Moving on
Posted on Sunday 3rd February 2008
It’s almost time to start anew here in Adelaide. Tomorrow is my penultimate shift at the Queen Elizabeth before I move onto the Royal Adelaide.
I’ve learnt a fair few new things over the past year and are, hopefully, a little wiser for it. Intensive Care medicine in the UK is a bit of a poor relation to Anaesthetics. The speciality doesn’t have it’s own college of fellowship exam. As a result most intensivists are jobbing anaesthetists with an interest rather than dedicated specialists. This means there is significant heterogeneity in the quality of service back home. The standard is high in teaching hospitals with motivated consultants who stay up-to-date with evolving evidence, but this is not the case universally. Here Intensive Care is an independent speciality and the local fellowship exam is recognised as one of the tougher exit exams in the country. As such consultants are more focused and, since most are involved in training and examining, remain current.
Wednesday is orientation day at the Royal Adelaide, and then I have a few days grace before starting. As usual I’m sure Wednesday will comprise the usual lectures about not running towards a fire, not sticking your fingers in electrical sockets and resisting the urge to drink bleach. Falirly standard Health and Safety drivel based on the assumption that everyone has a lemming-like deathwish and the IQ of a turnip. As you can tell I’m looking forward to it already!
hey rick – you’re right about ICU here but probably not much longer. It looks like the Diploma in ICM is gonna become the exit exam for ICM trainees, and they are very close to going solo with their own college. So things will likely change for the better soon.