Scott's Spiel

The time is nearing when I’ll need to decide whether to apply to study an intercalated degree next year. It comes down to weighing up the possible benefits I’ll get from this year compared to the likely disadvantages.

The down sides are pretty easy to see, the major ones include:

• Increased debt
• Delay in graduating
• Leave my current year
• Uncertainty about the career advantages

On the other hand that last disadvantage could open a world of advantages:

• Gain a bonus over other applicants when it comes to job applications
• Ability to enter an academic route (something I’d likely enjoy)
• Spend time learning a subject in detail
• Learn how to carry out research
• Possibility of publication (it happens!)

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve considered that I’ll apply regardless. The financial aspect won’t be a concern providing I have no problem in keeping my job for the next few years. Going back a year will be quite unusual but I’ll get used to it no doubt.

Glasgow offers 2 different types of intercalated – one in the medical or in the biological faculties. The medical intercalated is based on a core degree programme combined with a specialist module of my selection. My current train of thought involves the developmental medicine specialist module. I’m slightly worried that this will be quite competitive so my effort is on improving my exam results this year.

As I mentioned in my last WordPress post I’ve been working on adding documentation to the core of WordPress, specifically the formatting.php file. This is quite a big file will upwards of 2000 lines of code and around 65 functions to document. It is used extensively in the formatting of pretty much every aspect of a blog. It surprised me therefore that when I started getting involved in developing WordPress this file (with the exception of may a dozen functions) completely lacked documentation.

Over the past number of weeks I’ve been (rather slowly, it’s quite a boring process) adding inline documentation to the file. So far I’ve got around 70-80% of the file done and plan on doing as much of the rest that I can. Unfortunately some of the functions are a bit difficult for me to understand and, at the risk of writing totally incorrect documentation, I’ve been leaving these.

However there is only one other developer actively documenting the code. New code is being documented as it is written but there is a great deal of code lacking any. Hopefully the 2.7 release will see a good deal more added. My contributions have already been committed to the Subversion trunk which I’m quite happy about.

I knew it wouldn’t be impossible, just quite difficult.

However, it seems I’ve broke the battery at least. Technically the die hard mactards would probably claim the computer itself is fine (a fair point, something I’d probably say).

The problem? The battery doesn’t appear to be recognised. Apple knows about it but unfortunately none of those work to solve it.

Honestly, I think i’ll be needing a new battery (£99 from Apple!) but I plan on taking it into the Apple store tomorrow and see if there are any other options.

Apart from that, I now have grown a hatred for the MagSafe power adapter.

On the plus side, I did manage to fix our DVD recorder after my mum decided it would be a good idea to put two DVDs in at the same time…

So today I found this article which lead me to the rather excellent new facebook design. Applications seem to be back in the proper place (out of view) and I hope it stays that way.

However, this quote from the article (my emphasis), really got me wondering:

Facebook expert Tony Beresford said that the site’s revamp was a positive move.

Just how in the world do you become a Facebook expert? Answers on a postcard please. Google pointed me here which I totally agree with.

Maybe I could be a WordPress expert? Certainly a Mac expert. Perhaps I’m a Scottish culture expert?

Sigh, not going to be reading Sky News again in a hurry,

Scary, eh?

It’s all downhill from here…

So my exams are over, by a full week (very up-to-date…not), and I’m now enjoying a well forgotten freedom.

The results are due out on Monday so I should probably be preparing either a pass or fail post. Based on how I felt they went I’d say it should be a pass – without being too confident – but I may just be a bit too hopeful. We were told quite firmly that nothing specific from 1st year that we hadn’t covered again this year would come up in the papers.

Oh how they lied!

There was a good many marks that came from purely 1st year material. Thankfully only 1 question really stumped me and I still managed to put something down for it.

The OSCEs were pretty good, hopefully haven’t failed them. I did have to do an exam on my girlfriend which was possibly the most nervous station out of them all. She says I passed though, guess that could just be to comfort me (although I doubt it!). The introductions of the spot stations was a bugger, two came from one cell biology lab right at the start of the year and pretty much everyone was pissed off by them. According to the guy who’s marking them however they haven’t changed results too much. I hope that means 250 passes.

