So it’s the start of my second week here at the William Harvey and I think that I might be starting to get an idea of what I’m supposed to be doing!
Last week was quite busy and working 9 to 4 most days was a big change from my post exams normal daily routine of doing nothing. I spent Monday and Tuesday in the library doing research on strokes and some of the statistical techiniques that I’ll need to know later on in my placement. On Wednesday I was still reading in the library but the other student, Emily, who is doing a placement in the same office as me started, so it was nice to have someone else to chat to. Whilst doing all that reading was very helpful, I was really glad that on Thursday I got to get out of the library and see a few different things. I was in early on Thursday (8am!) so that I could attend a meeting in Radiology, where a radiographer and the stroke consultants met to discuss the stroke patients over the previous week to review their scans. It was amazing to see the scans, even if I didn’t really understand that much of what was actually being discused! Straight after the meeting we met last years placement student who showed us some of the ropes. Me and Emily both had lots of questions for him, and he took us through some of the computer programmes we’ll be using and showed us how to fill in entries on the SUTO (Stroke of Unknown Time of Onset) database. I made lots of notes which came in really useful on Friday, our first proper day in the HCOOP (Health Care of the Older Person) office where we’ll be working during the 8 weeks. I was surprised at how fast the day went and even though I was glad it was Friday, that was mostly just because I wanted a bit of a lie in over the weekend!
It’s Monday morning now and I’m really excited to get into my second week. I haven’t got my proper NHS ID card yet which is a bit annoying, so I’m having to be extra nice to the girls in the office, who have been super helpful, so that they’ll log into the computer for me. Hopefully this will all be sorted by the end of the week though and I’ll be able to start going downstairs and picking up patient records myself. I’ve got a lot to learn still but it’s really good to being doing something different from studying for my degree and it’s great to experience one career area that I could potentially go into once I’ve graduated. See you again next week!