Thinking back to my time as a final-year medical student in the emergency department, there was always a nagging sense of being in the way as I bumped into people dashing from one job to next, following my supervisors around like a loyal steed.

Overwhelmed by the dizzying swirls of blue scrubs amid the screams, the groans, the alarms and rhythmic beeps, it was difficult to keep up.

I remember the feelings of excitement when finally given my first independent task, at last — a neurological examination prior to discharge for a woman admitted from a local pathology lab with a suspected seizure during a blood test.

The array of tests that followed yielded nothing remarkable; after several hours of waiting, scanning, bloodwork and more waiting, she was to be sent home.