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First ShiftIreland

Unit 3 · Flagship · 10 lessons

Your first days in hospital

From the week before you start to your first end-of-day handover: induction, the ward, rounds and jobs, documentation, referrals, discharge and closing out.

0 of 10 complete

Start: Preparing before day one Play: Your first day on the ward
  1. Lesson 1

    Preparing before day onePaid programme

    What to confirm, what to bring and what to read before your first day, so induction is about learning rather than chasing paperwork.

  2. Lesson 2

    Induction: systems, access and emergency processesPaid programme

    What to make sure you leave induction with, including the site-specific emergency numbers that this course deliberately does not list.

  3. Lesson 3

    Medication charts, prescribing systems and pharmacy: your local orientationPaid programme

    Which chart your site uses, what you are allowed to do on it, and who does what between prescriber, pharmacist, nurse and supervising doctor.

  4. Lesson 4

    Arriving, meeting staff and finding your wayPaid programme

    A practical first hour on a new ward: who is in charge and who is covering, the right list, working logins and bleep, the emergency process and equipment, and how the day runs.

  5. Lesson 5

    The ward round: turn a fast conversation into a safe planPaid programme

    How to capture decisions, clarify uncertainty and make the jobs list useful after the consultant leaves.

  6. Lesson 6

    Progress notes a colleague can act on at 3amPaid programme

    What separates a note that records attendance from one that carries a plan: a fictional before-and-after, conversation notes, corrections and the paper/electronic split.

  7. Lesson 7

    Phone referrals: a poor call, a prepared call and what to pin downPaid programme

    A fictional referral heard twice, the six things to have ready before you dial, and how to record an outcome that is advice, a review or a decline.

  8. Lesson 8

    Pending results: who checks, who acts, who follows up?Paid programme

    Why ordering a test is not the same as reviewing it, the states a result passes through, and how to hand over, escalate and discharge with a named person responsible for each outstanding result.

  9. Lesson 9

    Discharge: coordinating the plan, writing for the GP and saying 'not yet'Paid programme

    What the SHO actually coordinates before a discharge, what a GP needs from the summary, and how to talk to families when the date depends on something that hasn't happened.

  10. Lesson 10

    Finishing the shift without dropping the threadPaid programme

    Make outstanding jobs, changed plans and genuine concerns unmistakable to the doctor taking over.