22 October 2009
Sonal's Web Diary
On October 17th 2009 I was fortunate enough to celebrate Diwali with my family.
The date of Diwali changes according to the lunar calendar and most of the time it falls on a weekday. This year, however, Diwali fell on a weekend so I made the most of this opportunity to stay with family, participate in pooja (prayer) and have a party with lots of good food and fireworks. The Indian Society in Sheffield holds a Diwali celebration each year, involving a trip to the temple and then a dinner and celebration afterwards. Each year this is a great success and good fun, and had I not gone away for the weekend I would have definitely attended this event.
Currently I have just started my final placement of phase 3a, Obstetrics & Gynaecology. I have only been on placement for a week, but so far it has been interesting and tiring. As part of this rotation students are expected to scrub up and assist in surgery and participate in clinics seeing patients on a one to one basis. I find this increase in responsibility helps my learning and increases my confidence as both the patients and the supervising consultants now have more faith in us as budding doctors to be. Next week I shall be on the labour ward and am hoping to assist and deliver some babies. Though this placement is said to be the most demanding of all the rotations it also has very positive feedback with most of my peers saying they enjoyed it.