#FOAMed

It’s changeover week, so across the country trainees are moving up a grade in their career ladder. There are new doctors, just finished medical school.

This post, detailing my reflections on clinical retrieval medicine, is the fifth in a series recording my reflections on the twelve months I spent working for Sydney HEMS in prehospital and retrieval medicine. The first post covers medical education – you can find it here.

In the UK, the route to Emergency Medicine Consultantdom starts after foundation training, with a three year funfest commonly known as Acute Care Common Stem, or ACCS. It’s a shared pathway for doctors wishing to specialise in emergency medicine, anaesthetics, or acute medicine.

En route to #dasMACC this year, I had the incredible opportunity to visit colleagues at Air Zermatt (@airzermatt) in Switzerland. With an exceptional view of the Matterhorn in the distance, the base situated at 5,310 ft, is home to one of the worlds most famous aerial search and rescue teams.

When doctors think back to their medical school training, watching a simulated patient being extricated from a car in front of 2500 people in Berlin probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Yet amazingly, this is an experience that I (a medical student in Virchester) and 25 other healthcare students from around the world were lucky enough to have three weeks ago at dasSMACC.

Here at St.Emlyn’s we’re really interested in education. Everyone on the team takes the supervision and support of trainees seriously and we hope that the blog reflects this, but to be honest all this blogging and podcasting will never have the most influential impact on the trainee experience.