17 Mar 2015

how my iconic essay book is used on placement

Back in September last year, I mentioned that I made an order with The Journal Shop for a few stationery additions - one of which was an A6 Iconic essay book. In that post, I did a quick pictorial tour of the notebook and I thought I would do another, more updated, post on how I've used it whilst on placement.

So, at the front, there is a section for a year planner. I just used this as notepaper and noted down important dates and times of things that I had to get signed off whilst on placement.


The monthly planning spreads came in useful for organising each week on placement. I used the left hand side for some goals that I set myself (such as do a certain thing or see a patient from a certain specialty) and the right hand side is used to plan my week. You'll notice that Wednesdays are missing and that is because Wednesday is a lecture-based day where no time on the wards is ever scheduled.


The rest of the notebook is pretty much for rough scribbles and is used when I practice clerking a patient. Clerking a patient involves asking pretty much everything about their medical and social life (no lie) and at first, it took me over an hour to do a patient but the more practice I got, the less time it took.

I would also use these pages to note down things that may come in useful on the wards that I may need to refer to. For example, the cranial nerve exam is something that can be quite fiddly to do on the wards so I have a little 'guide' in my notebook and on the other side, you'll see that I have a page with how to describe a lump after feeling one on examination. Being quizzed by doctors on the wards enables me to see where the current gaps in my knowledge are and quite often, it leads to me making pages like the ones seen in the next two pictures.


The A6 size is perfect for my pockets (I always wear something that has a fairly deep pocket where I can hide this notebook when I need both hands free!) and the thickness and soft cover mean that it is easy to scribble in. The layout is also perfect for placement with those monthly planning spreads ideal for planning each week on placement and the paper is thick enough for me to use a gel pen on without any showthrough or bleeding. It's so perfect that I've since purchased a few more for my next few placements.

2 comments

  1. I love seeing how you organise your notes and planner. Very organized and pretty to look at too

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