In this article, we will look at more practical aspects of how to read an ABG and treatment following your interpretation. If you’re looking on...

AKI is very common affecting around 20% of inpatients & it is important to recognise promptly and correctly to avoid complications. In this article, we...

For new doctors, prescribing anticoagulants can be daunting. A few simple rules can make this easier. Ensure you use your local guidelines in the first...

Audits & QIPs are a way to identify issues, drive changes and assess the effects they have. It is your way of making improvements in...

As a junior doctor, you will have face situations where you have to convey potentially distressing information, whether it is explaining a diagnosis or blood...

When I left medical school, I thought my only difficulty would be the actual medicine, which most junior doctors will tell you flies out your...

In this article, we focus on the interpretation of a CXR. Have a low threshold to request one as they provide a lot of information...

Here we assume you know the basics, and instead we focus on the common pitfalls with tips on how to be safe & well reasoned....

In all specialities of medicine patient clinical recordings, whether this is photographs or visual investigations, are imperative1. Not only are they required for diagnosis and...

When I supervise and teach FY1s, prescribing is in the top three things they are most concerned about. Usually, they’re worried that they won’t know...

Constipation is one of the most common complaints in hospital, especially on the geriatric wards.Failure to treat constipation can lead to longer hospital stays and...

As an FY1, you will receive a complaint. Usually, these are informal, "I'm unhappy with the care delivered" from a relative or the patient. I...

After a patient has died you may be asked to complete the death certificate. It may be issued by a doctor who has provided care...

As a new F1 in August, it can feel like quite a daunting task to verify a death, particularly if you have never seen this...

Acute confusion, otherwise known as delirium, is very common in hospitals – 20-30% on medical wards and between 10% and 50% of those that have...

The deteriorating patient is often the worst nightmare for new FY1s.  I remember when I started FY1, I was terrified of coming across a deteriorating...

1. Writing a discharge summary is a task you are likely to carry out every day, and despite the sense of monotony, it plays a...

Medical documentation should authentically represent every consultation and is primarily intended to support patient care. Good record-keeping means you or a colleague can reconstruct key...

Your eportfolio is a tool to store and record evidence that demonstrates your progress, clinical competencies and reflections. Try to add to your portfolio on...

Here’s a list of apps that are in order of how essential we find them. There’s probably more out there so drop us a comment...

As an F1, you will quite frequently get bleeped to review a patient who has had a fall on the ward, particularly if you are...

Almost every patient admitted to hospital receives IV fluids at some point in their journey. However, the body manages this, without the need for careful...

Handover occurs between shifts to ensure everyone is up to speed with patients. The exact nature of how it occurs varies greatly by hospital &...

Hyperglycaemia is something you will encounter frequently. In this article, we focus on how to approach hyperglycaemia and identify diabetic emergencies. If your patient is...

Hyperkalaemia can cause life-threatening emergencies particularly cardiac arrhythmias. A widely used definition is extracellular [K+] ion concentration ≥ 5.5 mmol/L. Complications increase with severity and...

In this article, we provide a quick overview of how to treat and investigate the cause of patients with hypoglycaemia. Definition In diabetics, <4 mmol/L...

As an FY1 you will frequently see hypokalaemia and most trusts have guidelines that should be used in the first instance. The advice below is...

Hyponatraemia (serum Sodium <135 mmol/L) is one of the most common electrolyte abnormalities you will see and so a systematic approach to identifying the underlying...

As an FY1, you will be called to review hypoxic ward patients. Here we discuss common causes of generalised hypoxia and not focal hypoxia/ischaemia such...

As an FY1 doctor, there are different types of leave you will come across during the year and the rest of your career. This article...

Mental Capacity is the ability to make your own decisions at the time at which the decision needs to be made. The mental capacity act...

A lot of your time as an FY1 will be spent on the phone to various other specialities. You’ll come across patients with infections in...

You will frequently get calls regarding nausea & vomiting: many patients present with it or develop it because of their diagnosis or treatment. You must...

FY1s are usually most apprehensive about being on call, but it is also the shift you will usually learn the most. Predominantly as an FY1...

The PSA is aimed at final year medical students and those graduating overseas to assess their competency at prescribing as Foundation Year 1 Doctors. It...

Each month, your pay and any deductions will be summarised to you in the form of a payslip. You should check your payslip every month...

It is common for FY1s to feel anxious & feel like they’re not ready to start. We expect you to feel like this & hence...

Preparing for the Situational Judgment Test (SJT) exam can be quite daunting. It makes up 50% of your Foundation Programme application and thus has the...

When assessing pain, ensure you begin by taking a history to characterise the pain as neuropathic pain, inflammatory pain and oncological pain all respond to...

There are certain situations where you need to prescribe IV fluids which vary from fluid resuscitation to maintenance fluids if a patient is nil-by-mouth (NBM)...

I’m going to try and be as generic as possible so that hopefully these tips work across different specialities and settings for both in &...

It can be difficult to know how to rank jobs for F1 when applying through FPAS & Oriel. You’re often confronted with a massive excel...

As a doctor, you will frequently be called for a drowsy patient. They can vary from confused to completely unconscious. The Glasgow Coma Scale can...

Our referral cheat sheet is our most popular resource having been downloaded thousands of times! It has key information to provide when referring to every...

Requesting scans can be a scary daily occurrence for new doctors. It is one of few times where you liaise directly with a consultant. When...

When the afternoon comes, you will often find yourself going through all the blood results for the day and wondering what you need to do...

Frequently patients wish to self-discharge from hospitals. This article pertains to adult patients only (18y+) and these patients can be broadly split into three groups:...

Sepsis is an infection with evidence of organ dysfunction. Septic shock is when a patient with sepsis is hypotensive despite appropriate fluid resuscitation. ContentsIntroductionHigh-risk criteriaSepsis...

It takes time to get used to the ward round. Particularly, when patients are being seen so fast it seems impossible to document properly. The...

SLEs are supervised learning events that include Mini-CEX (mini clinical evaluation exercise) CBD (case-based discussion) DOPS (direct observation of procedural skills) These form part of...