Hectic lives of junior doctors are revealed in new show Confessions of a Junior Doctor
THE first days and months of junior doctors at Northampton General Hospital are documented in a new Channel 4 programme this week.
The hectic lives of junior doctors are revealed in the show as three trainees at different stages of their careers open up their day-to-day lives to cameras.
Working in any NHS hospital would be tough, but for junior doctors their first day is daunting.
Consultant Dr Phillp Pearson of Northampton General confirms this fear, saying:
“You can ask any doctor and they will say that is the most important day in their professional lives."
Second year junior doctor Sam Pollen says of his first day: "You’re s**ting it, it’s terrifying"
For 28-year-old Holly, day one on the job is even more nerve-wracking thanks to doubts that were instilled in her by a teacher who said she'd never be a doctor.
The junior doctor explains: "When I was 15 one of my teachers told me I would never be a doctor because I wasn’t clever enough and I had no drive.
"It left me with no confidence.”
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Holly, who is one of 63,000 junior doctors in the UK, goes on to add that her road to medicine hasn't been easy, having worked previously as a healthcare assistant, a pub manager and in security along the way.
She says: “Everyone’s fear on their first day is causing serious harm or killing a patient – which is very difficult to do apparently, hopefully."
But Holly's first day isn't going to be any easier, with the first patient she sees on the Emergency Assessment Unit declining rapidly from pneumonia.
When the consultant is briefly called away, Holly is forced to make the decision to insert a tube down the patient's throat to administer antibiotics when the patient's life is hanging in the balance - just three hours into Holly's career.
Holly says: “When it’s your first few days and the unexpected happens, that’s when the self-doubt creeps in."
But Holly will have to wait to see if her work has paid off, saying, "It's a waiting game."
A few days later, the patient dies from his infection and Holly is faced with self-doubt about her first ever patient.
She says: "You just for that moment think was there anything I could have done. "You’re there to relieve pain, relieve suffering, make patients better but death is a consequence of life.”
By week three, Holly is called away for a cardiac arrest where an elderly lady dies, only to return to the ward and find out another patient of hers has passed away.
Dr Lyndsey Brawn explained that accepting death is the hardest task for a junior doctor.
She says: "The most difficult thing when you start as a new doctor is realising that you’re not going to be able to help everybody.
"There are some patients that whatever you do, they’re not going to improve.
As a junior that’s difficult to get your head around.”
Elsewhere in the hospital, third-year trainee Emily is struggling with the workload on the palliative care unit.
Deciding to specialise in end of life care after her mother recovered from breast cancer, Emily admits, "This job has broken me," after a particularly hard day of rounds when her team is three nurses down and a 25-year-old patient with stage 4 throat cancer is left waiting four hours for a half-an-hour appointment and she's faced with telling another patient Tracey, who used to work at the hospital, that her lung cancer treatment is no longer working.
A few days later, Tracey passes away after Emily was able to grant her wish of dying at home.
Sam Pollen is a second year junior doctor who is considering leaving the NHS for good after feeling demoralised by the "overstretched system."
Sam says the realities of his job, “sours a lot of what you’ve worked so hard for all these years.”
The junior doctor, who works on the gastro ward dealing with stomach and bowel problems and a lot of elderly patients says: "It is not glamorous – I leave work most days covered in poo, blood, vomit or a combination of the three.”
Sam is particularly distressed by one patient, a 20-year-old man called Ryan, who keeps losing weight but doctors are unable to give a diagnosis to.
Weeks later, on a rare quiet day, Sam is able to have a proper chat with the patient and learn he has a cannabis problem - which can suppress appetite.
The information is passed to the ward's consultant and Sam is happy that he's able to make a difference to the patient's treatment programme, but still isn't sure whether he wants to continue his training in the UK or abroad.
He says the success, "reminds you of why you’re here and why you put all the work in."
By the end of the programme, Holly has overseen 12 patient deaths and admits that she hasn't finished work on time once.
She adds: "The reason that we don't stop is because we care about patients and we put them first - why would you be a doctor or a nurse or work anywhere in the NHS if you didn't care about people?"
She says that despite the stress and pressure, she is, "still enjoying being a doctor, but there have been days when I think twice."
Recently, it was revealed that being fat increases the chance of womb cancer, while tributes flood in for social media star Jessica-Jayde Allen who died yesterday after losing her battle to cancer.
Confessions of a Junior Doctor airs on Channel 4 at 9pm on Wednesday.