Being the New Girl
Dr Liz Thomas is a member and past Chair of the WICM Sub-Committee . She is a consultant in critical care and anaesthesia. When not at work, Liz sings as much as possible in several choirs and loves to explore the world with her family.
Eighteen months ago I moved jobs. I’m sure the trainees/rotational doctors reading this are thinking this isn’t anything worth blogging about, but as I’d been a consultant for 10 years it was quite a change for my world. I feel it helped me see the world, the NHS and critical care through different eyes and therefore I volunteered to write a blog for WICM about it. I’m hoping sharing my experiences here won’t lead to a mass job change for everyone but will spark some thoughts about communication and our working environment.
My new work unit is very large – we have 44 critical care beds in our hospital with over 50 nurses per shift and a consultant team of 34 doctors. I have always been inspired by the late Dr Kate Grainger’s “Hello, my name is” campaign but being the new girl on the block has highlighted this even more – nobody knew me, and I had no idea who was who or what job they were qualified to do. I clearly remember my first ward round on ICU – I was leading the ward round, wearing the ICU consultant scrubs but the nursing staff were looking at me with suspicion – I then worked out that as my ID badge said “Locum” and they’d not met me before they were trying to scope me out. A quick chat and a proper introduction meant any queries were dispelled – and they felt empowered to tell me when I was making decisions that weren’t usual for my new unit! The staff now know me – I’m fairly easy to recognise with my pink hair – and I now know how my unit works (although I still try to prescribe the wrong type of low-molecular weight heparin every time), so the suspicious looks have subsided.
Moving jobs was also more tiring than I expected – and I had to ask a LOT of questions. I regularly got lost – hospital signage is very variable! I had no idea how things worked, who makes things happen, the general hospital etiquette. Critical care, as you are all aware is a specialty with a lot of interaction with other specialties. In my old trust I felt I knew all the consultants across the hospital. At times in my new job I felt completely useless knowing I wanted to do something – but having no idea how to get it done or who to speak to. I am aware that some of my colleagues felt similar when needing to ‘act down’ during the junior doctor’s industrial action. It was really strange feeling completely useless having worked as a consultant for a decade – I was meant to know what to do and be in charge.
What is my take home message in these ponderings? I think I have learnt a lot and it has possibly made me a better consultant – I already had utmost respect for our rotating doctors but moving hospitals has concreted that even further. People are more likely to help you out if they know who you are and I’m now even more likely to say “I’m really sorry but I’ve forgotten your name. My name is Liz.”
August is a time of changeover for many ICU doctors – this year I am reflecting more than previously about the huge amount of information and ‘rules’ the new medical staff have to take on and how quickly they adapt to the new units they work on.
