I have had to upskill so fast in so many areas in the last few months but I spent 2 weeks recently learning some specific skills that have limited (if any) applicability in mainstream General Practice.
I spent a week in Darwin Hospital's Radiology Department and now hole a limited radiography licence which means I can do perhaps 50 standard xrays. I'm the 5th person at the Maningrida clinic to do this training so there are 2 nurses and 2 other doctors able to do xrays in the clinic. It is a skill I have used extraordinarily much in the 10 days I have been back. The clinic functions very much as a small Emergency Department. In fact our manager quoted some statistics this week. It seems that we are averaging about 5000 encounters per week. About a third of those are no in person so they might be tracking results or calling patients to follow up, contacting specialists etc. But the other 4500 encounters are patients. Usually there are about 10 nurses and perhaps 3-4 doctors during the working day with 2 nurses on call after hours. So you can imagine how many patients we are actually seeing. Just in the 10 days since I've been back I have used the xrays to assess a few fractures, arthritis and several chest infections. Definitely worthwhile.
Here are a few good ones from Darwin:
I then headed to the Gold Coast for an Ultrasound course from the Australian Institute of Ultrasound. I did three days of Ultrasound for Remote GPs then 2 days of Obstetric Ultrasound. Not enough to be really proficient at anything but enough to have a go at a lot of things. I will definitely use it for pregnancy monitoring because after our midwife Beth leaves next week we have 2 midwives job-sharing that role and neither can do US. I can foresee that there are many other situations in which I might try to use it but I will let time tell. For now I have had a go at it a couple of times and it was most useful in excluding free fluid and thus reducing my fear that a more serious problem was brewing.
Perhaps the best thing about both these courses was the amazing brush-up I had in my general medicine. Obviously a thorough revision of anatomy was necessary. But there were also so many opportunities to reflect on pathology and basic physiology. I feel buffed and polished!
Nerdalicious!