Monday
We started the day by joining the Endocrine team’s ward rounds. A lot of their patients are actually Gen Med. More Endocrine patients are seen in the clinic than in the wards.
It was quite underwhelming (and I really don’t mean this in any negative sense, just that you can imagine the ward rounds in Endocrine would be relatively unexciting). We did see a patient with a rare lesion. The doctors were saying, “The surgeons would never have seen one before.” But it’s not like we got to see the surgery or visualise anything related to the condition.
The Consultant came in at around 10am (later than other specialties we’ve been to, where usually the Consultant comes at 8:30am or 9am). He will try to impart some impactful life lesson e.g., on “patient-centred care” with some bravado. Cool guy.
The first patient we went to see with him was a very interesting one-of-a-kind patient who went on a long spiel about how they used to break up fights at clubs and subsequently engage the perpetrators in ‘anger management counselling’ (“you go prison you have to drink toilet water, you know”), how their work requires “bottoms up” shots of liquor, and basically trying to link all that to why they are unable to take their medications. This was the single longest encounter we ever had with a patient on ward rounds. Bearing in mind that this was the first patient the Consultant was seeing and he had a whole list of other patients, it’s quite phenomenal how he really tried to listen to this patient and attempted to incorporate some ‘counselling’ to get the patient to take the medications.
After this unique encounter, nothing much exciting happened. We didn’t have any afternoon tutorials scheduled. I decided to join one of the doctor’s afternoon clinic. There were no interesting signs, the patients were well-managed, and the consultations were mostly just okay let’s continue with this, check a few things, goodbye. Conditions included diabetes (very common), thyroid disorders, and osteoporosis.
Tuesday
Today was an extremely packed day. First we had morning rounds which blessedly ended early. The Consultant was not there as he had clinic. We then rushed off for a quiz cum teaching session. This was very useful and the questions really stimulated our thinking.
When that was done, we headed back to the wards for a tutorial on how to interpret chest X-rays. Then we ended the day with a bedside tutorial with one of our Core Tutors.
Nothing particularly exciting happened but the day was a blur and we ended past 5:30pm.
Wednesday
Today’s ward rounds were surprisingly short as well. At 10:15am I headed off to join Endocrinology Clinic (again). There was absolutely nothing to see. The doctor was quite busy and rushing to other rooms half the time. We did have a patient who had a very rare cancer, but he’s coming in after he already had the tumour removed, so again it’s not like we get to see the surgery or anything.
After lunch, we had a tutorial with our other Core Tutor, this time a didactic teaching (instead of a beside tutorial). Right after, it was a tutorial with our Endocrine Reg, who’s really knowledgeable and entertained our onslaught of questions on diabetic medications and complications.
Immediately after, at 5:15pm, I dashed off to join the start of night call. I was hoping to try some procedures, and decided I’d just wait there non-disruptively to see if there were any. I ended up waiting for 3 hours for one ECG. It was a bit underwhelming but it’s okay maybe I’ll stay again some other day. Left the hospital at 8:40pm.
Thursday
Ward rounds was the usual. One ‘exciting’ thing that happened was that we heard a thyroid bruit. In the afternoon there was an Endocrine Meeting over Zoom. One of the doctors presented on a case of insulin allergy (I wasn’t really listening oops).
Friday
Friday was again quite routine, and we got used to the lack of novelty. Ward rounds ended early, so my teammates went to sit in at the clinic.
After lunch, we found a nice place nearby to study before an afternoon tutorial with our Core Tutor. Subsequently, our tutor decided to just do the tutorial over Zoom, at which point my teammates promptly left for home. Only one other friend and I stayed on.
Example of Something You Might See in Endocrinology
(Source: EndocrineWeb)
For patients’ confidentiality, all details and identifiers are omitted. I’m unable to tell each patient’s story (though they’ll definitely be rich and meaningful). For more on my personal experience and struggles as a medical student, you can read about my Med School Life.