Guide to locuming
Posted on Monday, September 10 @ 21:29:34 BST by jenvetadmin
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Rig Vets have published a Guide to Locuming - as we mentioned in the last newsletter. Here is the first part of the guide - more to follow.
Please email webmaster@vetpro.co.uk if you would like a free copy posted to you.
Your first day. It may sound obvious, but what comes next is to turn up on time! If a practice has
employed you to start at 9am, that generally means they want you to be in the
consulting room at 9am, suitably dressed and ready to call in your first patient.
To do that, you’ll need to turn up on the doorstep at around 8.40am to allow time to introduce
yourself, find out where you can leave your personal belongings, get changed into
whatever they want you to wear, find your consulting room and log onto the computer.
That also means leaving home (or wherever you are staying) at least half an hour earlier
than you think you need to, at least on day one, to allow for unexpected traffic, getting
lost and finding somewhere to park.
A helpful guiding hand.
A practice used to taking care of locums will often allocate a
nurse to ‘shadow’ you for the first half day, and this is
worth asking for if not provided. On day one in a new
practice you don’t know practice policy on anything,
where to find anything, how to arrange to admit a
patient for a drip or what to do with that blood sample
you have just taken. Until you find your feet, having an
experienced nurse at your shoulder enables you to work
far more quickly than if you have to scour the building for
help every time you aren’t sure what to do.
Make sure you have all the information
you need to do the job
A really well-organised practice will give you a crib-sheet or allocate time for a formal
induction, to make sure that you know the practice policy on vaccination schedules, age
of neutering, consent forms for off-licence drugs and all the rest of the matters that you
will need to know several times an hour but which varies from practice to practice.
If you don’t get this, ask. Have your own list of questions that you know you will need the
answers to quickly: this will include those listed above, but also things like which brand of
clav/amox do they stock, which brand of flea spot-on, wormer and arthritis medication
do they prefer and where will you find dosage charts for each, if you aren’t familiar with
them?
If you will be dispensing drugs yourself, it is also handy to have some idea of how
the pharmacy is organised. Some practices display their drugs in strictly alphabetical
order, others sort by route of administration, others seem to have a more random
approach, filing in alphabetical order of what the brand name for that active ingredient
used to be before they changed suppliers two years ago!
You will find what you are
looking for far faster if you have some idea of the system they use.
What are you expected to supply?
Should you buy your own kit? There are some items
that are definitely worth carrying with you and
others which, while optional, may prove handy.
Your own preferred consulting attire (white coat,
green jacket) is invaluable, especially if you are
unusually large or small: many practices will
provide something, but, as the locum, what is
available might be old, stained, creased and illfitting.
You might find your own scrubs more
comfortable as well: there is little worse than
having to wear someone else’s sweat-stained castoffs.
Your own copy of the NOAH Compendium of
Data Sheets and a formulary are worth keeping in the car
(leave them there until you see how the land lies, they can be prone to
disappear!): not all practices have copies readily available, and you will certainly need to
look up the doses and indications of unfamiliar products.
You may prefer to use your own
stethoscope or to carry scissors, as spare pairs can be hard to find; but they are very
liable to disappear and are probably more hassle to keep track of than they are worth.
Some locums do like to carry other items with them, such as a favourite style of needleholder,
a sterile surgical gown, a belt dispenser of disinfectant hand-rub or a nice sharp
dental elevator (blunt and unfamiliar dental instruments can be a real pain).
The next installment coming soon... watch this space...
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