Great Ormond Street

So I watched a new series on BBC that they did recently where they follow people around Great Ormond Street hospital, which is one of the leading children's hospitals in the UK and Europe, and it showed the kind of decisions and procedures that doctors there could make and perform. It was actually really good and pushed me a little bit closer to wanting to be a Paediatrician in the future. I already had an idea that it was something I'd like to do, but with five years before I have to make a firm choice its not something I'd really set in stone, a lot can change in that time. You'd just hope this kind of thing doesn't still happen. Silly welsh people.

And then there's the debate about whether to go into surgery or not? My decision on this tends to change depending on how much Grey's Anatomy I've been watching recently.

Whatever I do, I know I don't just want to go through as an average doctor doing average things. I know that reality isn't all going to be cutting edge procedures and dramatic moments but I want to do something special. If you don't keep pushing at the boundary during your career then you'll end up leaving the profession like you entered it. I'd prefer to know that when I retire I'll have left some kind of mark, however small, on the future.
That's what I liked about Ormond Street, they always kept the children as the priority, but at the same time they pushed that little bit further than they had in the past. Every new patient was a chance to learn and make things better. I'd love to be involved in something like that, I can't think of anything I'd want more in the world.

I always get asked about how I'd cope with the amount of children I'll see in pain and die if I do go into Paediatrics. I'd hope that even after decade's in the job each child still mattered, if that stopped I'd seriously consider quitting. But the joy you'd get from giving a young person the chance of having a life, I'd just have to hope that would make it all worth while. I've used 'hope' a couple of times, because that's all I can do, there's no way of knowing before I get on and do it. Deep eh? :)