Ward Practices

The clinical practices that we had observed during this attachment differ greatly from what we had learnt in school. Things like sterility and positioning which are emphasized during our learning phase are not fully followed here in the ward.

At least, through such comparisons and observations, we can learn to observe the wrongs and practise the rights.

In a few instances, I have to start asking the staff if certain procedures are supposed to be done this way. To their credit, they did point out that the way that they are doing could be wrong and for me to remember my clinical skills taught in school. Fortunately, they were not offended by my questions even though I've tried to be as tactful with it as possible!

I do think that by observing the proper ways of doing things is good but if we were to truly learn from the 'wrong' then we better start asking the correct questions.

Expectations of us are higher now though. When one of us asked our CP instructor whether to assess us for feeding patient(orally), the instructor replied: "Feeding? That is soooooo year 1!"

Oh yeah. We are the seniors now. :)