2.5 hour tutorial

I really appreciated that the O&G prof made the time to teach us for two and a half hours.  But I'm not sure I remember much of it because the sheer quantity of information got too much!  

GTAs

For those of you who are not in the medical sphere, a GTA is a gynaecology teaching associate. That means a lay-woman who is trained in performing speculum and bimanual pelvic examinations and then teaches them to students on her own body. We had this session today, two GTAs with 5 students. We each passed a speculum, talked through a cervical smear test, and performed a bimanual examination.

I'd got the impression (as many might) that this would be weird. It actually was very straightforward, not awkward and I thought a really good way of learning the skills. It helps to get feedback on technique, what is uncomfortable for the patient and how to phrase things. Definitely better than doing your first exam on a patient, who is nervous like you.

If only I'd had this session before my first O&G attachment...

I can't help but judge...

I spotted this in clinic today, above the trolley of speculums and paraphenalia for gynae examinations. I know it's wrong, but I can't help but judge. I just HATE it when people abuse grammar like this. For some reason, the fact that the perpetrator clearly thought they were being accurate and authoritative makes it much much worse. Oh dear, I am going to make a bad, judgemental doctor...

PDS the bane of our lives

PDS, or professional development spine, is the bane of our lives. Today we learnt about bereavement after miscarriage or perinatal death. We saw a very interesting video about a couple who had a termination for serious foetal abnormality. The video was good, but the session before, more than an hour long, was not.

Medical students definitely need to be aware of the serious emotional distress experienced by women and their families after a death, but we're not morons, I promise! We spend a lot of time learning how to avoid becoming robots. We resent time we see as wasted going over and over the different theories of bereavement reaction, when the information has been covered before and could be laboured a lot less. Make it specific for heavens sake. I really wanted to be home before 6:30 today, but no.