In light of the current NHS Doctor pay discussions, now might be the time to say that I am currently being paid considerably more per hour as an “unqualified covid vaccinator” than I will as an FY1 doctor. The government has the money….
FY1 induction day- “Hi my name is … what rotations are you doing? Oh lovely. What med school did you go too? Nice. Where are you living? Oh very nice.” x 30
Started off 2021 with my partner of 5 years breaking up with me 2 weeks before med school finals…. Ending 2021 as Dr Powell, a strong independent woman with the most amazing housemates, supportive family (+ I have full custody of Daphcat 😻)
I can’t plan my life more than 6 weeks in advance, got rota’d in to work on the day of my best friend’s wedding and spend my life driving 3hrs down the m4 to see my doctor boyfriend because it’s basically impossible to get a job in the same city. What doctor benefits!?
EXC
The NHS is too often run for the benefit of doctors, not of patients, Wes Streeting warns in
@theipaper
interview alongside Rachel Reeves.
He promises a decade-long reform programme to empower patients to take control of their own care.
Story:
Trusts (including my own) cancelling teaching and self development time in Jan due to “extraordinary pressures on the service”. Yet are things going to get any better in the foreseeable future!? Can’t keep cancelling trainees’ learning because of a failing healthcare system…
According to
@Telegraph
, as an FY2, I am not yet a doctor 😂 Apologies to every patient I have assessed, diagnosed and prescribed for over the last 2 years… I’ll give my ward cover bleep back now, any takers?
New Year, new profile pic, same me.
2024 goals
🏃🏻♀️🚴🏻♀️ - Sub 3 marathon, podium at world duathlon champs in 🇦🇺
👩🏻⚕️ - complete GP ST1 and enjoy moving to community practice forever!
My ST1 year has consisted of working in 3 specialties at 3 different hospitals. I’m all for a variety of experience but the mental toll of having to manage 3 different commutes, inductions, referral pathways and hospital guidelines has been 🤯 (Let alone learning the specialty!)
Not sure if it’s a Bristol thing or a Paeds thing but every single person I have met on my elective placement so far has been incredibly friendly, welcoming and keen to help/teach. I’m not used to this level of kindness 😅😅
@hasyourregtried
Ironically Gen surg at St George’s had the foundation trainees taken away from them a few years ago due to the toxic culture…. some are still on the on-call rota but not many😅
Happy face of a girl who’s completed her first triathlon in >2 years. Returning to swimming again giving me a really nice new focus outside of work! 75 hrs of paeds nights and long days since last Friday 😅 Cumulating in a very joyous Saturday morning out!
It would appear that trying to fit duathlon training around shift working life has resulted in my best race to date 🤷🏻♀️- 3rd at European champs 🥉 in a very close and exciting race!
2nd lady overall 🥈at the World Sprint Duathlon Championships qualifier at Thruxton yesterday. A dream race where I could showcase the hard work put in at 5am run club 😜 Looking forward to a trip to 🇦🇺 to race next year 😃
@YellowJerseyUK
@CatenaryCoach
@BritTri
Beyond excited to start my 6 week elective at Bristol Children’s Hospital next week 👩🏻⚕️👶🏥 Complete change of scenery, extremely friendly team and a return to working with my favourite patient population!
@antongyan
@lifeoftazza
I think you’ll find many nursing students have been utilised as HCA’s where there have been staff shortages for years, completely unpaid. Regardless of role, I think it’s time we evaluated the lack of financial support for all healthcare students expected to complete X hours 1/2
@MikeyCycling
This cycle lane has been there for YEARS the only new thing is the bollards lining it 😂 Even in rush hour (pre-COVID) I’ve never seen a que like this when cycling along!
We have revoked the derogation granted to Weston General Hospital. It has become apparent that both the BMA and NHS England were misled over the level of staffing cover. Either local management were unaware they had sufficient senior cover, or they deliberately misled us.
Last week in A&E I:
🔹Initiated life saving treatment for a young patient with sepsis
🔸Broke the news that a patient had a brain tumour
🔹Recognised a stroke call
🔸Closed wounds and provided a safe space for a DV victim
I earn £16/hr.
#fullpayrestoration
Thank you everyone for the kind comments 😊 Have accepted with upgrades for Bristol if one happens to crop up! (I grew up in North Somerset so am excited to return to the SW!)
