All entries for Monday 13 February 2017

The End of SCP1 and Farewell to Musculoskeletal Health

It’s so hard to believe that we are already in Phase III. I swear that we started our induction week just the other day. But as we are now in the final push, we will be spending the rest of 2017 in our Specialist Clinical Rotations (SCPs). These are six-week deep-dives into eight specialist areas of teaching, which are intended to make us all well-rounded medical students and doctors and give us sufficient education and knowledge about a very wide variety of topics. Our cohort is divided into eight evenly-sized groups, and we cycle through our different rotations throughout the year. This is probably my least-favourite time of year, however, as the mornings in January are so dark and it’s so difficult to find the motivation to wake up when the entire world seems frozen! I’m really looking forward to summer – or even spring – when thins brighten up a bit and we leave home at least when it’s not pitch black out.

My group is just coming to the end of the Musculoskeletal Health block, in which we have spent the past six weeks working closely with consultant orthopaedic surgeons and rheumatologists. It has been absolutely fascinating, and I've been enjoying it far more than I thought I would. I’d seen a few joint replacements and sterile injections in the past, but this block was so much more than this. Our time has been more or less evenly split between both sub-disciplines, and we've been spending a lot of time in clinics, teaching sessions and have had the fair bit of theatre time thrown in. This block seems to be far less ward-based than any one I've had so far, probably by the nature of the patient contact. And we have a specific sign-off list that ensures we get as broad an exposure as possible.

The MSK faculty team at the hospital we’ve been based at have been really engaged in teaching and have all been really keen to help us learn. It’s really helpful. We’ve had all sorts of formal and informal teaching, and because I really like anatomy and the mechanical functioning of the human body, I’ve really got a lot out of this block. And I feel that we are taken much more seriously as end-stage medical students than we were in CCE (in Phase II). We have attended several teaching clinics, which are clinics in which we see patients, under the supervision of a doctor, and then are given feedback on our performance. It’s really useful to have this feedback, because even though we won’t have final exams for a year, every bit of constructive criticism helps.

The best part of the block has almost certainly been the direct attention we get from consultants – the experts in their fields. It’s so humbling to see these people who are absolutely excellent at their trade working well with patients. I’m really motivated to work hard now, because I’ve been working really closely with people who are just so good at their jobs; it’s really awesome to see. We start the GP rotation next Monday, so I’m hoping that we’ll have another great round and learn a lot more!

Luke Pemberton : 13 Feb 2017 16:38 |  Tags: John Mbchb Student Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem