Have you been up and working for longer than your recommended daily allowance of activities? I'm sure as students we have all been there, pulled all-nighters writing essays or frantically finishing that coursework, deadline looming. I am certain in whatever you choose your future careers and life to be you will have a similar experience again.

So I have been up for over 27 hours straight. I just did a placement all day before then went to the hospital for a night shift, 8pm to 9am. In the interests of full disclosure I will state that i had dinner and a half hour nap before i started the night shift and yes, please, do not worry. I did not directly treat any patients because, yes I'm still a student. I would also like to add that I am certain that I have stayed up longer in some alcohol fuelled daze, but this was the hardest.

I've always thought I would be good on no sleep. We have all done it, consciously working all night. But it is a very different experience not just concentrating on one thing for the whole time and not stopping from the day before. My night shift consisted of sitting or standing in a darkened ward, waiting for the next patient to come in then frantically trying to deal with the millions of jobs that suddenly appeared (it never rains it pours...). One thing this day has taught me is that when i hit hour 21 (otherwise known as 4 in the morning) I hit a wall, solid and impenetrable. You keep going because that is also when the fear kicks in. The adrenaline runs and you cannot hold a civil conversation but the information gets conveyed.

And the worst bit is, we have it easy.

I'm not suggesting in anyway that what my fellow students and I slack. Well, I don't work hard but I know some people who really put shame to the idea of the boozy incompetent medic. However I digress. Being a student is one thing but actually working is another. We as students have it easy in comparison to the doctors.

The people I see and work with in the hospital may have these 9-5 days. The more unlucky ones have 12 hour shifts (oh A&E how we love you). But what is 9-5 these days? Most of the doctors I have met are in hours before they are clocked in and leave hours after their due deadline. You work the job not the hours. A cliqued statement i know, but it is true. It is inspiring and depressing to watch the junior doctors try and stay longer so that they can get that bit extra from the job, get that extra training. Equally so is realising that the more senior doctors, stay just as late and work just as hard, maybe not for the same reasons but because. What a good 50 years to look forward to...

So I would like you to consider it. It is very difficult for doctors to forget you. Honestly you are our priority. There is so much going on in the wards that you do not see, that even we as medical students standing there do not see. Everyone is tested in life and pushed to their limits but the wheel still turns.