I’m just a girl, standing in front of medical HR, asking for someone to work out what job I’m starting in December so that I can receive a rota and start making Christmas plans… (have so far received work schedules for two specialties whom both say they aren’t expecting me🙈)
Challenged myself in my last rotation of F2 to start swimming again and build towards my first sea swim triathlon. As someone absolutely terrified of the sea, I am absolutely stoked to have enjoyed a 1500m blast in the North Sea at British Champs this weekend! 10th place 🏅
@wesstreeting
@Jeremy_Hunt
I went to one of the largest med schools in the UK - we would frequently have 7+ final year students allocated to one ward on placement. Very poor learning and often most of us turned away. Much thought is needed about implementing this… plus the bottle necks as you progress!
@Xeon4f145d96s1
General surgery at St George’s had their foundation trainees taken away from them several years ago 👀 only allowed on the on-call rota (with normal shifts in vascular/plastics/urology/transplant only)
Didn’t get into the London Marathon ballot again...but DID find out today that I passed my med school finals 💃🏻👩🏻⚕️ Very proud to be joining my Grandad as the 2nd Dr Powell in my family 🥰
Another wonderful training camp in 🌋 ☀️The more time I spend out here, the more I ponder leaving the NHS, improving my Spanish and working as a Dr patching up fellow athletes on this island 😅
Quarantine Day 7- one week until I’m released back into society (yay!) just submitted my final essay after 8 years at uni (double yay!) Now to remember and revise how to be a doctor again in prep for my upcoming 8 week GP placement!
Started a new habit of unfollowing anyone who mentions the word ‘race weight’. I will always aim to be at my best physical fitness in the lead up to my big races but I have finally learnt that the number on the scale does not correlate with that at all!
#trainbrave
Turns out the cat’s morning hairball was good luck… 2nd female overall at the London duathlon today. 15th “man” out of 416. Happy days 💃🏻 Good little training race, bring on euro champs in 2 weeks!
The 6am pre-work runs were SO worth it for this moment! A bit of IV cyclizine may have made the second half of my race more enjoyable 🤢 but despite that feeling beyond proud and keen for another!
On a residential Sports Medicine course and a) group exercise is scheduled into the programme every day b) half the course delegates are also out running in the mornings before we start 😅 This is definitely my vibe ✨
Very much going to stop booking races the weekend following weekday nights 🤢😴 however a good result today at the British Duathlon Championships regardless! 🥉 (the extra hour definitely helped a bit!)
Train less, eat more, big social media cull, keep rest days as REST! The main points I’m taking away from today’s
#TRAINBRAVE
event. Great to attend with
@mummaPowell
mother and coach, Els my super ⭐️ of a sister and Ula my bestest running friend!
Super excited to be going to
@basem_uk
Foundation Skills Course this weekend! My first formal venture into Sports and Exercise Medicine 🚴🏻♀️🏊🏼♀️🏋🏻♀️⛹🏼♀️ 👩🏻⚕️ Dusted off my anatomy textbook for some pre-course homework 😅
First “official” day as an FY1
- only junior doctor on my ward
-left 2.5 hours late
- learnt how to do/organise a tonne of things thanks to lovely people at the end of the phone
-built rapport with patients,relatives + ward team
VERY excited for a full team of dr’s tomorrow!
Extremely disappointed to read this
@YellowJerseyUK
Weight loss is NOT a go to performance shortcut, especially for the amateur athlete this is aimed at ❌ the ideal weight for height table you have included is appalling and very much fuel for disordered eating!
@train_brave
Mission success- Qualification for World Sprint Duathlon Championships 2023 ✅ Marathon legs helping me deliver some cracking running today 🏃🏻♀️💨 Much needed solid sleep tonight and then a day in Gynae theatres tomorrow 😅
Becoming increasingly frustrated by being called “young lady”, “too young to be a doctor” and “you must be the F1 you look young” at work. I’ve been an adult for ≈ 10 years, spent 8 yrs of my life working really hard to become a doctor and actually these comments seriously hurt.
My biggest hope in life was for my grandparents (a retired doctor and nurse) to make it to my med school graduation. It may be 1 year late but today my dream came true ❤️ Will forever be honoured to keep the “Dr Powell” name going 👩🏻⚕️
Wouldn’t it be nice if we stopped commenting on athlete’s bodies and just appreciated how fast and strong they are whatever shape or size
#IMWC
#ironmanworldchampionships
I vowed to myself that I would never date a medic… yet after an extremely disastrous year of dating non-medics here I am exchanging rotas, discussing post-nights routines and planning fun trips away on free weekends that coincide with each other (and I secretly love it) 😅
As a medical student currently learning learning about Crohn's and a triathlete in my spare time, I think this is a super interesting documentary and extremely inspiring!
