Fingers and toes crossed…

Well that’s it, I have officially completed my final specialist clinical placement as a final year medical student. I will be back in hospital in January for my revision block and then next stop finals!

I cannot believe how fast this year has gone, it feels like only yesterday I was checking my emails as a 3^rd year student to see where my first specialist placement would be and it doesn’t seem that long ago I was in the lecture theatres in first year. The amount I have learnt in such a short space of time is quite staggering, however it is equally alarming how much I need to learn and remember over the next 8 weeks!

The last two weeks of my musculoskeletal block have mostly been focused on rheumatology and our end of block assessments. I presented a patient case about Psoriatic arthritis (a condition that affects the skin and joints) to our consultant and was then quizzed about my knowledge of the case and of the disease, which was quite nerve wracking but good practice for our clinical exams. We also had our end of block clinical exam which is run exactly like our finals will be. Mine was in fracture clinic with a patient presenting with hip pain. He was such a lovely person and he was still in very good spirits when I saw him despite him already seeing another medical student due to a lack of patients. He was less impressed with my examination technique which involved making him manoeuvre quite awkwardly around the couch which would have been tricky even if his hip didn’t hurt! I certainly still have some way to go before my examinations are slick enough for finals!

In our last week my clinical partner and I were invited by our rheumatology consultant to attend a special clinic conducted by a Professor visiting from London. This professor specialises in a rare disease called scleroderma, a disease where the body’s immune system attacks different tissues in the body resulting in skin disease and various problems with other organs which can be life threatening. This is an incurable condition and it can be very difficult to treat, many of the patients in the area with this condition travel to London for treatment but once a year this professor visits Coventry to see particularly difficult cases and offer advice to the rheumatology team at UHCW. It was interesting to observe the UHCW consultants presenting cases (getting tips for my own exams!) and see how this world-famous Professor was still so down to earth and friendly with the patients. While medical students are often told not to worry too much about rare diseases, when you are in final year and preparing for clinical exams you start to believe all the rumours about some of the tougher clinical cases, with scleroderma rumoured to be one of them I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to attend this specialist clinic!

Keep your fingers and toes crossed me and hopefully the next time I’m writing my blog it will be on the right side of finals!

Joshua Galvin : 18 Dec 2017 09:43 |  Tags: Joanne Mbchb Student Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem