Reflecting on medicine in Tonga
My placement is nearly over now, so as always I thought I'd take this chance to reflect on my experiences of medicine out here in Tonga.
This ED placement has definitely felt a little more like the elective experience I'd imagined, even down to the moment a nurse asked if I could just prescribe some fentanyl for a patient (oddly enough I declined!) and I think it's definitely made me more confident.
It's amazing to think how nervous I was that first day when the doctor abandoned the department to us, and how I just accept it and get on with things now. It might be partly because we've got lucky and not had to deal with anyone peri-arrest or similar on our own, or it might be partly because I've realised that here in Tonga there's often not a lot you can do for conditions suc as stroke or MI compared to back home. Either way, I feel like I've gained an awful lot of experience just from being left with patients that need treating and only patchy senior presence, and from being given the opportunity to learn some new practical skills (e.g. plastering).
I've really enjoyed my time here in Tonga and it's been interesting to experience a very different cultural attitude to sickness and death. Perhaps it's because Tonga is very Christian country, but people are much more accepting of whatever may happen to relatives and themselves, and tend to see little point in taking preventative medications. This is very different to the UK!
Either way, there's only a few days left before I hang up my scrubs, so I'm looking forward to making the most of them and hopefully learning a few more things before I go. I can't believe this time next week I'll be back in Cambridge for another R&I week....!
This ED placement has definitely felt a little more like the elective experience I'd imagined, even down to the moment a nurse asked if I could just prescribe some fentanyl for a patient (oddly enough I declined!) and I think it's definitely made me more confident.
It's amazing to think how nervous I was that first day when the doctor abandoned the department to us, and how I just accept it and get on with things now. It might be partly because we've got lucky and not had to deal with anyone peri-arrest or similar on our own, or it might be partly because I've realised that here in Tonga there's often not a lot you can do for conditions suc as stroke or MI compared to back home. Either way, I feel like I've gained an awful lot of experience just from being left with patients that need treating and only patchy senior presence, and from being given the opportunity to learn some new practical skills (e.g. plastering).
I've really enjoyed my time here in Tonga and it's been interesting to experience a very different cultural attitude to sickness and death. Perhaps it's because Tonga is very Christian country, but people are much more accepting of whatever may happen to relatives and themselves, and tend to see little point in taking preventative medications. This is very different to the UK!
Either way, there's only a few days left before I hang up my scrubs, so I'm looking forward to making the most of them and hopefully learning a few more things before I go. I can't believe this time next week I'll be back in Cambridge for another R&I week....!
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