Junior Doctors: One Year Check Up

Keir Shiels Keir Shiels — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:30:15 +0000

It's hard to believe that it's been a year since we first wrapped our stethoscopes around our necks, pocketed our pen torches and stepped onto the wards as doctors for the first time.

Of course for everyone reading this post, it won't feel that long either, because Junior Doctors: Your Life in Their Hands Series 1 was broadcast in March, but it was filmed between August and November and we have all changed so much and yet so little - in the intervening months. We've been stopped in the street, chatted to by complete strangers, and hilariously parodied by a group of medical students on YouTube...

We're still all the same people out of work, but we have all surprised ourselves with how far we've come since those early days. We all catch up with each other regularly - we're still good friends and love to catch up with each other regularly. Here's a bit of an update:

Adam (or "The One With That Car") has been at the coalface of medicine, looking after the sickest patients in Intensive Care, which has given him the hands-on experience and critical care management he so craved in his first few months. Adam recently got a taste of medicine from the opposite end of the bed, when he was injured in a road accident and needed to get treatment in hospital. He has fully recovered and is back at work now. Based in A&E, he is following in Suzi's footsteps dealing with all sorts of cases from the trivial to the life-threatening. He's still subjected to an avalanche of paperwork from time to time, but is achieving the level of responsibility that he so craved in those first few weeks.

Andy (or "The One With That Joke") is sorely missed. He has moved to Hong Kong and so is not seen as much as the others. He's living with his family having spent so many years in the UK and is taking exams to start practising medicine in the Far East. Unlike driving licences, medical licences aren't necessarily accepted overseas. If you want to practise abroad, you have to sit even more exams before you can be let loose on the wards. So Andy has let himself in for a lot of work before he can kick off his new career!

Katherine (or "The One With That Handbag") and Suzi have silenced their critics by sitting their professional exams a year early and passing all of the papers first time. Katherine is pushing on with her ambitions for a career in surgery, and has recently survived one of the toughest jobs in Newcastle - working on the Liver Surgery Wards. She's now looking after patients undergoing Ear, Nose and Throat Surgery, with responsibility not just for her patients but also for the first year doctors who work on the ward. She's now in the same situation I was when she started off: helping the first years organise their time and helping them out in times of need.

Jon (or "The One With That Song About Him") is still working towards a career in surgery, juggling his work life and social life in a way that only Jon can. Shortly after episode 2 of Junior Doctors aired, he guest-starred in an episode of Harry Hill's TV Burp, chasing a giant shepherd's pie down a corridor, much to the delight and hilarity of his colleagues, who won't let him forget it.

Lucy (or "The One With That Tear in Her Eye") has split her time between academic research in genetics and working on the wards. A radical new short haircut hasn't stopped her getting noticed (or indeed being photographed for magazines). Lucy has had an exciting year, not only developing her medical skills, but progressing in research and baking incessantly. She also has recently become engaged! Her fiancé proposed in New York. We can't wait for the wedding!

Suzi (or "The One With That Toilet Brush") is loving her new medical job in South Shields. Having knocked her Barbie-like image into touch, she has a lot of responsibility on her ward, looking after some of the sickest patients and being responsible for their management when on-call. Suzi and I often take a cheeky evening out to the cinema or theatre; but nowhere is safe without someone coming up to her and asking about that toilet brush... Suzi will be taking the last of her exams soon, and risks being qualified to be a registrar two years early!

Which leaves me, Keir or "The One With That Heel-Click". I have moved from Newcastle to London to pursue a career in Paediatric Medicine. Currently at Whipps Cross Hospital, I move to Great Ormond Street next year, which I'm really looking forward to. I've dabbled in a few conferences and talks here and there, telling students and doctors alike about my experiences as a Junior Doctor. In three years' time, I have to make up my mind as to which area of paediatrics I wish to specialise in and I'm finding the decision difficult... Plus ça change...

Watch Junior Doctors One Year Check Up tonight at 9pm.

Junior Doctor Keir: I believe reality TV buffs call this "A Journey"

Keir Shiels Keir Shiels — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:59:46 +0000

And so, it is now my turn to be the next Junior Doctor to type a few words about myself.
Everyone's first day at work is somewhat daunting. One wants to make a good impression, but without being over-keen (mentioning no names) or under-prepared (ditto): it is very important to fit in. However, try fitting in when you've brought a camera crew with you. Those two extra people - one with a large lens and one with what looks like a large fluffy sock on a stick (the sound person) - represent 1.4 million pair of eyes watching your every move - and those of your colleagues. No matter how much you want to fit in, no matter how hard you try, it's going to get you noticed by your colleagues.

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I wouldn't have had the nerve to take part in this project as an F1 doctor (in the first foundation year as a newly qualified doctor), I was a bundle of nerves. I started out on nightshift as the only F1 to look after all the surgical patients in one hospital. My first patient crashed. I had to enlist help from medical, surgical and anaesthetics colleagues. It was enough of a baptism of fire without being asked to reflect on what I was doing by the sock-on-a-stick-person. I admire Adam, Katherine and Lucy for having the guts to do it from day one. I'd have run a mile and, as Lucy will tell you, I never - ever - run.

So what, in the end, made me sign up to the project? Well, there were two reasons. Firstly, I found out that Katherine had signed up to the project (I knew her from my time at Cambridge). This meant that, technically, I probably couldn't avoid the crews even if I dived Rambo-style into the sluice every time they passed. But secondly, I felt that my journey into and through medicine was an interesting one to tell. It was a big and happy journey. As big and happy as... um... Jon.

Junior Doctor Keir Shiels

My career route has wobbled along meandering between science (researching neuropsychology and behavioural genetics), teaching (lecturing students, teaching children) acting and wine-merchanting (it's a long but very happy story). I loved science. I loved teaching, I loved personal interaction. I even enjoyed management. But finding a career that encompassed all of these was hard. Until I went to the doctor. (I should point out that I mean "encompassed all these... except wine". My GP wasn't hitting the Rioja at work.)

Fast-track medical training, for people who already have a degree, has opened up a world that otherwise people could not afford, in either time or money. It has allowed people like me to make a decision in their twenties that most people make a decade earlier. It's a lot of hard work (and fun) doing a five year degree in three and a half, but very fulfilling.

So after graduating from Cambridge (twice) I find myself in Newcastle - back home - with the opportunity to show the sort of doctors we older Juniors are. So how did I cope with the cameras? Truth be told, I didn't notice them most of the time. The man with the lens was - in my head - a consultant. The sock-on-a-stick was a member of my family. And I behaved at work as if they were watching me. Because now, they are.

As filming went on, I developed more surgical skills on the plastic surgery unit and came to a decision about my future. I believe reality TV buffs call this "A Journey". Within 16 months of starting work as an F1, doctors have to decide what they want to be when they grow up - a GP? A Radiologist? A Pathologist? A Surgeon?

16 months' experience in four different placements and you have to decide which areas of practice you never want to deal with again. It is not long and a weighty decision. My 'journey' was working out whether I wanted to end up as a children's surgeon or a children's medic and I now have my life planned out for the next 8 years. As to what that decision is, you'll have to watch and find out.

Watch Keir in the final episode of Junior Doctors: Your Life in Their Hands at 9pm tomorrow.

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Junior Doctors: One Year Check Up

Junior Doctor Keir: I believe reality TV buffs call this "A Journey"