Day 1: Reflection on the InvestIN Young Doctor Internship

I started the Young Doctor Internship by InvestIN on the 31st of July 2021 to gain and exercise the skills I require to study medicine in the UK. The internship is to give a holistic view on studying medicine by discussing case studies, getting perspectives from different doctors (of different levels and specialities), explaining the role of a doctor, and helping in the application process.

I expected the internship to be similar to my biology classes where topics are introduced followed by exercises and discussions. I thought the sessions would be difficult to follow with many medical terms; comparable to the virtual shadowing sessions I attend. However, Day 1 was comprehensive and the team introduced the internship well. We explored the "World of a doctor," a typical workweek of a "junior doctor," the path ahead, a presentation by a doctor working in trauma and resuscitation, a session on patient consultations and lastly the "Virtual Emergency Room."

The internship began by defining the term doctor; establishing the difference between a medical and academic doctor while advocating how patient-facing the role is. In other words, a medical doctor is a trained professional with the sole responsibility to help ill patients. This wasn't new information to me but what stuck out was the skills listed. A doctor should be: investigating, listening, treating, and diagnosing. These skills were further elaborated on (unconsciously).

We then progressed to a case study where we were given a situation of a 55 year old female experiencing a fever after her trip to Thailand. We were asked to discuss the questions we would ask about her and her trip. I proposed we ask her about when her fever started, whether she or her family were vaccinated, if she had taken OTC treatments, and if she made any significant changes to her diet. After listening to my peers I found that I should have additionally asked about malaria, allergies, or other symptoms. Moreover, I now understand (from the patient-consultation session) that the term 'significant changes' when referring to the patient's diet is incorrect as it asks the patient to question the importance of her possible dietary changes. This task was helpful as it made me think like a medical professional.

When discussing a typical week of a junior doctor, I was presented with terms such as 'ward round', 'ward jobs', 'MDT meeting', 'handover', and 'on-call'. Not only did this help me understand the language of a hospital but it bettered my knowledge of what a doctor does. For instance, I understand that when a doctor conducts their ward rounds, they are checking on their patients and assessing their recovery. As a result, ward jobs are created to improve the patient's care.

The trauma and resuscitation session presented by Dr Shanxi Jen was especially interesting because she was talking about her own experiences and allowing for class discussion. I pushed myself to talk in this class and I was to respond to her question about the role of an aesthetician. This gave me the confidence to engage more. She talked about what trauma is and how it's treated by going through case studies and showing scans. I was able to link my knowledge from virtual shadowing to this session when she showed an X-ray of a chest. I have seen X-rays and their analysis before, during Dr David Kantrowitz's shadowing session on his role as an orthopaedic surgery resident.

Something that caught my attention during Dr Jen's presentation was how she linked various symptoms and ordered the priorities; it was interesting to see her thought process. For example, she explained that if a patient is intoxicated it can mask their symptoms like head injury or pain. Though it may seem unimportant compared to stab wounds, it is still something to factor. This got me thinking about my IDU* lessons where I had to connect various perspectives and subjects to answer questions relating to the IDU sources.

During the patient consult section of the day, Dr Lucinda taught the class about the significance of a history. A history of a patient portrays a person's average lifestyle, medical history, family history, chronic history and current medicine/drug intake. A doctor processes this information to prescribe the best treatment possible. For instance, OTC medicines could interfere with the prescribed treatment or could be impacting each other; a medical professional would need to extract this type of medication. To my surprise, Dr Lucinda taught me that the best way to procure this information is to be slow, conversational and empathetic toward the patient. As a logistical person, I find questionnaires and short answer questions to be most efficient. However, the class watched presentations comparing the two approaches and learned that the best way is to establish a relationship with this person. It requires communication skills greatly. I'm aware of my limitations and I understand that I need to work on communication (it's the reason this blog exists!). To improve on this skill, I'm setting myself the goal to participate in an activity that challenges me, such as working with children or the elderly.

Lastly, the virtual emergency room exercise taught by Dr Manik aimed to provide a realistic practical experience. It was a virtual simulation of an NHS ward with you acting as the doctor. This session was enlightening since I got to see how to apply skills like communication and scientific knowledge on the job. Here I learned about the point of checking vitals through tests (blood and urine) and CT scans. When doctor Manik explained the tests of each patient and correlated them to their condition, I was able to understand why doctors need to have a variety of skills. For instance, a patient's blood test showed a CRP count of 41mg/L which is high. This is an indication of infection as the white blood cells are increasing in the blood. I loved connecting my understanding from biology lessons to this experience. It affirms that I can fulfil my desire to become a medical professional.

To conclude this reflection, I would like to focus on my participation in the internship. With social anxiety, I find it difficult to interact during lessons since I'm insecure about my response. However, I spoke twice today; showing that I can discuss medicine. Even when I virtually "raised my hand" I could feel my heart beating loudly, trying to jump out of my test. The internship pushed the ideology of resilience and the fact that doctors need communication. These factors made me realize that I have to address my anxiety if I want to succeed in my chosen feild.

IDU*: Interdisciplinary learning- This is a subject taught in the IB MYP (middle years program). Each unit combines two subjects and requires students to analyze sources on a topic reflecting the subjects. The tests in IDU ask students to look at the topic through different lenses (eg. economic, social, relevancy to different pieces of information) using the sources. I like to view it as 'in-depth' comprehension.