Life on the wards

This chapter discusses life on the wards. It includes the medical team, the multidisciplinary team, daily ward duties, ward rounds, being on-call, night shifts, writing and common symbols in the notes, anatomical terms and planes, discharge summaries (TTOs/TTAs), fitness to work notes, referrals, referral letters, investigation requests, radiology, common ward dilemmas, pain, thinking about death, palliative care, the dying patient, death, nutrition, nutritional requirements, difficult patients, aggression and violence, needle-stick injuries, surgery, pre-op assessment, bowel preparation, surgical terminology, preparing in-patients for surgery, booking theatre lists, surgical instruments, the operating theatre, post-op care, post-op problems, wound management, common elective operations, and stomas.