“Don’t trust your colleagues”

“…thinking back, what makes me sad (and a little bit ashamed), is that the primary message was, ‘Don’t trust your colleagues.'”

Silly Season: The Doctor’s Definition

That morning, you drive to work in record time. Did the whole world go on holiday simultaneously? you wonder, only vaguely aware that the answer to your question is yes. You go to the Human Resources department, and find them on skeleton staff. Nothing of importance can really be done until the middle of next

Who Says You Can’t Become an Anaesthesiologist?

Whether intentional or not, the article reeks exclusivism, which is something I think medicine can do without. I don’t need a superhero complex.

Stitched Up: Stories of Life and Death from a Prison Doctor [Book Review]

Immediately after ComServe, when I was unemployed for – gasp! – a whole week, I considered applying to a job as a prison GP. (I did not, because a locum opportunity came along that morphed into something semi-permanent, and other opportunities fell by the wayside for a while.) “Offender healthcare occupies the grey zone between

Pain is not Prerequisite for Birth

Medicine continues to accept pain as a natural part of childbirth.

in memoriam

it is a curious thing, when one of our own dies young. and I do mean curious there are just a handful of common things that kill young doctors and our profession demands nay normalises we find those common-things-that-occur-commonly this is no simple diagnostics it is more than morbid curiosity it is a need-to-know (if

The Future of This Blog

Someone once commented on this blog’s heading*. “Reader, traveler, politics, medical student…” they mused, “Are you sure you’re in the right field of study?” For a second, I thought they were joking. But they weren’t. I had spent enough time wrestling with my career choice. Suggesting that it was a poor one did not dissuade

“Whatever You Decide To Be, Be A Teacher”

I recently had the opportunity to speak about medicine as a career at a local high school. It has been many years, and even as I narrow my fields of practice, I remain passionate about doing what I can to enable kids to make informed choices about their careers – and so that those who

That One Patient [Book Review]

I told myself I would remember her forever – the first patient I lost. I was just a third year medical student, and really, it was my team doing the looking after, not me. I’ve forgotten her name by now, but I still remember her.  I initially resisted reading Ellen de Visser’s That One Patient

Intro for Anaesthetic Undergraduate Students

The student was standing on their tip-toes, peering over the drapes. They had barely looked at the ventilator, so engrossed were they in the surgery.  “So, are you here for anaesthesia, or for surgery?” our registrar asked.  The student turned. “Well… I am on my anaesthesia rotation, technically… but I’m actually interested in surgery.” Ten