New Media Medicine Forums - Medical News

Posted: 22 Sep 2014 10:55 AM PDT

Hello all

I'm doing my PLAB 1 exam in 4 months, can anyone please tell me what are the best resources to study from.

Thank you all in advance :)

career inspiration...?

Posted: 21 Sep 2014 03:31 PM PDT

i realise there's a lot of these types of posts so i apologise if this seems rather mundane
i'm just having some issues deciding what specialties i ought to consider and was wondering if others could provide any thoughts, tales from experience etc to help in my decision making

i just graduated as a doctor in the UK and am working in my first post in a medical job (elderly)
i always thought i wanted to do surgery and still am interested in the work of surgeons and the acute care of patients however during some experiences of theatre in the past i have been left daydreaming a bit. whilst i realise the role of consultant/registrar doing the operating will differ from that of student/junior assisting/daydreaming i somehow don't know if i have the spark of passion for surgery i thought i had whilst getting publications, intercalating etc etc

so what about medicine. i'm really not sure. i find the idea (and experience) of all day ward rounds and tinkering with drug regimens of long term patients in elderly care to be very tedious.

My personality type is ISFP (or thereabouts)
I enjoy thinking about management plans and diagnosis but get bored when things become too chronic with no real tangible day to day change
I find acute care interesting but am quite nervy and am not a natural leader in emergencies!

Some things I've enjoyed:
- clerking patients and discussing them with seniors
- the buzz when practical procedures go well e.g. cannulation, bloods, ABGs etc
- learning good clinical examination skills
- academia and reading research papers / listening to people really interested in their field

Some things I haven't enjoyed as much:
- long ward rounds where little changes
- learning about different drugs
- feeling rushed / unable to work logically and methodically over problems
- poorly defined, multi-factorial presentations
-

a big part of my dilemma is that i can see good in every specialty i've come across and am remarkably fickle!

i realise that, having never met me, this is pretty far fetched but was wondering if, given the above, anyone has any thoughts as to what sort of specialties might be a good fit to investigate? out of interest as much as anything!

any thoughts would be great!