Today, I spent a few hours with a general practitioner at a surgery nearby. I really enjoyed it, particularly because it was much more varied than I had expected. As well as sitting in on consultations with the "bread and butter" patients, with ongoing colds etc., I went on a visit to see an elderly patient in a care home, and went into a treatment room to watch a vaginal pessary being fitted by the nurse. I found that I learnt a bit more about communicating with a patient: the doctor that I was shadowing helped the patients to understand what was going on with anecdotes, metaphors and Google images. I thought this was very useful, as it allowed the patients to get a better idea of why they were feeling a particular way, and why certain treatments were being suggested. Another thing that caught my interest during the afternoon was when a 50 year old woman came in. She had recently had cataract surgery, and described the process - I found it amazing that the surgeon can completely replace the lens within the eye while the patient is only under local anaesthetic.
I am looking forward to going back to the surgery on Wednesday afternoon, hopefully I will get to see even more interesting things!
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