Scott’s Spiel

So I’ve finished the first week of my first SSM.

It wasn’t quite as exciting as it could’ve been. We started off, as promised, with a PowerPoint on how to properly make a PowerPoint. This really should’ve been delivered to 12 year olds instead of us - it was highly irrelevant and quite patronising! The best news was that it lasted only 1 hour instead of the 2 timetabled. I also have to give him credit for mentioning (in a positive way) Apple Macs and Keynote.

After that we had what I thought was an introduction to the SSM. Instead it was an introduction to pain and hit home a lot of the stuff we knew as well as adding in a fair bit we didn’t. It dragged on for a bit (3hrs) but was pretty good and certainly worthwhile.

Therefore, a day later than expected, we got our clinical timetables. Now I was pretty excited (sad, I know). The basic timetable is one day in then the following one off, for the next 2 weeks. We have a visit for most of the obvious pain settings - out-patients clinic, theatre (my first time, highly excited but slightly nervous), obstetrics (indifferent, heard good things - can’t wait to hear what my mother’s input will be) and pain rounds. There’s also 1 day to Yorkhill (paediatrics) which I’m (yet again) quite looking forward to.

I also need to come up with a pain related topic for a 10 minute presentation and 3000 word essay. My current thoughts are something around about analgesia administration route in acute pain, with an emphasis on patient controlled analgesia (PCA) particularly in children. This is quite a broad area (I think) that I can easily get the words and something that I’d be quite interested in.

We also have the option to extend the essay to around 6000 words and submit it for an annual anaesthesia prize. I’m quite intrigued about possibly doing this, depending on whether I can write enough and of reasonably decent quality. Even if I don’t win (which is likely) then I’d have a bit of experience in submitting for awards which is great in such a competitive world.

I am getting slightly annoyed by people who want to do as little work as possible. I know a lot of people that would love a clinical SSM and yet they couldn’t get it. I’ve heard from those in years above me that this is one of their favourite SSMs and the learning experience is unbeatable. I, for one, aim to make the most of it.