General Surgery - A Day in the Life - Junior Doctor Vlog

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In this video, I ramble at length about a day in the life on my general surgery placement. Enjoy xx

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[BiancaAguglia]

Being a great doctor has to be one of the most satisfying jobs but also one of the hardest. I personally can't deal with the pressure of knowing that I'm holding someone's life in my hands and with the heartbreak that comes from losing a patient. I'm very thankful for the people like you who are willing to carry that baton. Keep up the great work.

[CatalinPascaru]

I really enjoyed this clip. I’m an engineer, not a doctor, but it’s really interesting to see the what a day is like, for a doctor. I’ve noticed something:
As you were going through your day, you went on about describing the details about as many things as you could, i.e. what are the procedures to be done, why and who performs them, how are the drugs to be prescribed and how that changes from being simple to complex... You even described some medical knowledge in a very understandable fashion.
From the excitement that you have when telling all of this, it’s clear that you are enjoying what you do.
I really enjoy your content. Best of wishes!

[DrVishalT]

I am a general surgeon in India and couldn't help laughing and relating to almost everything you're rambling about, especially the part "that's a good question i should know the answer to it". Thanks for a reasonable insight into junior doctor life in surgery in NHS.

[stocks]

Ali is right, you never get asked about the Krebs cycle, or to describe a neural plexus outside of medical school. He’ll make a great medical teacher one day. I’m 57 and have learnt lots of interesting things from Ali.

[christinaann]

We need more videos like this, they are so informative and contains all the detail we need to know to have a good overview of certain wards and roles of the FY's.

[andrevalente]

Hello Ali,
I don't know if you'll read this, but as I find this interesting about your day, I figure you would find my day interesting as well.
I'm also a junior doctor, first year practising, on my "general year", and currently on the general surgery placement. I'm from Portugal, currently working on a middle-small sized hospital.

Main differences about our days: you seem to have more responsibility prescribing drugs; we seem to have more Operating Theatre (OR) time.

My typical week: 1 day OR + 1 day consultations + 1 day emergency department + 2 days ward. We are 9 juniors at the department and we rotate.

- OR day: we scrub in, but of course we only help the main surgeon.
- Emergency department: we admit patients, collect histories, physical exam, suture when needed. We discuss with seniors for more complex exam requests and prescriptions (we are not legally allowed to prescribe ambulatory medicine)
- Consultations: typical consults, with us accompanying the senior doctor. We do most physical examinations, some history taking...
- Ward days: 8am 30, we start by dividing our patients between junior doctors; each of us checks on "our" patients for the day (talking with them and their families, physical, checking vital signs and laboratory/imagiology exams); at around 10am we do the round with the seniors, and only then we discuss about the plans for the day (requesting more exams, discharge, prescriptions...). After that we take care of the discharge notes, go talk with other specialties for opinions, request exams...

We do not carry the "bleep", nor are we the first responders. There is always an emergency department team, responsible for that. And also our nurses are pretty capable of dealing with most stuff. We always ask for senior help when the nurses ask us what to do, when prescriptions are required.

Also, autopsies, when necessary, are ALWAYS done by doctors of legal medicine. Does not happen that often, in a typical hospital day.

Referals are a part of our work as well. In Portugal, almost all of that is done through the informatic system. So, for example, if you need internal medicine to check on your patient, you request via the computer. We only go to them in person when we need to discuss something if we are not sure they can help, or when you just need an opinion an can do it yourself (general surgery doctors)

We always do arterial blood gases, not venous. When we need venous blood (for labs), the nurses collect it 99% of time.

We do not organize imagiology exams. We request them via digital system. When they are "urgent", we check on a box or write it in the request. Imagiology takes care of the organization. Sometimes, when you REALLY need it, you go there in person and ask politely to make it a priority.


Great to see some differences in medical teaching worlwide. Very interesting.

Do you suture at all?

[DoctorKenji]

Loved this video man! It was definitely comforting to hear that much about being a doctor isn't memorising all the facts! And I definitely agree that the whole culture of medical school admissions can sometimes make us forget that the most important thing is to become safe and competent doctors 👍

[danielkim]

Ali, can I just say thank you so much for these videos. They are so unbelievably informational. I feel like many physician vlogs or day in the lifes can get overly personal or gimmicky, with flashy editing amd extreme story telling. Sometimes I just want to learn more about the profession and you do a fabulous job at it. Thank you for all your efforts.

[sammyd]

Ali, I just want to give a huge thank you for your 6med program it's helping me A LOT and anyone who hasn't tried it, if you're studying for UCAT, BMAT or medical admissions for the UK, He has made a whole program for us and it is so damn helpful. I should have gone uni this year but I'm going next year instead and this helps me feel way more prepared than I would have been last year! A hugeee thank you from me and I'm sure many others!

[sanamlily]

During my internship year, 3 months in general surgery was the best time as i loved working in the ward and couldn’t wait to go to the hospital plus i recieved a lot of appreciation from my seniors, Loved your video, thank you Dr Ali for sharing your day in the ward.

[Georgiagangila]

I’m so appreciative of this, I’ve been panicking about medical school / being a doctor but this really puts everything into perspective and really had calmed me a bit

[rachealthoi]

Ali you totally changed my life since the day I subscribed your channel such an inspiration you are😍

[Habo]

This junior doctor blog series thingy are my fav videos. Keep up the good work Ali :D

[grfw.]

I find it soooo freaking cool that you call the operating room the theatre. I don't know it just makes it so unique

[pimmie]

love these types of videos. Learnt so much

[DTGMRuns]

Blood transfusion scientist here, the regulations are extreme indeed but very necessary. We both have a lot of work to do on whatever side of the patient journey we’re on but it’s good to see it from another perspective!

[cmanfernandez]

Hi Ali! I appreciate your videos so much. I’ve been trained as a nurse in American standards prior to moving to the UK and have been adjusting to how things are done here, . Your videos help me see the POV of our junior doctors since they are usually the ones who stay in the wards. Also thank you for clarifying on how junior doctors transition from F1, F2, SHO, to Registrar Level because we just call them residents, Clinical fellows and junior consultants back home😇

[yourkurtosis]

From being a pre-U student to med school interviews to getting acceptance into med school, your videos have already helped me reach my ambition closer. Thanks Ali for all your bubbly, fun and informative videos. I can't wait to begin my first med school year!

[meleks.]

This is a very thorough video on your surgical placement, I love the way you explained, you explained it all from A to Z, and listening to you made me more confident in my choice of taking Medicine as a career.
Would love to see more of this type of videos !

[yakineferjani]

I think now that you already know all the stuff you learnt, is what'a making you say that being a doctor isn't THAT hard. The information is always available to every single person on this planet who's willing to look it up, medical school teaches you how to use that knowledge. Being a doctor is doable, but the competencies that enables you to become one are of so mucb importance and took you so much time to process and master. Something else I can point out since I'm still a medical student and see things differently from my POV is that studying a good amount of medical meterial makes you able to have this mental model in your head where you understand the pathologies that you see because you learnt them. When I see a pathology I haven't yet studied, I don't understand one bit of what the doctors are doing and cannot grasp the idea in a way that adds it to my memory because I have to first have a mental model of this illness which cannot be made unless I study it in depth and in all its details. What I'm trying to say is that unless you go through all that stuff in medical books, being organised and knowing a few bits here and there and knowing how to take a blood sample will surely not make you a good doctor (I'm organised and learnt how take blood samples and I sure as hell can run around to Lab and ask them to do stuff for me, but I'm way far from becoming a doctor haha).
Very nice video Ali per usual, the podcast is also very nice and I can't wait for the next one. Keep up the good work!!