After seven years of academic study and practical training, Nick O'Keefe is now a qualified doctor working in the St Joseph's Hospital in Clonmel, Co Tipperary.
"I was always interested in science and I thought medicine would be a very challenging career," says Nick, "but I really only decided to do it during my final year of school in 1993." Nick did the six-year undergraduate degree in UCC and then stayed in Cork to do his post-grad (or intern year) in the Royal Infirmary. The second and third years of college were, "quite difficult" and very academic, he says. The final year was also very demanding, but he says: "It's in your intern year that you really see the practical side of things, you're still supervised but it's completely different from the undergraduate course."
The intern year is spent working for six months on the hospital medicine team and six months with the surgery team. At the end of that year you decide whether to go into medicine, surgery or general practice.
As an intern, Nick was basically, "the clerk of the team". His work mainly involved taking patient histories, admitting people and organising test and x-rays.
Nick chose to do a medicine scheme, which in involves doing three-month rotations in different specialities and usually different hospitals.
His first rotation began in the Royal Infirmary in Cork last July and from November to the start of January he worked in the Regional Hospital in Cork. "I'm was working in geriatrics, which is really interesting, but I started off with a view of going into anaesthetics." His current rotation, general medicine in Clonmel, just started last week.
Nick works very long hours - currently he's working 70 to 90 hours a week, but he says this is not the toughest part of the job. "Once you get past the undergraduate and intern stage, things get very competitive. The higher up you go the less jobs there are and consultant jobs are very thin on the ground. Most people end up leaving the country to get work." Nick is still happy that he chose medicine. "Once you get used to being on call, everything else is a small progression and it is a very rewarding job."
