150 hour fortnights
I’m back. I haven’t disappeared off the face of the earth, I just disappeared into the bowels of the hospital. Thus I have an excuse for my hiatus from blogging – I was overworked and exhausted. It is the cry of trainee medical officers (TMOs) everywhere.
I had thought that when I got the energy back for blogging, it was going to be because I was going to write about Vancouver. Or about the fact that a good friend of mine from school was coming down to Adelaide. Or about the fact that another good friend of mine has had his 2nd, much beloved and wanted, child. No, what fired me up to write was the very thing that stopped me from writing in the first place.
Today I attended an emergency crisis meeting for TMOs. The RMO lounge was filled with exhausted doctors from all over the hospital – interns, RMOs (resident medical officers), and registrars alike – as well was representatives from medical administration, the AMA, and the union. The RMO society did well in brainstorming 10 issues facing today’s junior doctors and possible solutions for these. After half an hour, another 6 issues were raised. At the end of this, we all left with ambivalent feelings. We had raised issues that confronted us all, some of which we had accepted as “that’s how it goes”, without realising that it was our right to not have these happen. I won’t go into the details of the discussion, suffice to say, the junior doctors of South Australia have too much on their plate. And, yes, we did come up with some solutions, which we feel would alleviate our burden. But are they enough? More importantly, will they actually implement these strategies? And if they do, will it be in time, before we lose all our junior staff? And what will it do for the already overworked nursing staff?
In the end, the consensus was that the junior doctors of today are overworked and exhausted. We are also disillusioned with the system -- our fatigue jeopardises patient safety, and we're told to grin and bear it. In other industries, disillusioned workers go on strike to have their demands met. Morally, ethically, and legally, doctors just cannot do that. I sympathise with medical administration and everyone else charged with ensuring our working conditions are safe and satisfactory. But, really, it shouldn't be the doctors coming up with solutions. We don't have time.
Ultimately, the problem stems from not enough doctors. Not enough doctors = 1 doctor does the load of 1.5 or 2 or even 3 doctors. Not enough doctors = junior staff being asked to fill senior positions. Both combined = poor working conditions. Poor working conditions = unhappy doctors. Unhappy doctors = resignations.
Resignations = even less doctors.
Something needs to be done. But I need to answer my pager, and just can't tackle the big picture. I'm too tired.
posted by Annalee | 11:37 pm
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