Doctors - not just Medico’s, but Scientists too

Rebecca Prentiss

With the assistance of Nicky Phillips

Spending most of the day running around after my two young children, ankle deep in finger paintings and covered in mashed banana, hardly seems to qualify as a day in science. It was not until 7 o’clock that night that I transformed from mum to Dr Rebecca Prentice, and that is when the real science began. All in a day's (night's) work~ As I walked through the entrance of the Prince Of Wales Hospital on my way to the Intensive Care Unit, I officially began my night shift as the Intensive Care Registrar. The doctor who had been on duty during the day handed over the paper work and gave me a brief patient outline and summary. Patients in ICU have usually undergone serious surgery such as heart bypasses or post brain tumour removal surgery. There are eight patients in the intensive care ward and, during night duty, I am also in charge of the Cardiac ward, which contains on average 25 patients. Night duty can usually be fairly quiet, and so at the beginning of my shift, I conducted thorough rounds of all my patients. In doing this, I made sure I was familiar with all the patients' backgrounds and any present issues, so in the event of an emergency, such as a cardiac arrest, I know exactly what the patient's situation is. Is being a doctor always go, go, go? It seems not! The remainder of the night was quiet as usual. I called a few friends, caught up on some paper work, searched the internet for a new house and then finally at about 3 am had a nap. I was awoken, however, when a patient's condition started to deteriorate, and they needed to be sent off to surgery. By 6 am, I did my final rounds and sent off the morning's blood works to be assessed. I ended my shift by briefing the morning registrar who would takeover the day shift. At seven thirty, I walked down the stairs from the ICU, back out the front entrance of the Prince of Wales Hospital to my other job as a mother.