Medical Student Hold-Up

Sometimes I feel like I'm a personal taxi service for my family. Today I was woken up early to drive my little brother to school (though my mum ended up driving him). Then I was meant to drive my older sister to the hospital for her appointment (she has just had a baby and was going for a check-up), but my dad drove her because I ended up having to take my little sister to HER hospital appointment which was at the same time as my older sister's appointment (you still with me??)

Anyhoos - well, re-reading the above, I've realised I haven't really taxied anyone around today! Haha! But I DID have a busy morning...

We ended up waiting 2 hours to see the doctor at the hospital clinic! There was a delay because they were one nurse down, and medical students were out and about being taught by the hospital clinic doctors. Who would've thought that medical students could cause such a delay??! My sis and I did have a good chuckle at the notice one nurse had put up:

"Apologies for the delay -
- 1 nurse short due to illness
- Medical STDs teaching"

'Medical STDs'??? Teaching??? Now, that IS worrying! STDs carried around by overactive medical students must be so advanced that they can teach! The humour of it all (though very immature, but what the hay :P) actually made the 2 hour wait more bearable!

Once the doctor was ready for my little sister, we entered the consultation room to find a young, smart, slightly nervous looking medical student sitting in the corner.

"I am Dr X, and Y here is a medical student. Is it OK for him to observe this consultation?" - familiar with this 'gaining consent' malarky, my sister and I agreed to his presence and the consultation continued.

"I will be saying my thoughts out loud for the benefit if the medical student", Dr X said. I had sat through some consultations at the GP practice we were attached to through year 1, but I was so excited anyway, even though he didn't know that I was a medical student as well. Maybe I could learn something too!

I recognised some clinical techniques used: testing the corneal light and accomodation reflexes, a visual acuity test, looking at the back of the retina using an opthalmoscope - we had practised these for our OSCE exam a few weeks back so it was great to see them in practice. I also recognised some words - ptosis etc. which made me realise just how much I had actually learnt last year...

There was a lot of "Um-ing" and "Ah-ing", but it turned out that there was nothing to worry about - great news for my sis. I can't wait to enter my clinical years though, so that I can be the medical student looking nervous in the corner instead of the imposter who was meant to be the concerned relative, but ended up as the 'silent and unknown medical student' eavesdropping for her own pleasure!!! Bring it on!!!