Wannabe Medic

So yesterday I did another shift at the sports ground. Today, it's not even half two in the afternoon, and I am wondering what an earth I did before I began work at the hospital for all of these hours. I honestly don't know - I wouldn't say i'm bored , just confused. Suddenly I have some time on my hands, and I'm not sure what I used to do with it! Anyway following my pre-interview rejection from Keele, I asked for feedback way back in April, and they've only just gotten back to me. Apparently this was the farce: Feedback form on my personal statement I disagree with many of them, namely a, d, h, and i. I can't really argue too much on the others like g and j, but nevertheless I am confident that I should have been on max points for those mentioned. It's frustrating because personal statements are so subjective, and are always risky university choices. Ah well. Once this application cycle has finished I will upload the statements for all to read a...

These past 2 days / shifts have been exhausting, and yet I'm almost looking forward to my next one. Working on the wards has been a completely refreshing experience, re-instigated my drive to apply for medicine, and also a complete laugh. My first shift I arrive, looking for An who is another HCA and is going to show me the ropes on how to do things. First thing is the handover - as a HCA, nearly everything the handover nurse is saying is irrelevant to me. What I want to know is how much assistance the patient needs, whether they have a catheter, are they able to sit / stand, have they opened their bowels last night, are they on a fluid balance chart, etc. This is all stuff that you'd know if you knew the patient, or you'll find out when you first meet them. I.E. Check the chart etc. So when the Nurse is talking about this drug and that drug, I can switch off An assures me. Then, we serve breakfast. "Morning TOM! Would you like a HOT DRINK?" An asks the first...

So these past couple of days I have completed my induction at the hospital I'll be working at for the next month or so. It was quite boring yesterday, you basically have various people talking at you, infection control, safeguarding, trips and falls, health and safety, fire safety, record keeping - one after the other after the other. Don't get me wrong, it was all vital stuff, but there is no chance I'm going to remember any more than 5% of what they've said. Plus, as this hospital is quite far, getting up early and home late made me quite tired so I was definitely fighting my eyes to stay open... Today was a bit more interesting. CPR, manual handling, the like. They were great experienced people giving the presentations and they had some pretty interesting things to say, it's just a shame that they were just one in a long line of other talkers, in a hot stuffy room, and their voices were the quietest and most soothing voices I have ever heard... I had been wai...

I cannot cope with the heat. Nothing is appealing about having sun rays shine down onto my bare skin, sweating oozing out of every pore, my hair looking greasy, and never being able to get a good nights sleep. It's so much harder to exercise too - that has pretty much stopped. I am dealing with the stresses of paperwork for these HCA jobs - it's so daunting, but must be done :S Making sure my references are sent off, getting my CRB done - trying to find valid evidence as a proof of address (When your 17/18 have no mortgages or bills and all your bank statements are online which they don't even let you print off as evidence, this can be such a pain in the arse) . My induction is about a fortnight away, so I'm sort of looking forward to it I guess. In other news, I have been using the money I have been saving from working at my local sports ground to pay for driving lessons. I had my first one today, I was so excited. I got this guy as a recommendation from a friend...

I was worried that I might feel real gutted (in a weird sort of way) when A-levels finished, that I might be so at loss at what to do, and feel a bit crappy but actually I feel great. If your not watching it, watch The Newsroom  (I think Sky Atlantic have it in the UK) - its by HBO, written by one of the guys from The Social Network, and Aaron Sorkin (THE WEST WING!!!!) - I have literally downloaded the whole season, and I love it. I have been working shifts at my local sports ground - it's ACE. When there are big matches on or stuff, I just serve beer, work behind the bar, chill out with the other barmen, get talking to the punters, it's all fun. Quite often if I finish before the game has, I can walk straight into some fantastic seats flashing my badge (which doesn't actually permit me to do this) and have a dandy old time. It was actually the first time I ever saw sports live -  it was a huge match and the vibe was just brilliant. And now, the big news. My previous...

Mixed emotions to be honest. The BIOL5 paper was  hard . There was  so  much how science works, I basically seemed to be doing an a-level in graphology. It wasn't fair at all on testing the knowledge I'd gained from the actual unit, as only 2 out of 12 topics came up! The essay at the end wasn't  too  bad. Overall, I think it was a mess in terms of structure, I was just throwing it all in willy nilly (love that expression) but I hope I've put in enough scientific content and breadth of topics to hit 15+ on it. This could be the paper that brings me to AAB. C4 was an absolute delight. I messed up on the implicit differentiation question (4 marks lost) Note: when something is parallel to the y - axis,  the gradient cannot equal 0, but = infinity. Hence the bottom half of your dy/dx should = 0!!  But I think I've done really well on it, and cancelled out the disaster that M1 was. CHEM5 was a disaster. Having not needed to retake anything t...

So my exam timetable went like this: Monday 13th May: RS resit AM, M1 Maths PM Week 2: Nothing. Week 3: Nothing. Week 4: Nothing. Week 5: Nothing. Week 6: Monday: Biol5, Tuesday: C4 Maths, Wednesday: Chem5 We are currently at the end of week 4. With just a week till the 3 biggest exams of my life arrive to completely screw me over and release my paranoid - ever worried self, I am at the peak point of my stress. It's not that I don't feel prepared, I definitely do, but sometimes that's still not enough, and I've felt prepared  before and completely messed exams up! This is going to be the hardest revision week of my life. Better get to it!