Welcome to B31
Respiratory & General Medicine
Located on 3rd floor, B Block
Key Contacts
- Senior Charge Nurse – Julie Jack
- Clinical Lead for Respiratory Medicine – Euan Cameron
Day to Day
Board Round every morning at 9am to identify potential discharges, highlight any issues overnight and discuss any new patients to the ward.
The ward operates a Respiratory Physician of the Week (RPOW) system, with two respiratory consultants responsible for inpatient reviews and advice.
Board Round every Friday at 3pm with RPOW to discuss the patients and whether they need review or bloods over the weekend.
Staffing
Usually there are 2 FY1s and 2 middle grades and a registrar on the ward but staffing is can change depending on rota or on-call shifts.
FY1 Role
If there are 2 FY1s you divide the ward in half. On occasions where there are 3 FY1s one person normally does IDLs and supports the other 2 FY1s.
Tasks include:
- Updating and printing the handover which can be found on the shared drive under B31
- Prepare discharge medications for any patients going home
- Go on the ward round with RPOW
- There is a blood bock with patients out for bloods each day, the FY1s chase the bloods and order them for the next day
- Completing IDLs – including ordering any follow up investigations
- Reviewing sick patients
- Updating families & working with AHP colleagues to plan discharges
Middle Grade Role
Patients are divided depending on number of middle grades and reviewed each day with reference to the relevant RPOW ward round. They also review any boarders within the hospital, with support from the RPOW. There is also clinic rota with one middle grade doctor attending each afternoon.
Middle grade trainees are also expected to supervise cardiopulmonary exercise tests (CPET) conducted by our physiology team.
Opportunities include:
- Chest drain insertion and management
- Attendance at bronchoscopy lists
- Time spent with respiratory specialist nurses or lung cancer nurse
- Attendance at specialist respiratory clinic & pulmonary function testing
- Management of ward based respiratory and general medicine patients
- Training in interpretation of CPETs
Education
There is a Respiratory Department Meeting every Thursday from 12:30 – 2. There is usually a radiology meeting first, followed by a talk from a drug rep who provide lunch. This is followed by a presentation on a respiratory related topic given by one of the middle grades or registrars.
The monthly interstitial lung disease MDT is at the end of each month from 12:30, in place of the standard radiology meeting, and provides excellent training in the assessment and treatment of ILDs. The Respiratory M&M meeting also occurs quarterly, with trainees expected to contribute usually through presenting pre-prepared slides.
Useful info
Clinic follow up and booking of bronchoscopy is arranged through the respiratory consultant’s secretary. There are numbers for all the secretaries in the MDT room.
Pulmonary Function Tests can be requested online by searching for “pulmonary function tests” in the search bar of the intranet home page.
For assessment of LTOT patients need an ABG on oxygen and a second one off oxygen. When you have the results phone the respiratory nurses and they will organise LTOT if required.