‘So you want to be… an intensivist’

Blog Post by Dr Darcy M Pearson FRCA, Specialty Trainee in Anaesthesia & Intensive Care, Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Papworth Everard, Cambridge, UK, Dr Stephen T Webb MB BCh BAO FRCA EDIC, Consultant in Anaesthesia & Intensive Care Medicine, Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Papworth Everard, Cambridge, UK, and Dr Kamen Valchanov MD FRCA, Consultant in Anaesthesia & Intensive Care Medicine, Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Papworth Everard, Cambridge, CB23 3RE, UK

DMP: How long have you worked as an Intensive Care Consultant?

STW: 2 years

DMP: When did you decide that you wanted to pursue a career in Intensive Care Medicine?

STW: During my training in anaesthesia I realised I enjoyed managing sick patients in intensive care as well as anaesthetising high-risk patients in theatre. Both interests led my down the road of a career in ICM and cardiothoracic anaesthesia.

DMP: Did you have an opportunity to experience Intensive Care Medicine as a medical student?

Encouraging our medical students to consider psychiatry

Blog Post by Michael Casher, MD, Director, Psychiatry Adult Inpatient Program, Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Medical School

Psychiatry is an exciting field with so many specialties within it that will fit virtually any student’s needs.  This at least is what I and most of my colleagues think.  But how do we communicate this to the talented medical students that pass through their mandatory psychiatric clerkships?  After all, they are bombarded with identical pitches from all the other specialties within the entire medical field, some of which may appear more “glamorous” than psychiatry. 

“So you want to become a vascular consultant surgeon?” Career Pathways 4

Blog Post by Mr. Kevin Varty, Vascular Consultant Surgeon 

·         What does speciality offer?  

Rewarding surgery. Interesting patients who are both a surgical and medical challenge.  New technology, stents to treat aneurysms, combined endovascular and open surgical skills.

Disaster Medicine Core Competencies for Emergency Physicians, Nurses and EMTs

Blog Post by Carl H. Schultz, MD, Professor of Emergency Medicine

The specialty of disaster medicine continues to grow and mature.  Journals dedicated to this field of study as well as textbooks now exist.  In fact, ACEP has recently endorsed a new reference text published by Cambridge University Press entitled Koenig and Schultz’s Disaster Medicine:  Comprehensive Principles and Practices.  Ideally, this body of scientific data would lead to development of a standard set of clinical competencies for those involved in the initial evaluation and treatment of disaster victims.  This is needed to ensure that effective emergency medical response can be provided efficiently during all types of disaster events.  Creation of broadly-recognized standard core competencies to support development of disaster response education and training for specific healthcare professionals will help to ensure that medical personnel are truly prepared to care for victims of mass casualties.  Nonetheless, a widely supported standardized set of core competencies for emergency physicians, nurses, and pre-hospital EMS personnel is currently lacking. 

What should you read to prepare for MRCOG II Written

Blog Post by Arri Coomarasamy, MBChB, MD, MRCOG, DFFP, lecturer and specialist registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology

As my past course candidates know, I am a great fan of the “Handbook of Gynaecological Oncology” by Shafi, Luesley and Jordan. It summarised all you needed to know about gynae cancers in 277 A5 size pages, with very little padding and fine print, and was as readable and enjoyable as the classic gold standard of Nelson-Piercy’s Handbook of Obstetric Medicine. However, I didn’t recommend this book in 2009; the reason was that it had aged (it was published in 2001). So, imagine my delight when I found a new book “Gynaecological oncology” by Shafi, Earl and Tan! I bought it and have already read half of it, and it is proving to be an absolute pleasure! This book is likely to take  the pain outof your MRCOG oncology revision!  Just like “Mr Muscle” kitchen cleaner, it makes you love the job you hate! I highly recommend it: 205 pages of highly relevant stuff for MRCOG.

Gynaecological Oncology is published by Cambridge University Press

“So you want to become a cardiothoracic consultant surgeon” Career Pathways 3

Blog Post by Mr Large, Cardiothoracic Consultant Surgeon

·         What does your speciality offer?             

Cardio-thoracic surgery offers an exceptional combination of medicine, physiology and delicate technical skills. It is one of the few surgical specialities which is truly reconstructive rather than ablative. It offers patients substantial improvements in quality of life and prognosis. It is probably one of the most evidence-based practices in medicine. CT surgery is a small surgical speciality with some 250 consultant in about 35 centres. It’s very well organised and it is closely monitored. Cardio-thoracic disease is changing with heart failure is on the rise along with patient age. With age comes atrial fibrillation and degenerative valve disorders.

“So you want to become a consultant Psychiatrist” Career Pathways 2

Blog Post by Dr Rashid ZAMAN BSc(Hons) MBBCHIR (Cantab) DGM MRCGP MRCPsych

·         What does speciality offer?  

The speciality is interesting, because it is able to link scientific underpinning of medicine (particularly neuroscience) with its human face. The training is fairly structured and is more responsive to the personal issues that may affect doctors (children, part time work etc).