The Killing Season

In the words of Chief Crazy Horse (Ta Sunka Witko): “Hoka Hey! It is a good time to die!” (War cry at the Battle of Little Bighorn.)

Apparently, in Australia, February is a good time to die. If you’re in hospital anyway. ‘Cos that’s when the trainee doctors start their hospital internships. In the UK, August is the “Killing Season” and in the US, July is the month to avoid.

“There are 40 per cent more “undesirable events” at the beginning of the academic year”

according to a paper published in the British Medical Journal this week.

Surely if people are unfamiliar with the equipment, the surroundings or the procedures then they shouldn’t be left alone to tend to patients. That’s like dressing my 3 year old in a boiler suit and letting him loose on my car to fix the brakes. He’d love it, but we’d probably all die the next time we drove the car around!

“New trainees, regardless of their level of training, are unfamiliar with their new working environment.”

So are we all when we start a new job. But we have to do something called an induction. You know, so that we can find the fire escapes, first aid kits and coffee shop security office.

Maybe these ‘students’ and their supervisors should be held more accountable for their mistakes and then they wouldn’t make any.

Have a good weekend all and GO THE SHARKS!!