Another done and dusted

As this year almost comes to a close it’s not hard to appreciate how fast time flies, to be honest this year has been tough yet I can in retrospect say I have enjoyed every minute of it. I have worked with great doctors and learnt a host of knowledge I didn’t even know existed. Medicine is so broad and at times it can be overwhelming. I spent most of my 5th year at BARA( the biggest hospital in South Africa) something that was amazing as the high patient load and interesting people as well as doctors made For a great learning experience. I guess with all careers comes the downside this would definitely be those long calls. Having covered most of the rotations this year I feel that I enjoyed internal medicine the most. Like I said its been a great year and one that has made me change the way I think of many of the specialities in medicine. One year left to go and I know it’s going to be tough but I’m sure if I’ve gotten this far the rest shouldn’t be to bad, for those that are still trying to get into medicine , don’t give up, on a side note I will reiterate as I get many emails asking about the Wapt, I don’t have past papers for this and they don’t exist, the best way to study for it is to learn the stuff on the objectives. I hope this helps those who are interested. If you have any questions please leave a comment and I will try and answer it as soon as I can, have a look at other comments as often I get the same questions. 

I wish everyone all the best for the festive season and the new year.

So close yet so far

I'll start this post with an apology for not updating this blog more often, to all the comments that I have not answered I'm sorry but time has been going so fast and the schedule for fifth year has been extremely tight. 

So on that note fifth year... so close yet so far from the finish. fifth year has been great so far, being in the hospital most of the time is really different to the experience that we have been so used to over the last couple of years. Its not as relaxed as the last two years though there's a lot more involved and there is very little time to have a normal life, however this seems to be the life of medicine particularly at the beginning of every year. Thus far I have completed rotations in pediatrics, urology, ophthalmology and public health, each one having its own highs and lows but the differences is what keeps us going. So what can you expect for each rotation? well as i said each one is different but they more or less consist of shadowing doctors, receiving lots of tuts around the bedside with a real example of the topic at hand and after you done with the long day you normally come home to tons of reading, to further the information you learnt. It has been very interesting thus far and despite the high workload, its been worth it. I have to admit that I have seen so many interesting cases over the last 3 months and would not choose anywhere else to study medicine at this point because of the amazing cases we have in South Africa and the people who never seize to amaze you(they are really amazing).