Following the end of exams on the Friday (and an interesting weekend) I started work on the Monday morning. By noon on the Monday I had taken blood for the first time. It was quite a nervous attempt – on our trainer no less – but I got there in the end. The mornings for the rest of the week involved us taking it from patients for real on the wards. I struggled in a number of cases but on the whole I don’t feel I did to badly. I even had the delightful pleasure of taking blood from someone’s foot!

The last day of the week involved working in a clinic. My second patient to bleed was particularly interesting. Not only could I not manage it, neither could my trainer and indeed the consultant was struggling. He finally managed though and gave us a nice chat about it and his book (Medical Biochemistry, for those interested) afterwards.

I’ve also found out that this 2 week training is followed by 4 weeks of mentoring on-site. Considering I’m contracted to do 8 hour weekends this is a bit of a bugger for me. I can’t work a full day since the service only works in the morning. I can’t go home and work because I need to be there for a month. That said, I don’t want to be working for a couple of weekends following training anyway – T in the Park!. I’m not sure what the outcome of this will be. My mum’s amazed that anyone can make you work weekdays for 6 weeks so you can eventually do the weekends, which is what the contract is for. To be honest, I see her point. Although I have no actual contact…yet.

On the off-chance anyone reading this has any use for a PHP dev/tech support/general layabout in the UK, feel free to get in touch. I’d prefer to be paid but if you’ve got something remotely interesting then I might be tempted to get involved regardless.

Next post will like to be result related. Eek!

Two weeks this very day I will have finished the first paper of year two. I have jumped my revision into what I’d describe as 4th gear. Yesterday I managed to kill my personal record for revising in the SL – a whole 14 hours. Unfortunately this is probably a bit of an overestimate as I do need to eat, excrete and not forgetting procrastinate. I remain worryingly confident that all will be well. Even today, as I glanced over my least favourite of the blocks (gastro), I feel that come two weeks I will still be smiling – perhaps a little nervously.

At the moment I’ve been spending far too long looking at electives for the coming years – this assuming I will pass. Ideally, I’d love to spend my third year (junior) elective with the HEMS team in London and my senior one somewhere abroad. Unfortunately the competitiveness might be too much for me and I’m not generally too lucky. Still, it’s worth an email, I just want to wait till my exam results are in. I can’t really work out plans for my senior one until I know whether I will be intercalating or not. This is a big decision, probably bigger than it should be, and I’m still on the fence. I don’t even know whether I’d be allowed or not.

Three weeks today an I will have finished my first training session as a phlebotomist. Yes, I finally got some news. Apparently there was much of a mess up with recruitment and a few people have been having problems. The date is provisional, which is a bit of a problem come trying to work out a start date for the Safari Park. Hopefully the two should help avoid a financial hell-hole next year, combined with a much reduced rent.

With just over 20 days left to go till the exam week things are beginning to get a bit stressful. In comparison, however, I’m a lot less stressed than the great majority of others. I’m not sure whether that is a good thing or not, a little bit of stress would surely help me get some work done.

We’re largely expecting the exam this year to be a lot easier (or at least fairer) than the one last year. This is a bit of a kick for those resitting and I feel sorry for them. I’m also expecting this exam to be one of the easiest that will be coming up in the next few years, or maybe that’s just me hoping.

In comparison the OSCE is beginning to scare me. Clinical exams are fair enough, I can practice them to hell before the days of the exam. However they’ve promised us 5 “spot” checks which will be unstaffed stations with some sort of item to identify. The item, we gather, could be some sort of x-ray (fair enough, make it simple please), barium swallow (we’ve seen a few of them, not in the mood for interpreting one though), ECG? I hope not, and then the threat of some histology slides – bugger!

Throw in the communication skills stations, one of which will be an ethical case, and then I really start feeling nervous. Worse, they’re spreading the torture over 2 days, the first in a peripheral hospital and the second in the med school. I’m not really expecting many people to fail it so that offers a bit of reassurance. Thankfully we also get the results relatively soon after (especially compared to school exams!).

