The MedWhat Blog

What am I doing here?

I've had the bright idea to record things that interest me during my Care of the Elderly training in a blog format.  I think that perhaps we should try and make Care of the Elderly sexy and exciting. Of course not sexy in the way that well, sex is, but sexy in the way that surgery is.

Only Doctors, (well surgeons) find doing a bowel resection kind of exciting, and lets face it surgery is sexy, glamorous and exciting. Care of The Elderly isn't is it?

I've just done my MRCP and after some long complex thoughts I decided to specialise in Care of The Elderly - or Geriatrics as it's still called.  And so far it's great.

So what is a Registrar anyway?

I've got no idea where the job title comes from. But in a Hospital in the UK the Registrar is the one below the consultant in the pecking order. Most Registrars are in training programmes to be become Consultants. Some Registrars are 'Staff Grades' so in permanent Registrar level jobs. The big thing about being a Registrar is that when the consultant is away from the hospital - from 5pm to 9am you are the most senior person there. This is fairly scary at first. I think my first two hours as a Reg were the worst two hours of my life. 

Introducing The Team 

I'm working at a Tiny DGH at the moment, we're a long way from other people. 

Mrs Consultant 

She's a relatively newly appointed Consultant, and she's lovely, I can sit and gossip with her in a way I couldn't with any other Consultant. 

The Much More Senior Reg 

She's about two months off being a Consultant so she's a fountain of knowledge on all things Geriatrics 

T'other Geri's Reg 

Appointed at the same time as me I've known him for years

The Minions 

I also have a SHO, who is very keen, but quite new to medicine in the UK, and a HousePlant, who's very keen.