What is a firm?A firm is a team of doctors who work together to look after a list of patients. A firm usually consists of a consultant, a registrar, a senior house officer (SHO or F2) and a pre-registration house officer (PRHO or F1). You will be attached to a firm for your medicine and surgery rotations after Xmas. What is a ward round?A ward round is when the firm goes from bed-to-bed to visit each of the patients on their list. The history, examination, investigations and treatment of each patient are reviewed. A business ward round is a ward round which concentrates on dealing with the patients and not on teaching, in contrast to a teaching ward round. However, the distinction is not always so clear and often ward rounds are a mixture of both! What is take?Take is admission of patients to hospital either from A&E or by GP referral. The medical and surgical teams take it in turns to be on take during the day and at night. The firm on take clerk patient and take over responsibility for their care. What does clerk mean?To clerk a patient means to take a full history and do a full examination. The clerking is recorded in the patient’s notes. (see the grey handbook for an example). It is useful to try to write a plan or a problem list after the history and examination. What does present mean?Presenting is relaying the findings of your history and examination to another doctor; this should be done after you have clerked a patient. You will also get to present to the consultant on the ward round after take What should I do if I clerk a patient and they ask me what their diagnosis is?It is generally best not to tell the patient what you think the diagnosis is. Explain that you are going to report your findings to one of the doctors, who will also examine them and will then be able to answer any questions. What should I do if a patient I’m talking to becomes really ill?If it is an emergency (the patient has become unconscious/had a cardiac arrest/gone blue/stopped breathing etc.) press the emergency button by the bed or shout loudly for help and someone should come immediately. What should I do if a patient starts to cry?If you feel that you can, try to comfort the patient. If you feel out of your depth tell a doctor or nurse. I have nothing timetabled for this morning, what shall I do?Get in touch with your house officer and ask them what is happening that day. One of the best things you can do is go to see patients to take a history or do an examination; ask your house officer if there are any interesting patients. If you really can’t find anything to do, go to the library or go home. How do I get teaching?Ask for it!! You should receive teaching from your firm, they may not offer it but are usually only too willing if you ask. Don’t feel embarrassed to remind them, they have a lot of things to remember. How do I get between the John Radcliffe and the Churchill?
A free shuttle bus runs between the hospitals. It can be booked by ringing 30157 from an internal phone, by going to the JR reception or in the hospitals on the Oxford Radcliffe Hospital (ORH) intranet http://orhweb.orh.nhs.uk – click on the shuttle bus icon in the top right hand corner. To book the shuttle you need your ID badge number. How do I bleep someone?To bleep someone the sequence to dial is ‘code, bleep number, phone extension number,’ E.g. to bleep Dr X (bleep no. 1234) in the JR from the JR internal phone 56789: If you get stuck ring 0 and ask switchboard to bleep the doctor for you! |
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Ward Basics FAQ |
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