In true avoiding revision style I’m spending this afternoon doing a moving and handling (part 2) course. Sounds like fun…ish. In fact, I might be giving up the next 2 Saturdays to go to the cup final and part 3. Perfect timing!

Still haven’t heard anything from either job. Apparently the safari park aren’t the best with online applications so I’ve got a form back home to fill out. Seriously need a job….

So yesterday I was around for the Applicant’s day again. I think it was a bit busier than last year, but doesn’t really compare to the Open Days which are far busier. Managed to get a couple of people around for tours, hopefully they helped some people make their mind up about where to go. Someone had heard of this blog, which is quite interesting to me as it gives me an idea of who’s reading.

We also talked to the admissions secretary about a certain admissions forum which she wasn’t even aware existed. She was googling her name when she found it, so we started discussing certain cases. So I can almost certainly say that Uni staff are aware of what’s going on online.

Perhaps more relevant was a general discussion about immediate/pre-hospital care I had with a 3rd year who’s quite interested in the topic (and a BRC first aider, and a phlebotomist…) as well as a paramedic/ALS trainer. I have a view that there will be a change in immediate care in the future where a greater number of doctors will be involved in pre-hospital medicine, similar to a recommendation I read today (as opposed to revising) in a report. Neither of my colleagues agreed, the paramedic keen to get out of pre-hospital care and the 3rd year considering moving to somewhere with a greater emphasis on the topic.

Following on the subject we had a practice drill for our annual inspection next week at training. I personally find it both embarrassing and highly amusing at the same time. To make volunteers parade in a military drill so their uniform can be inspected is a bit over the top if you ask me. Fair enough, if people turn up on duty without reasonable uniform, deal with it, but lets get out of the military eh? That’s great in theory but when our inspecting officer and chief are all from a military background, it’s not happening any time soon.

I’m not looking forward to the inspection, but anything could happen.

So there I was, dashing from shop to shop in the rain (although, thankfully, nothing like that’s been hitting our friends down south) when I receive a text message from my commandant. Normally when I receive a message at this time of day when we have training at night it is to tell me it has been cancelled. However, not so on this occasion.The message read something along the lines of “please attend tonight, letter received, urgent”.

My companion at the time started asking me what I had done wrong, assuming the message had been sent to just me. I racked my previous duties to consider if I had done anything worthy of a letter from above. They best I could come up with at the time was this poor blog. I wondered if someone somewhere had found it and had a problem with what I was writing.

As we pondered, I dropped a quick message in to one of my colleagues who also happens to be a Glasgow medic. They eventually got back to me to let me know that they might struggle to make it, being out of Glasgow and having a fair bit of work to do and I inferred (correctly) that she too had received the message. I also had a lot to be getting on with as my essay at that stage was far from finished. However, being urgent, I attended dutifully.

Was it urgent?

No.

I don’t think so anyway.

It was referring to the possible increase in insurance that might happen due to a lack of people attending moving and handling courses. This fee might even have to be paid by members! However, if that was to happen the company would pay it on our behalf. So all in all the letter was meaningless.

My colleague was really annoyed at this, as she could’ve been doing her work due in tomorrow. I was only mildly annoyed as I hadn’t really expected anything big. However, it raises a point.

If this is to keep happening for trivial matters (we have an AGM in 3 weeks, could’ve waited till then, no?) then when something that is actually urgent occurs I may be inclined to ignore it.

That said, something positive did take place which fully justified attending. We each received a new and improved first aid bag. They’re only about a month and a bit behind, but that’s not too bad I guess. Here’s a snap of the new (left) and old bag, with a pen for size comparison.

Ignoring the fact it’s a really bad picture, you can see why it’s such an improvement. Now all I need is some stuff to put in it. I think I’ve bought enough so I’ll just keep my eye of for free supplies.

Another benefit of attending was the chance to put my name down for a rather big event at the end of the month. Not 100% sure I can make it, but I’ll hopefully find a way to get there. All I need to try and do now is get a hard hat and blue suit before then. Heh, one can dream.