Welcome to the hospital! This is your first taste of real medicine. You will have what is called "Hospital Practice Day" (HPD) once a week in your GEMP I and II years. It's pretty exciting. You get to walk around with your stethocope and look all fancy!
You will be allocated to Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital (the Gen), Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital (Bara), Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital (Coro), Helen Joseph Hospital, Edenvale Hospital or Tambo Memorial Hospital. You will be with your clinical partner (a friend you choose) and will wander the wards, lost and confused, at least until GEMP II...
In GEMP I block 2 you will spend time with the nursing staff and get used to how the hospital runs. Please make sure that you do stuff. When there's a drip to be put in, say "Hey! I'll do that!". If you haven't done a drip yet, ask to be taught. If you don't ask, you won't learn.
The rule of "See one, Do one, Teach one" applies. In my internal medicine rotation in GEMP III I saw how to do a Bone Marrow Aspirate and Trephine, I did one, and then I taught one. Same thing with Lumbar Punctures (LP's). We are very blessed to be studying medicine at Wits. I watched an Australian medical programme a few weeks ago and a patient needed an LP. They called the Neurology consultant at three in the morning, he scrubbed in and did it in theatre! And there I was, a GEMP III student doing LP's left, right and centre. Okay, only centre. You can damage organs if you go left and right.
In subsequent blocks you will join different departments, Internal Medicine, Surgery, Ortho, Obs, etc. In the morning you will have an opportunity to join the ward round (like in Scrubs - the TV show, not the clothing). Ask questions, be involved. Don't just stand in the back all quiet, otherwise the whole day will be meaningless. After that you will have to clerk a patient for your tutorial. You will get to use your clinical skills.
This is a good time to mention clinical skills (CS). You will have a CS session every HPD in the afternoon. Here doctors will teach you how to take a history, do a general examination, take blood pressure, how to use your lightsaber, etc. Lightsaber? Okay, no, but come on science - it's 2014 and no lightsaber??
In the CS sessions if a doctor asks for a volunteer, let it always be you. If you make a mistake, the doctor will see it and help you. Rather make a mistake here than in your exam...
Something that will become very clear to you in GEMP I and II is, what I like to call, 'The Hospital Hierarchy". Yeah, we're riiight at the bottom. See that drip stand in the corner of the ward? That's higher up than we are. At least for now. That's why if you don't ask questions, volunteer to do bloods and drips, etc., you won't progress upwards.
Perhaps I'm being a little dramatic, but it really is important to be proactive. Passivity should be left for ion channels in your cells. You will find yourself standing around, doing nothing because there aren't any doctors around, or a tut has been cancelled. Go and practice your history taking with a patient, go and take blood pressures, go and practice your 4 times table (trust me, you'll need this!)...
And now the role of Wikipedia. It's not to be used as a reference, in the sense that you shouldn't reference it in your portfolio entries, research project, and so forth. It is, however, a fantastic resource for the wards and even in PBL's. You'll hear doctors talk about Takayasu's Arteritis and have no idea what it is - so Google it. Use Wikipedia, or eMedicine to give you a nice idea of what it is. I used it pretty much every day in GEMP I and II and still use it fairly often.
That's all for now. Hope this was useful! If you have any questions, feel free to comment below, or visit the Facebook page and we can interact there.
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