unselected medical take, trying to pick apart why exactly a patient has come into hospital, and then after multiple investigations diagnosing '1) UTI, 2) Delirium secondary to UTI'...
Having said that, I am learning lots on this block and there is definitely a we're-all-in-this-together atmosphere with medical teams, especially during my 13h christmas eve shift on take.

I have seen some interesting cases such as encephalitis, pericarditis, CNS lymphoma, amongst others,  but still unsure if that beats an open tib/fib fracture.

Everyone says, and it's true, that being an F1 is a massive (seemingly endless) learning curve. I have definitely felt this - remembering my first day nervous as a kitten on the ward round, sweating in the 35C heat wave and nervous I would forget everything. With each ill patient, with each new scenario, I feel more confident and more settled in.
Not to say I am now some amazing doctor! I still have lots of unsure moments, and lots of times when I feel wholly out of depth and stressed, but I'm definitely improving and slowly getting there.

Some of my colleagues have been having tough times and getting very stressed - remember to look after yourselves out there.

Looking forward to the rest of F1, I mainly feel quite excited! I really like my hospital, it's small and nice and supported. I'm going to start thinking about speciality exams and all that other stuff, a pretty scary prospect. And hopefully the moments where I feel overwhelmed and terrified will become less often...

Happy 2019 to everyone!