A day in the life of an AIM Consultant…

The beauty of Acute Internal Medicine is that no two days are the same, so it’s really not that easy to write a ’day in the life’ piece. But I’ll try! I’m part of a large team of acute physicians and everyone’s job is tailored to their strengths and the things that interest them – be that practical procedures, acute oncology, education, ambulatory care or my particular interest of bedside ultrasound.

3 mornings a week my work is centred around the AMU, where I typically round on 13 patients who are a mixture of new admissions and those who have been admitted for >24 hours. This means I get to maintain a continuity of care with those inpatients who require the ongoing care of an Acute Physician and also review the overnight admissions early to form a plan for the day. The MDT is based on the ward all morning so there is ready access to OTs, pharmacists, physios and nurses to ensure those that need multi-professional input can achieve it early. It also means those with a high potential to go home can have that process started early.

Lunchtime often involves departmental teaching or catching up on admin and investigation results, before an afternoon of either inter-take of acute admissions (providing early senior input proven to improve outcomes), working on ambulatory care or Supporting Professional Activity – which often involves developing new services or teaching ultrasound to junior colleagues.

The variety of each day and the spectrum of patients that we see in each setting means that you always have to be on your toes, and you continually feel challenged as each presentation has its own nuance. Acute Internal Medicine is a busy but incredibly rewarding specialty, and each day I look forward to going to work knowing I’m part of a very close knit team dedicated to providing the best care for patients when they need it most.