Charley

Where did you do your work experience?

Durham

What did you do?

On Monday (the first day) I went to Ward 14 where I was greeted by the Sister. She told me a little about what happens on the ward and the types of procedures carried out by the nurses. Ward 14 is a female surgery ward which mainly has patients who are having bowel operations, but patients have other conditions too.

I spent the first day with the foundation doctors who took me around the ward as they did the patient observations and taught me how they worked and how they were recorded. I took some blood pressures, temperatures, pulses and oxygen levels and recorded them in the charts.

In the afternoon, we [myself and other work experience students] went to the pain management department. We were taught about the different types of pain and how they are dealt with differently. We had a chance to talk to each of the patients and find out what caused their pain, and how the treatment helps. None of the treatment was instant and a lot of the procedures were very painful. It was interesting learning how people deal with chronic pain that they have had for over six months and how it affects their lives.

On Tuesday, the ward was very busy and I was able to help the nurses. The surgical consultant said one lady was needed in theatre in ten minutes, so the ward sister and I quickly helped her change into her theatre gown and fill in the necessary forms – all while reassuring the patient about what was going to happen. We got her organised and wheeled her into theatre. Later in the day I went to the recovery ward with the sister to take her back to Ward 14. The nurses explained to me what had happened in her operation and why it was being done.

On Wednesday we went to Treetops, the children's ward. We had a tour of the ward, and one of the nurses explained how it was very different from the adult wards we had experienced. He told us what happened in each room, and the types of illnesses the staff come across. All the nurses in the children's ward wear bright coloured uniforms with pictures on to make the children feel calmer and more at home.

Then we went to the play room with a play specialist. She told us about her job and why it's important for the children to have someone to play with and reassure them. She showed us the strawberry scented gas masks they use for children and told us that they let the children play with equipment like cannulas so that they aren't as scared of them.

She told us how she often walks the children to theatre and reassures them on the way because continuity is important to them. We looked at the books the nurses made for the children using photos of a puppet so that they know what to expect.

Later, we had a presentation by the diabetes nurse. She told us about the three types of diabetes and how they affect people's lives. She told us how important it is to eat healthily when you have diabetes and how important it is that diabetics measure their blood sugar levels and take the right amount of insulin. She let us test our blood sugar and gave us booklets that she gives to children and parents coming to terms with a recent diagnosis.

Finally, we spoke with a paediatrician, who told us about how he trained in Zimbabwe and how the training he received was a lot different to most other doctors. He told us how a lot of his training was very hands on and how he had helped more than 60 women give birth who had complications.

He gave us all help deciding what we wanted to do, and answered lots of questions about applying for university and jobs.

Thursday and Friday were both spent back on Ward 14. I went on a couple of ward rounds which is when the registrar takes the foundation (newly-qualified) doctors and a nurse around every patient and update them on the patient's progress and tell them what needs to be done. This helps the nurses and doctors make a list of jobs and allocate them to different people for the day. The consultants also go round the beds in a similar way, and the nurses go round afterwards to explain what the consultant said to the patient, and to make sure the patient knows what's happening with their treatment.

I showed another work experience student how to do patient observations and how to make beds. We took a lady for an endoscopy and the sister explained what an endoscopy is. The sister took us to clean a lady's wound which was very interesting. All of the patients with wounds needed them changing and checking and a lot of them were very different.

The lady I'd helped go into theatre earlier in the week went home on Friday. It was really nice to see such a vast improvement in a patient!

What did you enjoy most?

The thing I enjoyed most was the contact with patients. I feel like I got a really well-rounded opinion of what it would really be like to work there.

What did you learn?

I learnt so much about what actually goes on in a hospital and how a patient's care is recorded. I learnt exactly what to expect from the job.

I learned how the early warning system works. Patients’ observations have to be within a certain range or they get a point. On surgery wards, if a patient has three points it has to be reported to a doctor. On medical wards, it is five points before a doctor must be informed. This was also useful because I got to know the patients and learnt a little bit about their medical history. I watched as one of the doctors took bloods and inserted cannulas.

I spent time with the nurses, and they called me over if they had anything particularly interesting to look at, like cleaning wounds or doing scans. We took a lady downstairs on a trolley and watched her have an ultrasound, and the radiographer explained how it worked and what the different parts of the body on the screen were.

I helped the nurses by taking menus, wipes and food to the patients. I learnt the procedure for making beds and cleaning them properly before another patient uses it. I saw how patients get discharged and the paperwork involved. I saw an ECG get taken from a patient's bed and one of the doctors explained it to me. I stood and held a patient's hand while she got a midline put in, which is like a cannula but thicker.

Some patients needed help with things like getting up, putting socks on and getting into bed, while others were very independent. One lady who had had her leg amputated from the knee told me about her phantom pains that she still got. Before her amputation, she had diabetic ulcers on her toes, and after several operations she had lost most of her toes and a lot of her foot. After that it went gangrenous and the doctors had no choice but to amputate her leg from the knee downwards. The nurse told me that because of the severity of the pain she had experienced, her phantom pains would be a lot worse than most other amputees. The patient told me how it had been hard to deal with at first, but that she was thinking more positively now and is a lot happier.

Most of the doctors were happy to explain things in a little bit more detail for my benefit and asked me questions to make sure I understood. This was really useful because I learnt a lot more about surgical procedures and what happens afterwards.

Do you have any advice for other people?

I would advise anyone who wants to go into medicine to get some experience working on a ward. It really helped me to know what to expect.