FINAL ENTRY

I found this placement quiet challenging. I did enjoy the cardio-respiratory side to this placement, and I found that the practical side of cardio-respiratory is very similar to the theoretical side that we learn in university.
I found I became very exhausted over this placement, I found I got very little sleep trying to get too and from Fremantle Hospital in peak hour traffic and then coming home in the same traffic, I was spending over 2 hours a day driving. I did have my own caseload in this placement on some days, other days I would work with a partner, this was advantageous because; with some patients who had a number of “attachments” it was essential to have a second pair of hands.
I ended up working in the surgical ward for over 3 weeks and then I was able to work on the general medical ward for the last 2 weeks. This was really good because I was able to see a range of different chest presentations. I got to treat patients who were at the end stage COPD, and others with chronic bronchitis on the general medical ward, but on the surgical ward I was able to get exposure to all the chest complications that can be resultant from surgery and in addition to that all the attachments a patient can have . I entered ICU about 3 times during my placement. It was great to be able to have that exposure, because the runnings of ICU differed greatly from the running’s over the whole hospital.
I got to see one pulmonary rehabilitation class at the end of my placement. It was good to get exposure to this class, I wasn’t asked to run the class but it was good to observe how they conducted the session.
I think I learnt a lot about subjective questioning in this placement, I think I improved my auscultation skills greatly as well as my reading of chest X-rays, I learnt how to refine my communication skills with patients and how to articulate myself more precisely.