Hey all, and welcome back to my column on working as a paramedic in a GP setting!
This month has definitely been one of learning and growing. I have spent a few months focused on settling into this environment and the working flow here. Although I am still very much at the stage of needing plenty of discussion and collaboration (honestly, working with more experienced clinicians is the safest way to approach patient care), I am now looking into building on my knowledge with a view to hopefully moving into doing the taught First Contact Practitioner (FCP) training route. This has added a few more skills onto my to-do list!
To start with, I have just completed the South East London course on understanding and interpreting commonly encountered blood tests. This was a funded 2-day online course, which went through full blood count, organ markers, infection markers and cancer markers. Although it was definitely a lot to get my head around, this knowledge is invaluable to gain more understanding on the interplay between different physiological blood markers. I am also doing another multi-day course later this month around vaccination knowledge and administering vaccinations, which I can then potentially incorporate into my role here. Finally, I am attempting to do regular reflections on patient interactions, which have an element to be learned from. Proof of regular reflection is a critical part of gaining access to the FCP route!
I am about to have my work review after a few months here, and I am definitely feeling more confident about it this time around. Discussions with my supervisor about moving onto the FCP course and being supported through this definitely lean more towards settling in further here. I have my eye on a specific local course and am just awaiting an update to their course programme for this year to re-apply. I did actually get on this course once before, but the gap in my general practice journey meant that I had to drop out. I am now excited to get started with this new step!
In this role, I spend the mornings essentially running a minor illnesses and injuries clinic, with varying conditions such as musculoskeletal injuries, chest or throat infections, abdominal pain and other minor concerns within my scope. In some cases, I will be more familiar with the guidelines for management after ruling out red flags. In other cases, it will be a learning opportunity when discussing newly encountered presentations with the direct supervisor. Either way, there is plenty of time at the moment to adequately exam the patient and history take. After some time, this is likely to reduce however to give more patients the opportunity to book in with me. I have the opportunity to make use of a lot of the assessment skills I learned during my minor injuries assessment course, although I still need that support to make sure I adequately manage cases. I do hope to go back and do the management of minor injuries course as soon as I can in order to facilitate this.
There is still one element of my role which I am waiting to start, which involves sessions of triaging the many e-consults that come into the system each day from patients or concerned relatives. This consists of appropriately signposting patients based on the symptoms or concerns described in the e-consult, which is something you can only do here after some experience with the appointment setup and the range of clinicians available. I am really hoping to become involved with this after my upcoming review—so fingers crossed!