A promotion!!
Well, not so much a promotion as extra responsibility. I'm now 3rd On-call at Queen's hospital Burton on Trent. This essentially means that I'm looking after the novice anaesthetist when (s)he's on call, but I'm also an extra pair of hands or a second brain for intensive care and maternity anaesthetists alike.
Yesterday I finished my first week of nights in this new role, and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm told that other 3rd ons have just confined themselves to sitting in the coffee room ready to bail out the newbie in times of trouble. I've never been one to sit still for too long, so I found myself helping out in theatre (the newbie actually told me to sit in the coffee room by the end of the week!), helping to sort out the critically ill folk on the ward with the ITU SHO (who was a non-anaesthetist so needed some extra skills anyway), and even on the maternity unit - they were so busy over the week that I found myself demonstrating labour epidurals to the novice quite a bit! It was great to feel needed by all three members of the team, and I was able to coordinate a little too. I'm sure the consultants felt the benefit, as I was able to keep them in bed all week!
The new job role has been tiring though, and I'm trying to get over a stinking cold, I'm just about there, being able to sleep in chunks longer than 2.5-3 hours has made the difference I think.
The other major change is that I'm now flying with the air ambulance. I'm observing the docs in the prehospital setting in order to go solo and do it myself in the near future. Having missed out on an ED job, and prioritising the FRCA over other qualifications has meant there is a lot of work to do before I can go it alone. I'm spending next week in the ED minors, to learn how to manage fractures and minor wounds, and I've enrolled in all the life support provider courses I can get into - ATLS, ALS, APLS, and MIMMS! So many manuals, so little time!
Yesterday I finished my first week of nights in this new role, and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm told that other 3rd ons have just confined themselves to sitting in the coffee room ready to bail out the newbie in times of trouble. I've never been one to sit still for too long, so I found myself helping out in theatre (the newbie actually told me to sit in the coffee room by the end of the week!), helping to sort out the critically ill folk on the ward with the ITU SHO (who was a non-anaesthetist so needed some extra skills anyway), and even on the maternity unit - they were so busy over the week that I found myself demonstrating labour epidurals to the novice quite a bit! It was great to feel needed by all three members of the team, and I was able to coordinate a little too. I'm sure the consultants felt the benefit, as I was able to keep them in bed all week!
The new job role has been tiring though, and I'm trying to get over a stinking cold, I'm just about there, being able to sleep in chunks longer than 2.5-3 hours has made the difference I think.
The other major change is that I'm now flying with the air ambulance. I'm observing the docs in the prehospital setting in order to go solo and do it myself in the near future. Having missed out on an ED job, and prioritising the FRCA over other qualifications has meant there is a lot of work to do before I can go it alone. I'm spending next week in the ED minors, to learn how to manage fractures and minor wounds, and I've enrolled in all the life support provider courses I can get into - ATLS, ALS, APLS, and MIMMS! So many manuals, so little time!
posted by Michael @ 1:11 PM
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