Here’s a short documentary on me, triathlon & my Crohn’s disease. I’ve had my downs since my diagnosis but I’ve also had so many ups along the way! I’m still learning & adapting but with the best family, friends & support by my side 😊
Just finished the PICU week of my elective- have finally understood how a ventilator works, played with cardiac babies to get them to stay still for ECGs, assisted central line insertions and unfortunately seen my first child death. Mega kudos to all the PICU staff and parents!
This morning I delivered a talk to local sixth form students about overcoming set-backs in my medical school journey…an hour later I’ve just found out that I’ve passed my medical degree with distinction 🥲🥲
@j30moo
@tom_chapman
@Julia_Mulligan
@BBCNews
1) a run, walk or CYCLE is stated in government guidance for our one daily exercise
2) many keyworkers will be cycling to work
3) I think a car travelling at speed is considerably more ‘intimidating’ than a cyclist 🤷🏻♀️
Earned myself a championship start at the London marathon. Only found out 5 weeks ago if I could race or if my new rota had me working. Thankfully off but working nights the week prior and after 😅 But our “extras” for working nights and weekends makes up for this stress right…
Mentioned in passing last week to that I did my elective in paeds emergency medicine and now I find myself the sole overnight paeds ED doctor this weekend 😅😅
It’s safe to say that on A Level results day 7 years ago when I found out that I hadn’t got the grades for medical school, I did not expect that I would end up in the top decile at KCL going into foundation jobs application AT ALL. Literally in tears right now 😭😅👩🏻⚕️
Working in a new hospital where there is secure bike storage under the hospital with changing rooms/showers/scrubs ✅ there are robots transporting cages and other equipment around the corridors 🤖 😲, yet there are no butterfly needles stocked on the wards 😥
#makeitmakesense
@AbbieTutt
Psych ward rounds are great- it’ll be 1 or 2 days a week max! You’re sat down with coffee, snacks and take it in turns with other juniors to document/get other jobs done. Very chill. We had a ward round baking rota 😅
🇦🇺🇦🇺 Just been given the go ahead from my first ST2 community job that I can have the leave to go to Australia in August for the World Duathlon Championships!! 🇦🇺 Thank you to the rota 😇 this last week 🙌🏻
I’m the nicest person in the world until you:
A) get in my swim lane and start doing jellyfish breastroke
Or
B) try and cut me up at a roundabout when I’m on my bike and it’s my right of way
Stepped on the scales for the first time in a year (to help analyse yesterday’s PB power readings) Very pleased to find that after a year of no calorie counting, proper exercise fuelling and a lot of delicious chocolate- my weight has pretty much stayed the same
#trustyourbody
Social distancing going really well in Richmond Park today- I’ve never seen the park so busy or full of cars! Loads of groups of cyclists too... 🤬 Getting out for fresh air is great but please only go solo or with the people you live with!!!
Did not ever think I’d be sitting my final exam of medical school today at home in Bristol where my applications for med school were first made 😅 Will change out of my PJ’s to make it seem a little more real 😹
Me - “I’m retiring from swimming/triathlon this year, enjoying duathlon/running/cycling a lot”
Mum - “do you fancy an ultra triathlon relay?”
Me- “yes, that sounds amazing!”
Looks like I’ll need to get back in the pool then 🙈
#familiesthattritogether
You know you’ve found the right housemate when both frequently find each other in the kitchen having a pre-exercise coffee at 5:30am, often discuss local emergency wild loo stops, enjoy a post-work rant before collapsing on the sofa watching trash tv all eve 😅
@omattyhara
Classic example of why hospital based training was never going to be for me. Kudos to the trainees who put up with this three times a year, every year. Can I go to GP land now please?
It’s incredible how much more I appreciate “protected teaching time” as an FY1 than I ever did as a medical student… a whole 1 hour break from being bombarded with ward jobs today, bliss 😅
Have rotated to an A&E job where the department shuts overnight! 😅 Arriving to a morning shift with no 10hr wait or horrendous corridor queue to clear is really quite a joy (some horrendous flashbacks to my last ED job in F2! 👩🏻⚕️)
It’s 11:30am on a ☀️ Sunday in the Powell family household- I’m getting ready for my long run, brother is out doing 90mins of hill reps, Dad is doing a tabata workout in the garden and Mum is in Slovakia at the Middle Distance Triathlon European Championships 😅