Enthusiastic obstetricians

Hello,

After a week of obs and gynae lectures, I think obstetricians and gynaecologists are the most enthusiastic doctors I've come across. Either that, or they're desperate to recruit more of us to an area that is short-staffed at the moment. Most of our lectures seem to start with a talk about how amazing it is to be an obstetrician/gynaecologist, and some lectures are almost entirely taken over by raving about the speciality. The enthusiasm has been accompanied by some great teaching, though, and the lectures on everything from scanning babies to prolapse and incontinence have been interesting.

I sat in on a family planning clinic yesterday morning, which operates on a drop-in basis and was unfortunately rather quiet. I only saw two patients, one of which left with an appointment for a termination. However, the nurse and doctor who I was with were very helpful and talked to me about relevent things while we waited for patients.

I've got several lectures on complications of labour and pregnancy coming up next, so I'm off to read up on those now!

Obs and gynae begins

Hello again!

I'm back after a three week holiday, to stary year 5. Interestingly, this "term" is longer than a whole year's worth of undergraduate terms at Oxford!

We're now in firms of about 27 students, which we chose ourselves by a ballot system. Each firm rotates round a series of 8-week attachments, and my firm is starting with obstetrics and gynaecology. We've got two weeks of teaching (mostly lectures) to start with, followed by clinical experience of delivering babies etc, for which I'm off to Stoke Mandeville hospital in Ayelsbury.

The teaching so far has been great - we had an introductory day (with quite a lot of waffle, but the impression that the attachment is well-organised by thise in charge), and we've had lecture on normal labour, menstrual disorders and menopause & HRT today. This afternoon we had an ethics session on termination, discussing our views and the law around a few case studies.

We also have a bit of hands-on experience during the lecture course, with a clinic or two, some laparoscopy training, and practise at vaginal examinations on "clinical teaching associates" (normal, healthy women who are paid to teach us how to examine their own gynaecology). But more about that when I get to it!