Sleeping patterns!

Without the structure that my strict school timetable provided for me back in the day, my body clock has well and truly given up the ghost. It can’t be healthy to stay in bed until after midday and still be fully awake (writing blog entries) at 1:45am on a Monday morning, yet here I am… For tonight I have an excuse - I’ve been away for the weekend to stay at a friend’s uni house with some mates. Late nights, copious amounts of alcohol and ill-advised dancing undoubtedly taking their toll, however my poor sleeping habits have been evident over the past 2 years!

University life thus far hasn’t been conducive to early nights and, rarely having more than a couple of 9am starts each week, I’ve been afforded the luxury of regular lie-ins. However all good things must come to an end as the real work begins in a matter of weeks (eek!). This is a frightening prospect to say the least – both being let loose in hospital for the bulk of our time and having to be there for 8/9am most days! In the meantime I think some early rising practice is called for and what better way than offering to drive my mum into work every morning (what a generous son I am :)

Well if I want to be awake in 7 hours I had better be off to my bed, night all!

Me? Worried? Well maybe a little...

Is it me or is the world bloody mad?! In particular the onus put on kids to decide what they want to do with the rest of their lives’ earlier and earlier. When I was 15 years old I nearly shat all over my chances of applying for Medicine straight from school by not realising Chemistry A-level was of paramount importance (a fact that still leaves me slightly confuzzled) even though it was 2 years until I had to go through the UCAS process. However, my school helpfully allowed me to switch and eventually at the tender age of just 17, the wheels were set in motion – I wanted to become a doctor.

I feel quite fortunate that I realised what I wanted to do at a relatively young age as I know plenty of friends that are 2/3rds way through their degrees and still haven’t a clue what they’re going to wander into once they’ve graduated. My point is that it’s difficult to make decisions that could have a bearing on the course of your career and life, without adequate experience. This leads me on to the farce that is Modernising Medical Careers (MMC).

My understanding of the subject is certainly basic and is based on reading messageboards, blogs and articles over the past couple of weeks. It appears that one doesn’t need to be an expert to see that it has delivered a swift kick in the knackers (and knackerettes) to many doctors all over the country. Leaving highly trained individuals without interviews, jobs or any prospects in the NHS beyond dead-end FTSTA posts, is a travesty in itself. Furthermore though, it has created a situation (please educate me if I am wrong) where F2 doctors, barely out of medical school and with limited awareness of many specialties, are having to apply for run-through training posts. These schemes will tie them in for 6 years plus, for branches of medicine/surgery that they have very little working knowledge of! How can this be “modernisation”?! We will surely be left in a position with many perfectly well qualified doctors having to go abroad to further their careers, and a significant proportion of the remainder restricted to specialist training routes that they have little interest in. In a decade or two, if the system is broadly the same, won’t we have a generation of consultants lacking in skill and motivation after being railroaded into specialties they chose due to a shortage of exposure in the years after graduation?

My eyes are beginning to be well and truly opened with regards to the organisation that awaits me…