Back to school

It's especially strange to think that tomorrow is my last day in my current job and as of Wednesday I'm an FY2 doctor who is fully registered on the GMC website.

Since I'm changing hospital trusts again it has an odd feeling of starting a new school year.

I've bought my new pens, selected and ironed my clothes, scheduled my bed time, polished my shoes and filled the car up with fuel.

This extra preparation won't make a difference though as I will still be bricking it tomorrow evening for a new job. I'll also be back to my usual self next week and forgetting to make myself some lunch and prepare clothes the night before.

As much as I've really hated my current job, I really love the people I've worked with. I think we shared a mutual dislike of the particular speciality and made the best of it. Possibly one of the best bunch of people I've ever worked with and the patient care has been genuinely excellent.

I'm going to miss having the time to chat to patients, make sure they get a drink while we're there (yes we really do do this as we know the nurses are manically busy) and explaining things to family without massive time pressures. I won't have this luxury in my next job.

So all in all I've learnt a hell of a lot in the last year - probably more than I ever realised. I think I've kept most of my personality and humanity despite working in a couple of tough specialities and as much as I've had some really stressful times, I wouldn't change it for the world.

So here's to medicine and making hopefully the correct decision for me when I was choosing between being a doctor and a paramedic.

Don't get ill in August...

365 days in the blink of an eye

From August 1st I will have a full GMC registration (F1 doctors in the UK hold provisional registration until they have been signed off as competent after 12 months). This means I'm technically an SHO (senior house office), albeit at the bottom of the pile.

The plus side of being hellishly terrified is that I get a payrise for having been through hell for the last year.

I think the reason I'm so scared is that now there are people more junior than me that aren't medical students! This means I have to pretend to actually know some stuff and not just stand quietly behind the SHO.

The good news is that I rotate jobs and I'm hoping it will be more interesting than my current one. If I find something I don't particularly enjoy then I don't learn a great deal - my current job falls into this category.

So for everyone new as an F1 on Wednesday welcome to the working world of the NHS and prepare to have your eyes opened.

How quickly a year passes

A year ago I hadn't quite graduated, was rather unwell and didn't have a provisional GMC number.

Since then I've worked for 50 weeks and just been informed that the GMC is happy to fully register me from 1st August (black Wednesday).

It's all gone incredibly quickly and with only intermittent amounts of stress and exhaustion.

Best of luck to the new F1s doing their preparation for professional practice soon!