Rural allowance: No
Doctor’s Quarters
- Revamped- no showers initially, very few functional toilets. No communal kitchen
- Only used it on ward call and it is very basic.
- Hearsay – not great: run down, inconsistent water and electricity supply.
- Terrible. Do not recommend
- Poorly lemon, no security, old facilities. Shared bathrooms and no cooking facilities.
- Not fit for human habitation. Old odour, cockroaches, shared bathrooms. It was just a place to keep my luggage and lay my head for a few hours daily.
- Only slept here during psych block as the on call room was here. Very dodgy and creepy bathrooms that didnt work. No electricity as well. Would not recommend- also you need to get out of Bara when you aren’t working.
- Bathrooms are shared. The place is small. People are always getting robbed or flooded.
Academics
- Surprisingly little teaching for a teaching hospital. More emphasis on pushing patient load. Obviously senior and block dependent.
- Not as much formal teaching as other hospitals, but a great team that is very willing to teach if you show interest.
- Excellent ward rounds, teaching sessions and M&Ms
- It depends which rotation you are in. Most academic meetings/grand ward rounds were cancelled due to COVID so in all honesty not alot of emphasis was placed on academics.
- Consultants always available. Teaching rounds in all disciplines.
Lack of teaching. - Tutorials organised, great supervision, easy access for attending courses around Gauteng.
Consultant ward rounds with good teaching. Regular M&Ms. Teaching by registrars and consultants. - Since the workload is so heavy, you don’t get much time to read about the cases you see, however the registrars and consultants are eager to teach.
- The consultants are extremely knowledgeable and well-recognised. Furthermore, the hospital is part of the Wits circuit, so teaching is both at a student and registrar level.
- Good teaching rounds (internal med) /PIWR, I was lucky with having approachable consultants so those were enjoyable times to learn. It’s what you make of it though, everyone is willing to teach, but often you’re very busy getting other work done that any formalized teaching could feel like a big disruption in your day…I tended to avoid those sessions where possible for that reason.
- Very dependent on the block. Some blocks are busy and formal teaching does not happen (Internal medicine, Surgery, Neonates). Teaching in anaesthesia, orthopaedics, peads and psych was excellent. You will learn on rounds as well- most of the learning is done by doing and seeing patients. The patient profile is immense and packed with weird and wonderful cases. Looking back, now a few years after internship, I would not have felt comfortable to be on my own in community service without the practical, hands on training I received from Bara.
- Non-existent in most departments.
- Consultant rounds, registrar teaching, academic hospital with medical students from Wits.
- Some departments are better at teaching than others. It’s also depended on who you get as a senior but there is generally teaching.
- It is department/rotation dependant. Internal medicine/pediatrics/gen surgery was a great platform to learn as an intern also exposure was great in internal. Taught me discipline, time management, multi-tasking.
Obs/gyn- I didn’t learn much.
Enjoyed family med time with some district and casualty time. Anesthesia was another good academic opportunity to learn as an intern.
Supervision
- There is always help available if needed, however you are taught and encouraged to be independent. A lot of allowances to do procedures alone.
- Excellent. Seniors always available to assist or to allow you to run cases/theatre or management just refining at the end.
- ALWAYS a senior around! You are never alone.
- MO’s and registrars always available
- There’s always someone senior around. They usually end up helping or taking over.
- Supervision galore on all levels
- Always supervised through each rotation
- There is ALWAYS a senior to ask
- You are rarely alone, and seniors are very willing to help in list of the blocks.
- Your reg is a whatsapp/phone call away. You’re never really alone. If you feel out of your depth, or need clarity there’s definitely someone to call and help will come. At the same time, you can have times where you’re trusted to be independent. You’ll round alone, then do a quick round with the regs, you’ll prompt the queries in consultant rounds (often because you know the patients and their results backwards and remember the niggly things). You’ll be clerking everyone in the admission wards or the surgical pit, making some calls on immediate management etc.
- You’re never alone. There are always people to help.
- Always senior support available.
- 100 percent full on supervision 24/7.
Clinical Exposure
- A wide variety of conditions encountered and you get a massive amount of exposure to procedures
- All expected pathologies seen in abundance
- You will see everything. The only let down again was the pandemic led to things like respiratory clinics being cancelled etc…
- You see everything
- You see a lot of things ! It’s immense ! But you do with that what you want because seniors aren’t interested in teaching . They just want the ward work to be done.
