Threatened By The People We Serve

A few weeks ago, the community around one of the hospitals where I work picked up their torches and pitchforks (well, sort of) and protested again. I’ve written before about South Africa’s protest state of mind, and about working during a riot.

Riding the PEP-Train

I’m on PEP again. And I’m angry. And miserable. But mostly angry. Because I’m careful. I am so, SO careful all the time, but others are not. I always make my surgical needles safe. But many doctors I assist do not. I always discard my sharps. And many do not. I never point a sharp

A Tale of Three IODs

Exactly one year ago I had an injury on duty. It changed the course of my final year of med school and my general approach to medicine. It put me through four weeks of awful medicine and several terrifying blood tests. I won’t forget it, and I wish it hadn’t happened, but today I want

A Moment: The Nurse and the Med Student

She was a professional nurse at our hospital, not much older than me, and with no time during shift-work to see her private gynaecologist, she made the scary decision to come to the hospital’s gynae-clinic (scary because she would most certainly be seen first by an inept medical student before seeing the specialist).

On the Ethics of Treating Ebola (or refusing to)

The topic has come up among our students too. We train at one of the nine South African hospitals that are to be the first port of call for suspected Ebola cases. What would we do if we actually had a confirmed case? Would we, as students, treat them? Mostly we think we would not (right now… read on).

I MET MARIA PHALIME! *fangirls*

This will be quick because I have my Paediatric cases tomorrow and I am far from ready. Last night I had the fantastic opportunity to attend an event hosted by the Open Book Festival in Cape Town, where CityPress editor Ferial Haffajee intereviewed Maria Phalime. In case your memory fails you, Phalime wrote Postmortem: The Doctor Who

Things I Have Done When Over-Tired

There’s been a lot of talk about working hours on this blog recently, as well as the risk that tired doctors pose to themselves and patients. That got me thinking about silly things I have done without thinking when I was exhausted. These all happened either at the end of a long call, or when

Injury on Duty: What it’s like to take PEP

This post follows on my previous post about Injuries on Duty. There is no shortage of war stories from healthcare workers who have taken Post-Exposure Prophylaxis ARVs (the medication you take to prevent HIV after being exposed to it).Days and days and days of nausea and diarrhoea are just the beginning of it. Before my

The Time I Got Injured On Duty

It was hot summer afternoon and I was on my rural Family Medicine rotation; the Friday leading up to my birthday weekend. I was looking forward to an off-weekend, and I’d be going home to spend my birthday with my family for the first time since 2008. I had dressed up in a new skirt,

Tips for Third Years Starting Rotations

Scheduled post. Our third years will be starting their first REAL rotations soon. I thought I would share some tips for hospital rotations in honour of that very exciting milestone.