FY1 life in Ysybyty Gwynedd
When choosing where to apply for foundation training, it can be overwhelming deciding where to go. Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor is a great place to find your feet and get to grips with what they don't teach you in medical school.
Firstly, YG is a decent sized District General Hospital – not too big, not too small. You will quickly get to know lots of members of the YG team and likewise they will know you. It makes a difference knowing who the voice on the other end of the phone is. It's a friendly and supportive place to begin your career. Your jobs for FY1 are very general which lets you get a good grounding in how to be a junior doctor and pick up a wide range of useful skills along the way.
Secondly, the local area. It's impossible to ignore the proximity of the great outdoors, and no matter what you are into you will find something you enjoy. Snowdonia National park has mountains, rock climbing, forests, and rivers just 20 minutes drive away. Anglesey is literally across a bridge, the stunning LlÅ·n peninsula just further afield – both are great for beaches, watersports, and historical sites. As an FY1 in Wales you get free accommodation and most F1s at YG take this up. This means you form strong, lasting friendships and always have someone around to unwind and have adventures with. If you miss city life, Chester, Manchester, and Liverpool are up to 2 hours away.
It's important to know that North West Wales is a predominantly Welsh-speaking area. For the majority of people here it is their first language and, for non-Welsh speakers, it may be odd hearing multiple conversations around you that you don't understand. However it's a great opportunity to learn a new language, and your colleagues and patients will definitely appreciate the effort. If you can't get the hang of it, don't worry! There are very few solely Welsh speakers and all the signs are bilingual.
So what do the jobs entail?
Medicine
Your normal hours are 9-5 Monday – Friday. There will usually be ward rounds during the morning and then completing the jobs you've generated in the afternoon. Roughly once a week you will have an on-call, with 2 long weekends and 2 shorter weekends on top of that. The on-call team changes daily so you never get a vast influx of new patients to your day job. It lets you meet other doctors outside your ward team.
As an FY1 on call you cover the 'trolley bay' of the Acute Medical Admissions Unit. You will be expected to clerk in GP admissions and look after anyone who is in your bay from the previous day. You work alongside the permanent acute medical team and are helped out by one of the on-call SHOs. This means lots of bodies to ask for help when you need it.
During weekends you either do a long day on AMAU or an 8 hour day covering the wards alongside an SHO. You quickly get familiar with what is an acceptable normal for patients with different system diseases, and managing unwell patients.
For all on-calls you will also be part of the cardiac arrest/ medical emergency team, responding quickly to the sickest patients in the hospital.
Surgery
As a medical student you often get scared off surgical jobs by the thought of being all alone on the ward with no help. This is not the case in YG. You will always have a senior ward round, and your colleagues are easily contactable. On surgery you work 8-5 Monday – Friday with a flexible half day off every week to balance the hours.
On call, a certain consultant will be 'on take' and so all the patients will be admitted under them. A key part of your job is keeping the list up to date- knowing who and where the patients are, and what is wrong with them. You will also clerk in new patients alongside an ANP. You are not normally expected to see ED admissions but may attend trauma calls down there with the team.
The workload of surgical jobs varies more than medicine as you have busy periods when you are 'post-take' then set about discharging people until your team's next on-call. Periods with fewer patients give you time to go down to theatre and clinics, or do audit work.
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