- Heavy patients load, wide spectrum of clinical conditions seen and managed, numerous opportunities to practice clinical skills and procedures.
- Practical exposure to most common clinical conditions
- Because of the size of the hospital and it being tertiary level, as well as the large number of patients, you are exposed to a variety of clinical presentations and procedures.
- It’s Bara. You just see so much.
- You learn how to deal with quantity- internal medicine
The practical learning is phenomenal- your logbook will be so full, most people stop even logging things. You will perform procedures and become comfortable just by the sheer numbers you do. CVP’s, Lines, Suturing, IV’s, Resus, Ultrasounds.
You see a wide variety of cases. - Amazing exposure to multiple pathologies & clinical skills.
- You see everything therefore you work more hours.
Social Scene
- Very busy work environment, not always a lot of time outside of work to socialize, but a great work team and you develop a fantastic bond with the other interns and regs you work with.
- You work too hard and too much to be able to socialise as often.
- It’s in Johannesburg so lots to do. 1st year is rough with minimal free time. 2nd year has ample free time.
- Your only friends are Your colleagues
- Covid and also interns are too tired to socialise .
- You have no life outside the hospital. Always too tired, always too busy
- There really isn’t much of a social scene. But good comradery between interns. Any social events are organised between interns themselves.
- Coffee dates at Maloti’s are a must
- Your colleagues become your social scene, as days off are few and far between. However, it’s a great age to be in Johannesburg and the nightlife and social scene (when you find free time) is great.
- There really isn’t one, haha! You’ll make good friends with your group/rotation of interns (shared trauma will make it so). The Bara camraderie is a thing. Maybe I was just lucky with my group, but you’d find your friends, go help/hang out while finishing ward work. We were a team. The patient load is high, so there’s always something to do, you often leave after 5pm (def the case in 1st year rotations, 2nd year is better with free time) you’re on call every 4th day from what I remember (can depend on the block). Most of us were just too tired or had schedule clashes, so meeting outside of work is tricky.
- So you work, ALOT. It calms down a bit in second year (except neonates), but there are definitely people at other hospitals having a better social experience than you. It’s what you make of it though, and I had friends who did make the most of it. It’s all about asking yourself what do you want out of internship- because if you want another two years of pretending to be a medical student, Bara is not for you.
- Great teamwork allowing friendships to develop.
Final Comments
- Although a very busy environment, there is the opportunity for lots of learning if you are willing to put the time in. At the end of your 2 years you will be confident to handle most emergency situations alone and will be proficient in procedures. Bara is known globally to produce hard working and knowledgeable doctors who are capable and confident.
- Excellent! Would advise for internship
- 10/10 would recommend
- Don’t come to Bara. You’ll regret it .
- If you get or choose Bara, make sure you have a solid social and family structure to back you up.
It’s a tough place to do internship. You will work hard and have long hours (although these hours are no more well regulated) but the experience is truly great. - Internal Med I rated highly because I loved it. It was honestly my favourite simply because I felt most like a doctor there. I had a hard intro to it (my first reg was… Bad…it’s a long story…) but I loved it. But it’s not an easy rotation. Paeds and psych I rated as average: I disliked these immensely, but the rotations themselves are fine. Other ppl loved them. Ortho was just soooo much fun. Great Regs, lots of laughs.Really, it’s all what you make of it. None of it is “easy” but it was a great experience. That being said: I am a “Bara person”. I’ve always liked the chaos. Things are not neatly set out, things aren’t in one place or one building, you will be parking in some weird patch of veldt at some point, you will hoard forms and supplies (jelcoes, BMAT stuff), sterile packs in wards can seem like stuff of legend (and often like overkill). If having a neat, organized, to the letter workspace or environment is important to you… If thinking on your feet scares you, or learning as you go sounds too casual… Bara will be a challenge…but it’s an epic one.
- If you’re prepared to work hard (maybe unnecessarily) then choose Bara. You may never work harder in your life again- just based on the physicality of it all. You probably will end up with stockholm syndrome though. No place can run on pure chaos like this place.
- An excellent experience. You get out what you put in.
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