Tomorrow's weather

High
10°
Sunrise: 08:45
Chance of Precip. 80%

Depressing. So there I was on a downhill (having peddled up it on the way to work), having to peddle furiously to keep moving, because a fierce headwind was blowing me UP the hill.

That's part of the reason why I got a car. The other reason was that there's a stretch on the way to work where the cars join the M77, and also a roundabout where the drivers don't seem to look left before turning off. (partly due to the small number of cyclists, so it's a bit of a circular argument)

What I really need though, is not my car back, but some sunshine!

hopeless junior docs

I knew it was going to be a struggle when she said "so you don't suction them before drying them out, then?"
[trying to upload a few things to my 'eportfolio' but it's painfully slow, so blogging at the same time to alleviate my boredom]
Any final year medical student worth their salt should know that resuscitating a newborn baby begins with drying them out with a warm towel - because that's most often all it takes to stimulate breathing and crying. Most newborns can clear a few hundred mililitres of fluid from their lungs in a matter of minutes. And drying them out so they keep warm will keep the lung surfactant working.
Yesterday was a complete nightmare. Having spent the whole of Saturday in super-patient mode with a brand new SHO (comforting myself with the hope that Sunday would be better), I then get a different, totally new person on Sunday. Even worse, she's never put an IV line in a child before, EVER, and knows less than a medical student about how to resuscitate a baby. So I end up doing everything (and I mean EVERY SINGLE THING) myself. For 12 hours. And because I'm painfully aware that I'm meant to be teaching her, I page her and wait for her to swan in to observe what I am doing before I start each task, slowing things down even more. So over the course of the day, I did all the IV lines, all the blood samples, saw all the babies on post-natal ward the midwives were worried about (including admitting and performing a lumbar puncture on one who was septic and comforting its tearful mum), attended all the deliveries on labour ward requiring a 'paediatric' presence, took referrals from community midwives, did all the 'jobs' on Special Care, and kept track of (or tried my best to keep track of) the 2 Intensive Care babies. Lunch didn't happen (I didn't expect it to). There weren't even any horrid cheap chocolates from well-meaning relatives on the nurses' station to keep me going. I drank so little fluid that it didn't matter that there wasn't any time to go to the loo. By the end of the shift I was a complete wreck (but just about managed not to show it). Then She left before I did, which I think is just rude. This is why I'm often grumpy and impatient when I get home.
I was so tired that I slept until noon today. And I'm on call again tonight, with another brand new junior. I don't expect them to be 'good' at the job by any means, but it would just be nice if the inexperience was tempered with some enthusiasm. It just becomes a bit ridiculous when I not only have to perform the task they are unable to do, but they can't even be bothered to come and watch and learn.