#foundation year

This week, Jillian shares some of her favorite pieces that she created this year in "End of My Foundations Year"

Hi everyone! I can’t believe the end of the semester is already here; by the time this is posted, it will officially be summer! I’m looking forward to being home this summer for a much needed break – for beach days, vacations, and getting to see my friends and family. Starting my first year of college, especially during a pandemic, was difficult, but I was able to push through it. So, with my…

Doctors are very superstitious.

They’re also kind of funny, if a little morbid.

Everyone’s just trying to do their job and look out for their patients, sometimes their opinion on what’s best for your patient will conflict with yours. 

With that in mind, Radiologists aren’t the spawn of satan... they just won’t blast people with a decade’s worth of radiation in a half hour bonanza if you don’t give them a very good reason to. 

Kindness pays dividends and will get shit done in a hospital like you wouldn’t believe.

Nurses are a gift and if you show them love they’ll move mountains for you.

The ward clerk knows everything about everything and everyone.

The ward pharmacists will save you from accidentally killing approximately 7 of your patients per day.

Scrubs lied to you. Surgeons aren’t the jocks, the Physios are.

Take things like TEPs, EoLs, MCAs and DoLS seriously. It’s possible to assess someone who can only shake their head and blink in response to questions as having full capacity to make decisions about their healthcare, so if you have to deprive someone of their right to free will regarding what happens to their body, you better be sure they’re genuinely unable to give a reasoned decision themselves. 

Take time to listen to families and friends. If they’re angry it’s usually because they’re worried about someone they love and nobody is telling them anything.

It’s hard. Really hard. Physically you’re going to give yourself a subclinical AKI pretty much every single day (if you ever bother to sit down and work it out, which I have) and emotionally... to say that it feels like you’re on a rollercoaster that’s hurtling downwards and your safety bar’s just flown up without warning would be an understatement.

You get through it. Every day ends. Every patient is discharged one way or another. Friends help, colleagues help, being alone sometimes helps. We’re all in it together. 

Today's a day free from uni for me and that means catching up on chemistry~

I'm discovering anew the joys of doing notes by yourself, nothing else puts me at such ease 10/10

Here’s a link for the BMJ article that helped me prepare for my first set of night shifts!

https://www.bmj.com/content/360/bmj.j5637/infographic

https://www.bmj.com/content/360/bmj.j5637.full