Wannabe Medic

My UKCAT is booked for next Thursday. I am feeling very anxious about it despite my KAPLAN course. The KAPLAN course is  a rip off, there is no denying it. But if your like me, you just don't care as long as you can get whatever information you can... I just hope I get above the 650 mark, and if I get above the 700 mark well, blow me I'd be over the moon. This was the week I had the horrendous set of shifts and today I was feeling so rough I abandoned work all together mid-shift.I am booked to work till Friday. I am weighing up whether or not to call in sick tomorrow. On one hand I am only on an "Early" 0700-1400, which doesn't happen very often. On the other hand, I am  exhausted.  I really need some time to get myself together, and I'd rather not have to do that later on this week when I'm trying to prepare for the UKCAT. I also handed in my notice and to my surprise, my line manager was so nice about it. He said he thought this might happen, that th...

Yesterday, I rocked up to work to find I was the only HCA on. The other 2 had called in sick. We were a nurse down too. In short, I was fucked. But thankfully, a neighboring ward lent us a HCA to give me a hand. She was incredible, inspirational, outstanding at her job - generally and genuinely fantastic. It's well known that most people want you to be successful, just not too  successful. Or as successful as themselves. This lady, Carmel was the complete opposite. I began explaining about how I was hoping to apply to medicine this year and immediately she was behind me. "It's fantastic that you've decided to work as a HCA for some experience. Good for you. More wannabe doctors should do it. You sound intelligent - you've also got a really nice way with the patients, you will go far. I can see it already. I've worked in hospitals with other HCA's that then went on to become doctors and you can tell the difference by far. You remind me so much of another...

Today I completed my 40th hour of driving lessons. I am literally so close to passing it unnerves me...so there I was excited to be booking my test. And guess what? The next available date is in NOVEMBER. What the hell?! (I've also suddenly just realised that my test date I've booked is actually the same day I start at my local hospital...I'm going to have to change it ! :S) I have been ploughing on ahead with the UKCAT revision which is all good. I do feel like I'm getting better which is always a positive sign... So far I feel and have always felt that VR was my best section. There have been countless examples of students doing exceptionally high on every section but  the VR - so I don't know whether I will actually do as well as I practise. QR is my worst. I just don't think that fast and I have a natural tendency to check my answers which eats up time. What I must  remember on test day is: any question with too much information / looks difficult, guess...

Whenever feeling anxious, upset or generally crappy - plan. I love planning, it gives me a focus. You'll have noticed from my last post that I am getting a bit fed up at work... so I have been planning the rest of my gap year. This is the plan: 1. I move to the big ass hospital which is much closer to home in November. This means I need to hand in my resignation at the medium size - 2 and a half hour journey away hospital by the end of this month. This will hopefully mean that I enjoy work a bit more, because I won't be dreading the travelling to and from work and the days will be significantly shorter. 2. I have booked lots of annual leave off in October (bit cheeky to do so when I'm leaving so soon I know!) so will hopefully have passed my practical driving test and will be driving around visiting friends as they settle into Uni. 3. I begin saving for my travelling plans with planmygapyear.co.uk. I am thinking I will go to Sri Lanka and volunteer for 4 weeks, do the ...

Night shifts this week: fine when you have at least 4 staff on. Since it was my first nights, coworkers were really lovely and even gave me a 2 hour break to sleep! Plus, the ward isn't too heavy atm besides one challenging patient who pretty much needs 1-to-1 support. There's a lot of cleaning in it, cleaning cammodes, obs machines, steady's but you can power through that in an hour. Then there's the sitting around which is fine and quite a bonding experience if you have other chilled staff on with you, but if you don't have anyone to talk to, it is all too easy to fall asleep. (Which I did at 4am this morning!) Pros Basically a lot of sitting around then the ward is quiet Bond and have a laugh with other coworkers quite easily Take-outs A 2 hour nap  Cons Absolute hell when the ward is heavy You'll have far less staff than the day to cope, and often your doing all of the HCA duties on your own Dementia patients can really str...

I just passed my theory driving test (woo!) and I cannot wait to pass my practical. It's taking the piss really now, i've spent a fortune trying to just-get-it-done, but it's not happening. Patience, hargh. Not being able to drive means I'm still spending 2 hours each way to get to and from the really-far-away-hospital job. This is getting exhausting. I've been doing it for about 6 weeks now, and I really don't know if I can muster up the strength to do it for much longer. I'm taking an occupational health appointment for a really-close-hospital on Monday, so hopefully as soon as that's in the all clear I'll move hospitals. Quite frankly, I cannot go on getting up at 0430 and coming home at 2200 when my shift is 0730-2000. As well as the travelling, the job is also getting quite draining. Part of it is the 0730-2000 shifts I'm doing. The "Early" shifts (0730-1400) fly by, and I really quite like them. In the end, this isn't the ...