Happy Monday!
I hope you have all had a wonderful weekend, it’s my 5th week of my 3rd and final term of 1st year, but the fourth week of teaching. Firstly I cannot believe how quick the academic year has gone, secondly, I can already tell after the past few weeks that this term is going to be super busy.
Student Placement: Immersion Week 5
I’ll be talking more about how this term goes academically as we also have final exams and OSCE’s this term which will be my first time doing. The focus of this blog post, however, is my fifth immersion week. I wrote about my first immersion back in October and haven’t shared much about them since. COVID meant that placement had several virtual sessions rather than patient contact. This has been the first immersion week since restrictions have eased so we had more patient contact and got to practice venepuncture amongst other clinical skills.
A bit of background before I start recounting the week though. My course champions early patient contact and this begins from week 7. Immersion weeks are week-long practice within a primary GP practice. We are assigned one practice for the whole 6 weeks. This lets us familiarise ourselves with the practice, the patients and members of staff. I was based in Maidstone, so I had to get accommodation, kindly supplied by the university. Due to COVID, I stayed in a hotel, which was nice but it also means surviving on taking out for the week. As the weeks have gone by I have tried to eat healthier each time I go, as the novelty of a food tab on university wearied away.
Every immersion week (placement) has a similar layout, below is a table detailing what my typical week looks like. There can be variations week on week, depending on what is going on in the practice, including the opportunity to shadow other healthcare professionals such as the practice nurse, physiotherapist, administrative staff and healthcare assistants.
Each week we also have a theme of the week that will be somewhat related to the module that we are studying. During our 5th immersion week, the theme was ‘chest pain’. I feel fortunate in that, my GP educator always makes sure to get 1-2 cases relating to the theme of the week into practice.
Clinical Skills
Some of the clinical skills I got to practice this time around are:
History taking – which is when you try to glean as much information as possible from the patient to get an understanding of what is going on with them. You always start with broad questions and narrow down as you get closer to coming up with differentials (possible diagnoses).
Venepuncture – which is when you take whole blood from a patient to test for different things such as thyroid function or white blood cell count.
Cardiovascular examination – this is an extensive physical examination that aims to identify problems in the cardiovascular system which may need further testing or examining.
Out of all of the skills I got to practice I found venepuncture the most nerve-wracking. Thankfully one of the GP’s was very keen on lending his arm from practice before I tried on an actual patient. It felt surreal doing this procedure and if I’m honest a big moment of realisation that I’m here in med school!
Final Thoughts
I believe one of the things that makes the learning process on placement much easier is having people who are willing to teach. eager and interested student, you have the perfect environment to learn a lot and grow more confident in the foundational skills that will likely carry you throughout the rest of the degree.
In about 3 weeks, I’ll be preparing for my final immersion week and I’ll also be submitting my portfolio. The portfolio we keep throughout the year is a place where we reflect on patient encounters and get clinical skill sign-offs. It will be great to see over the years how my portfolio develops.
Leading up to my next immersion week, I have a very busy timetable, so being organised and keeping on top of tasks is crucial. In the coming weeks, I’ll be discussing more about how I did and didn’t keep on top of things so that you can take from it what you find useful.
Until next time,
Koko
