A Week in the Life of a DCT: OMFS at Lincoln with Adil Khan
So here is the first entry for this year's DCT competition by Adil Khan...
Adil, DCT1 in OMFS based in Lincoln |
I am currently in a Dental Core Training 1 post in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery and Community Dentistry in Lincoln. These two posts are integrated rather than two separate blocks which means I experience both for the whole year. The post operates on a 3 week rota and during the third week I have 3 days in community.
I graduated from Newcastle University in 2019 and undertook my DFT year in County Durham. I enjoyed my time in practice but wanted to develop my skills and be part of a wider team in a secondary care setting which is why I chose to apply for DCT.
Monday
In the morning, I have a dedicated session to update my portfolio. The portfolio is what is used to monitor my progress throughout the year so it is important to keep it up-to-date. The afternoon is spent on the casualty clinic where anything could come through the door from A&E and elsewhere!
Tuesday
I assist in theatre all day on the paediatric list with the registrar. This can vary from simple extractions to exposure and bonding of ectopic canines. After, I am on-call until 10pm. The on-call component of this post is slightly different with it being spread out rather than concentrated in blocks. I usually do one day a week and it is also non-resident so if it a bit quieter I can get the hospital to redirect calls to my mobile and go home to cook dinner!
Wednesday
In the morning I assist the middle grade with their minor ops list. This can vary and this week I was able to do some biopsies and cryotherapy as well as assist on an apicectomy. The afternoon I have my own treatment list which is primarily for patients who are having treatment for cancer or cardiac surgery and need urgent dental extractions beforehand. Every third week, I am in community assisting with treating a variety of special care and inhalation sedation cases.
Thursday
Today I am on the casualty/trauma clinic all day which can include fractures, lacerations and a wide variety of other cases. Every third week in community, as the service has a prison contract I treat prisoners which is similar to normal GDP work and is a good way of maintaining my dental skills.
Friday
I have the morning off this week but I am sometimes stationed on the ward to manage inpatients and organise any investigations or treatment they need. In the afternoon we have 2 hours of protected teaching time which is mainly DCT-led. We take it in turns to present a topic which we have been doing over Microsoft Teams during the pandemic.
Saturday & Sunday
This weekend I have been on-call which involves doing a casualty/trauma clinic in the morning and holding the bleep all day and responding to calls. I am on-call until 10pm and I do 1-in-6 weekends.
Everyone says doing a OMFS job is a steep learning curve and it was daunting moving to an area where I didn’t know anyone but it has been a great experience so far. There is a number of DCTs and the senior staff have been so helpful in easing us in. The hospital isn’t a major centre so it’s not as overwhelming as other jobs may have been. It also allows more dento-alveolar experience too and I would recommend doing DCT as it gives you skills you can take into further training or back in primary care.
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1 comments
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