The Surgical Reg

Since rotating onto this current placement on the first Wednesday in October, I have been rotated only to normal working days. Gone is the previous Rota Master's fickle torture regime of a single night shift followed by a day shift, followed by a night shift madness. Instead, the new Controller of Spreadsheets appears to group on-calls together in a big lump! It all kicks off next week, when I have a week of long days on-calls, followed by a week of nights on-call, followed by weekend of nights, finishing up with a weekend of days on-call!  I have surprised myself with the realisation that I am wholeheartedly looking forward to receiving the bleep on Monday morning?!? Despite the higher possibility of getting a lunch break, the feasibility of using the bathroom when you need to, and the ability to get a decent amount of sleep at night that comes with elective work, I find that I do get tiresomely fatigued with day after day of Multi Disciplinary Team Meetings, ward rounds, outpatie...

The first Wednesday in October. All Change! Change of course, being the one constant in Surgical Training. On this occasion however, on stepping off the merry-go-round, I was most surprised and relieved to discover that I was not to be starting with a night shift in the hospital that I'd never worked in before - miracles never cease to exist!  The HR Department however, held little else back in the way of surprises - it was all very much in line with their usual tried and tested protocol. The On-Call rota of nights and weekends had been sent 2 weeks prior to starting, and was obviously incorrect almost every regard. Having finished work in one NHS hospital just 14 hours earlier, and now a continuous full time NHS employee of 8 years vintage, Occupational Health had now suddenly decided to play their usual charade of finding a reason that I was not fit to work in a hospital somewhere on the exhaustive health questionnaire that they had received 2 months previously. Not to be outdone...