Advice for House Officers

Colin Johnson, FRCS & John Iredale, MRCP. 106pp, 210x140mm, 1996, 0906584434
£10.00 (UK postpaid £11.00)

Covers most of the administrative and procedural problems that the house officer must learn to handle during his or
her time on the medical and surgical wards.
 

What do I need to know before a ward round? How do I certify a patient who has just died? What is the procedure for cross-matching blood? How do I organise an emergency case for theatre? ... Each new house officer has a long list of questions which never seemed very pressing before but which now urgently need practical answers. There is much that is particular to surgical routine, and most surgical consultants appear to expect their house surgeon to have mastered it all within minutes of starting. House physicians have to cope with a bewildering range of protocols and procedures, in addition to what may seem an endless stream of emergency admissions and life on the 'Crash Team'.

This book touches on many aspects of professional life in hospital, complementing the medical knowledge gained during an undergraduate degree course. It describes how to deal with the administrative and procedural problems that will arise in the pre-registration year, as well as offering guidance on educational techniques, contracts and career planning. There are helpful pointers on how to relate to patients and their relatives; how to work effectively with the patient's general practitioner; and in general how to establish an open and friendly pattern of work for the years to come.

Colin Johnson trained at the London Hospital and graduated at Cambridge. After initial postgraduate training in various London hospitals, he was Surgical Registrar in Bristol. He then moved back to London to the Westminster Hospital Senior Registrar Rotation before becoming Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in General Surgery in Southampton. John Iredale graduated from Southampton University and trained in general medicine and gastroenterology in Edinburgh and Southampton. He is currently MRC Clinician Scientist and Honorary Senior Registrar in University Medicine, Southampton.