All entries for Monday 09 February 2015

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Everyone seems to have got over their January blues, people have given up on their new years’ resolutions and everyone has settled into our new routine for this block.

We have started our bedside teaching in hospitals which means we have NHS badges with our names and a very dodgy photo declaring that we are medical students. We spend half a day a week with our clinical tutors visiting different wards of the hospital and getting the chance to practice histories and examinations.

I’m based at Warwick hospital, which is quite small but has great facilities for the medical students. There is a library for students and a study room as well as a room to practice clinical skills, there are also lots of Clinical education fellows who are passionate about teaching and who are often not long qualified themselves so are very sympathetic when we forget things (which happens a lot!).

I was very nervous about going to take a history and examine a real patient, but she was so lovely and patient and said she was happy to help us. We learn so much from patients and the feedback they give us, I’m hoping I can use our hospital placements to really refine my clinical skills and with practice I will hopefully be less nervous!

In addition to my first time on the wards, I also had my formative OSCE this week. This was a small practice version of the exam we will have in the summer which tests our clinical skills in an exam setting. Unlike in the summer exam we were told which skills we would be tested on so we could focus our practice. I have been practicing a lot with my CBL group which has proved invaluable!

The medical school has blood pressure cuffs and resuscitation dummies for us to practice with so we have had a few practice sessions where we all give each other feedback and go through things we aren’t sure on. It’s been very helpful as everyone has slightly different ways of doing things so you can pick up some good tips just from observing!

Another new thing for this block has been the start of our student selected component. This is part of the course we get to pick from several options (including Trauma medicine, Tropical and Infectious diseases and Global Health) a module that we can attend additional sessions on. I chose the Sleep Medicine module as I was quite interested in how sleep is affected in a lot of psychiatric and neurological disorders. I’m really enjoying the sessions so far, we are learning about how sleep can be measured and how disrupted sleep can lead to multiple health problems as well as some strange things such as sleep walking and nocturnal head banging.

These sessions are much less pressured than lectures as we aren’t being examined on them so we can just relax and enjoy learning new things. My group will also be visiting a local sleep laboratory so I will have to remember to bring my pyjamas to that session!

Megan Earle : 09 Feb 2015 09:38 |  Tags: Examination Joanne Mbchb Patients Wards Warwick |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem