The people you work with...

Hi,

I have been thinking a lot about how the people you work with influence how much you enjoy your job. I work with some real characters, for better and worse, and I think that the people who you work with are the main factor which affects whether you enjoy going into work in the morning.

For example, there is the nurse in the pre-op assessment unit who calls me 'Mr Vascularity". I am pretty sure that this isn't something to be proud of, but it always makes me feel noticed (and certainly puts a smile on my patient's faces). It is nice to feel as though you are not just another person wandering around the hospital, but people notice and remember you, and enjoy chatting with you. Especially friendly motherly nurses who help look out for me!

My consultant is pretty much the opposite. He is the 'typical' surgical consultant, very blunt and brief with patients, and difficult to approach. My favourite quote from him this week (and keep in mind I only see him once a week, for his weekly ward round, the rest of the time he spends in theatre, clinic or in other hospitals) was while he was on the phone to a member of office staff. I think someone had had to move his list around to a different theatre which he was less happy with, and this poor office worker had to tell him. I caught the consultant telling the person that.

"I am going to show you what happens when a consultant throws his considerable weight around"

Needless to say, I don't get on very well with my consultant, but fortunately rarely see him. As long as I have my pockets full of gloves and pairs of scissors for him to look at the post-surgical wounds of the patients on the ward, he seems to tolerate me...

So moving onto the other most important group of people I work with. Seniors are obviously important, as are nurses and other clinical staff. The third group is my peers; other junior doctors. On the whole, the juniors at this hospital have all been so supportive of one another. It quickly became apparent who was quite highly strung and got stressed about most things, and who was lazy and would try and avoid as much work as possible, but on the whole I have been very lucky with this bunch of people. The surgical jobs come in waves, with certain firms being much  busier than other firms at any one point. People from the less busy firms seem very happy to come and help those who are much busier. I have been helping others for a few weeks but have been very busy recently, and very glad of the help coming my way when it seems like I will have to stay past 8PM to get things done. One of the other F1s even bought me a pack of Maltesers as I looked tired out from all the running around hospital. How lovely; it is those little things that make the day easier!