A right circus act!

 Roll up roll up.... Monday the 12th of January 2015

The date of the Final ARCP (an acronym for Annual Review of Competence Progression) - or maybe whilst in the process it feels a bit more like: Anaesthetic Registrar's Circus Performance

It is basically checking you reach the right standard every year on the training scheme until you get to the final one... where they check that you are ready to finish and get your ticket a.k.a CCT (certificate of completion of training). So each year you produce a small rainforest of paperwork (see I am old - I was pre this electronic malarkey) that proves you've done enough clinical cases, managerial, education and research stuff. It is what has to happen to progress from one year to the next and is the source of much frantic running around in May and June usually. The 6 month's stint in Zambia pushed mine to the rather unfamiliar territory of January this year though.

  So this process started 7 and a half years ago for me when I embarked on anaesthetic training in 2007 and initially it felt like:

Then it felt a bit more like this:

Then further years became a little more tricky...

And then it all got a bit serious and grown up, but...

Basically it turns out it's a bit of a balancing act between working really hard, ticking off all the paperwork boxes and walking a tight line without looking too much like a clown! Easier said than done (the clown bit that is!)


And then... it all happens... the holy grail of medical training: The CCT, the golden ticket, the key to the future. Or essentially being ejected off the training scheme into the big wide world but now with a certificate that says you CAN do it!!

So there it is. I am finally getting kicked out of the realms of being a 'Trainee" as of the 28th of January. It is a wierd thing to think about. 14 and a half years of training has amounted to this piece of paper and a hefty payment cheque to the General Medical Council to make it official.

But to me it is so much more than a piece of paper. It is a culmination of hard graft over 15 years that has seen me move up the ranks as an apprentice in the amazing worlds of surgery first and then anaesthesia. Its been an amazing 15 years and though this is the end of the chapter - or maybe the book of Lowri's training  it is the start of Lowri's training volume 2... and how exciting is that... a whole new book of blank pages, just waiting for me to fill them. 

 
Can't wait to see what fun I have doing that - starting with Zambia and then Great Ormond Street!

  But meanwhile, after returning to work after ticking off the box at the ARCP I was quickly levelled back down to earth with a fair few emergencies. Felt a bit like being thrown into the big top at the trapeze and desperately trying to hold on to the flying artiste.

One was a pretty awful and very very sad case; one was pretty awful but miraculously had an amazing outcome and there were quite a few in the middle of all of these that were equally as important to those involved but slightly less high octane, adrenaline pumping than the rest! And yes, its a tough job at times, and we deal with tough things, but what I didn't expect to affect me was the following thursday (now known as favourite Thursday!!!!) when I turned up to work and found a note and a bunch of cakes ... for me.... Totally blown away. I work with amazing people and I am eternally grateful for that.