describe your one day's experience as a doctor and Engineering
Answers
I’ll never forget my first day as a doctor. I donned my freshly
laundered white coat, swung my new stethoscope around my neck, clipped
the newly acquired Parker pen into my shirt pocket, stuffed a
copy of the drug formulary into my coat pocket and made my way to the
gynaecology ward of the large Dublin hospital where decades ago on the
1st of August I was to be the new medical intern.
She greeted me with a warm smile as she stood at her desk in the ward
office. ‘Sister Eileen Doorly’ it said on her name badge. She must have
been in her mid 50s and had the bearing of someone to be respected.
Good morning, doctor.
This was the first time anyone like her had called me doctor and my heart missed a bit.
Me: Good morning, Sister. What can I do for you this morning? Her: Well, you might want to prescribe an anti emetic for the patients post op doctor.
I hesitated. I knew what the drug was but wasn’t sure about a number
of other important details. I hesitated. She watched me closely. Smiling
kindly. The formulary was within grasp but I left it in my pocket and
chose to ask.
What does the professor like to use post op sister?
Her smile broadened.
That would be stemetil doctor
I unclipped the pen and stood with the nib poised over the first drug kardex.
Me: S..t….. Her: e..m..e..t..i..l. Me: Thank you. And what dose does he like to use? Her: 12.5 mgs i.m. twice a day. 6am and 6pm. The rest, is on your name badge, doctor.
She had a twinkle in her eye. She was teasing me but somehow I could
sense that she didn’t mean to be rude. Eileen Doorly spent the following
three months teaching me everything I needed to know to get through the
most demanding year of my career. She did it willingly, she did it with
the deepest respect and she did it with discretion. I am forever
grateful to her. I never saw her after that year and because I moved
overseas for my specialist training I didn’t have the opportunity to
thank her. She also taught me that sometimes it pays to let those who
work with you teach you things, to show your vulnerable side and to
trust them. I published my first academic paper while working on that
ward. It set me up to get a place as one of six to be offered a
prestigious training job against stiff competition.
Eileen Doorly inspired that work because in that first week on the
ward she explained that my job as an intern was not only to provide
basic medical care but to support the catholic Irish women who would be
told in the course of their admission that they would be unable to bear
children. That experience was critical to my decision to choose to
specialise in general practice. In the course of my career I have met a
number of people like Eileen Doorly, men and women, older, wiser and
more experienced. Always willing to teach, always with the patients best
interests at heart. Medicine requires team work, it is a demanding
profession in which errors can cost lives. Men and women like Eileen
Doorly ensure that patients are not harmed despite the many
inexperienced doctors who must participate in healthcare to learn the
art