A day in the life of a GP
Written by Dr Ashe Coxon
When I was trying to decide if I wanted to become a General Practitioner all those years ago I always remembered 2 statements that as doctors we always seem to hear –
#1 – General Practice is just coughs and colds, tears and smears.
#2 – General Practice is flexible, interesting, busy and you get to practice cradle to grave medicine.
In my mind when I was trying to decide these two statements continued to run through my mind. Do I really want to spend the rest of my life only seeing coughs, colds and pap smears as according to statement 1? Or is statement 2 more realistic about General Practice? Well now after working in general practice for over 10 years I know that there is some truth to statement number 1, but statement number 2 is very true. Yes, GPs see coughs, colds, mental health and pap smears, but we also see a heap of other things! And even if my day is only coughs, colds, tears and smears I get to speak to patients in their time of need and how I approach the consultation can make a huge impact on their life. So even if I saw coughs, colds, tears and smears all day, I don’t consider it ‘just’ I now consider it a privilege that I was their chosen person to help them in their time of need.
If you are ready this document then you are either considering GP training, or not considering it (but maybe in the back of your mind you are…) or you are on the training program.
The best way that I can explain to you the variety of what you do in General Practice is to explain a time line of my day and how much variety and challenge there is.
8-830am: Childcare drop off. I am fortunate that I do work in a flexible field so that I can drop my children off at daycare and then make it to work in time to start the day.
830am – 9am: Check results of patients and organise with the practice nurse who I want to recalled to speak to urgently, semi urgently or non urgently.
9am: Well women’s check-up. A cervical screening test, breast check and skin check. This is what the patients presenting issues are but then she tells me she has also been having postmenopausal bleeding and this needs to be addressed, examined correctly, sensitive explanation of the process of investigating, investigations organised and follow up planned.
930am: Repeat script for the pill of someone I have not met before. On questioning I find she gets migraines with aura, so I spend my time talking about the risk of being on the combined oral contraceptive plus having migraines with aura and discuss alternative contraception.
945am: Skin check for a regular patient.
10am: 6 month of baby check and immunisations. I love these baby checks, the babies are usually happy and content, but there are also often times in which the parents have concerns and questions.
1015am: A patient comes in asking for a travel letter to explain the medications they are on for their upcoming trip to Indonesia. “When are you going?” I ask. “In 2 weeks” is the answer. The consult then turns into a travel medicine consultation with the patient then ending up with advice for all of the required vaccinations they didn’t know they needed.
1030am: A regular patient for a routine CST.
1045am: A postmenopausal female with a urine infection. This involves diagnosis and treatment but also education and discussion on the frequency of her infections and prevention.
11am: A 52-year-old male comes in for a general check up. This is a great opportunity to do some preventative health care and I always find these consultations satisfying.
1115am: An unexpected break. This is a good chance to return phone calls and check on results.
1130am: A young female with a viral upper respiratory infection that is worried it requires antibiotics. An examination, history and education on virus’s vs bacteria is done.
1145am: A follow up of Workcover case requiring review and paperwork to be filled in.
1200am: A 34-year-old female regular patient presents with her partner as they have been trying to conceive and would like some investigations and advice on the next steps.
Lunch (This involves chatting with colleagues, continuing to clear your inbox of paperwork and continue to answer phone messages you may have)
130pm – A breastfeeding mother wanting to discuss her USS of her painful breast from the following week. This woman has been my patient for some years and I cared for her during her pregnancy of her 6 month old baby, which I have the pleasure of seeing next. I find it so nice to follow pregnant women and then care for their babies once born.
145pm – The same mother wanting to have her baby checked for a range of things. The child has had diarrhea for 4 days, paronychia and asking about tongue tie.
2pm – Follow up of a woman with bowel cancer who is seen by multiple teams at the hospital but requires the GP to co-ordinate what is going on as with so many teams involved no one is holding it all together – the referrals, chasing to discharge letters and making sure everyone is doing what they should do. And then not forgetting the non-cancer issues like reminding her she is overdue for her pap smear and trying to encourage and support her to quit smoking.
215pm – Young woman with a new vitamin B12 deficiency, found during investigations for chronic headaches and menorrhagia. This consultation involved education, consent taking and discussing the future investigation required to find the cause of B12, and a good discussion on diet and lifestyle! A GP is always trying to discuss preventative health care!
230pm – Follow up on a lady with abdominal pain from the previous day. She is feeling better and relieved it is not appendicitis!
245 – A break to phone back to patients and communicate important blood tests.
3pm – Young male presents with otitis media.
315pm – A regular patient presents for their depot contraception. You remind them once again their pap smear is due and today they’re happy to have it done, so you do it then and there as you may not get the chance again.
330pm – A 46-year-old male with a painful knee.
345pm – Follow up of a patient with incidentally found hyperthyroidism and a goitre which you ordered a thyroid ultrasound for a there was a nodule requiring biopsy. This consultation runs overtime as you spend time counselling the patient.
415pm – Skin excision of a suspected squamous cell carcinoma.
445pm – The day is finished and you race off to pick the children up from day-care.
So as you can see, a day in the life of a GP is never the same, always varied and always challenging. If you are someone who likes challenges, likes people, likes variety and flexibility then General Practice is probably for you!
