Hey darlings!
I hope you’ve had a brilliant start to Q2, I sure have! As I alluded to in the last post – I have begun my GP training – what I didn’t mention was how God so eloquently designed my training that my first job is right on the same university campus that I have worked as a medical education fellow at! It’s really great because the practice has a student body focus, has a lot of research ongoing and though it’s really large (has around 45,000 patients) the work culture is super supportive, kind and helpful. I really really thank God, I couldn’t have asked for this as I didn’t know such existed!
I’ve had a really extensive induction period which is just as well because I’m the only new GP trainee starting in April (everyone usually starts in August, but I was bringing my boy to the world at the time haha). Learning how to consult, examine and do the required admin in 10 minutes is really different to hospital practice but I get to start at 30 minutes and with practice I’ll cut it down over the training.
So what’s it like? It’s still being a doctor, but recognizing that you’ll face a lot of uncertainty – whereas in hospital you can order nearly every test in your specialty under the sun before concluding on a diagnosis, in GP you don’t have as much freedom, so you have to know a lot about everything and be able to decide whether something is mild or more serious. This skill of course takes practice hence why I’m in training lol.
GP training is one of the UK trainings that actually really trains lol. So the training times are protected especially in GP postings – some other trainings aren’t anywhere near as structured and end up feeling a lot more like service provision for the NHS, which is unfortunate. At the whole day release training we were taught about empathy and the handling of medically complex situations which I found really helpful. The empathy session was really good because that’s a theme that came up in my masters research – I interviewed final year GP trainees who had gone to medical school outside of the UK/Europe (IMGs) about what they understood the “relating to others” domain of their final exam was about. It was an eye opening experience and I aim to get it published to help future IMGs to have better experiences with the exam – presently the failure rate for IMGs is twice as likely as their UK graduate counterparts – so this research aims to provide a baseline for working up training policies that helps these doctors have better outcomes.
On the home front, my boy has been thriving at his new nursery that’s a stone throw from our house! He eats proper food there and is learning to feed himself gradually which I’m so proud of. At home we still have to force food sometimes but at least it’s just on weekends! I think seeing other children eating around him makes him more willing to eat, I’m trying as many tactics as I can, hopefully I’ll find a solution soon. His grandparents (my parents) are coming to spend Easter with us so I’m excited for that!
Wishing you a beautiful Easter ahead! Remember while it’s nice to get some time off, the reason for the season is the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ for us all to be saved today. Glory be to God!
Happy Palm Sunday!!
Till next time,
Dr ETK xo
