Category: Educational

Hans Schmidt had lived all his life in the village of Tutzing, on the shores of Lake Starnberg, in Southern Germany. At the age of 21, he had married his childhood sweetheart, Gerda, and opened a small bakery, supplying bread and cakes to the local community. When his working days were over, the couple had […]

The patient was a lad of about 19 years who was clearly drunk.  He was quite unable to give an account of himself but his mates said that he had fallen down some steps on his way home from one of the nightclubs in the city centre. Inexperienced as I was, it was obvious from the […]

William Wetherall, the hospital’s Senior Physician, led his team of doctors and nurses onto the ward. It seemed that the theme for this particular round was to be the varying effects that drugs can have on different patients. The consultant had recently read reports in the Medical Journals that many well known proprietary medicines, particularly cough medicines, […]

I had been asked to pass the nasogastric tube, a task I hadn’t previously undertaken. It was a procedure that the nurses normally performed. However, I didn’t anticipate any difficulties. At any one time on the surgical ward, there were at least half a dozen patients being treated with these tubes and I wasn’t aware that […]

The time has come for me to introduce you to Sir William who will feature in several of the tales that I have lined up for you. He is the doctor I have most admired, the best boss I had when I was training and a wonderful colleague when I became a consultant. He was […]

The clinical assessment, essentially a practical examination, was the critical part of the final examination which would decide whether I was fit to put the letters MB ChB after my name and commence my life as a doctor. It began with a requirement to analyse a specimen of urine. With three other equally apprehensive candidates, […]

I was facing the hurdle which would decide whether the five long years I’d spent as a medical student were finally coming to an end. I was tackling the MB ChB examination – Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery. Succeed and I became a doctor – fail and I faced a further 6 months of […]

It is very much my hope that this blog will develop into an ‘open forum’ to which everyone can contribute so if you have a memorable story, anecdote or notable reminiscence, whether as a carer or perhaps as a patient, please get in touch. First contact should simply be with the gist of the story, […]