Carla Hollamby

I was placed at Potchefstroom Hospital for my community service year.

I spent a year in the ENT department and my roles were as follows; managing the outpatient department, reviewing and managing inpatients, managing common ENT emergencies like epistaxis and removal of foreign bodies from the nose and ears, coordinating multidisciplinary team meetings for oncology patients, assisting the consultant with head and neck surgeries and performing minor surgical procedures like incision and drainage of abscesses, biopsies of head and neck masses, release of tongue ties and tonsillectomies.

My overtime hours were completed in the emergency department of Potchefstroom Hospital and I became confident in managing trauma and medical emergencies.

I completed my internship in the Port Elizabeth Hospital Complex. I rotated through the following specialties; general surgery, internal medicine, obstetrics, gynecology, pediatrics, neonatology, family medicine, emergency medicine, anesthesia, psychiatry and orthopedics. I also rotated through the following surgical sub-specialties; neurosurgery, trauma, ENT and Opthalmology. In the Eastern Cape resources were often limited and I learnt to offer good quality patient care despite this.

As a final year medical student a was responsible for offering additional teaching to the Cuban trained students completing their student internship at the University of Pretoria. I was responsible for helping these students revise common topics in general surgery. This program as aimed to support these students in their integration to the South African health care system and to improve academic outcomes.