All entries for Monday 31 July 2017

Perks of the job…

Being a graduate entry medical student is pretty tough, hours are long and the work never really ends so feelings of guilt are always present, having said that studying medicine is a real privilege and there are some excellent perks…you just have to know where to look for them! One of the perks of being a medical student is the opportunity to go to conferences. There are always bursaries and prizes available for medical students to attend conferences. At the start of third year all students must complete a research project and lots of my colleagues have been able to present their work at conferences. Some around the UK, to exotic places like Newcastle, and others have gone a bit further afield to present at conferences in Canada! Presenting an oral or poster presentation at a conference not only looks great on your CV but is a great opportunity to network with other students and doctors who share your interests.

This year I’ve had the chance to present my work on a medical education course for students at a regional medical education conference. This was not only great practice at delivering oral presentations but I got to meet lots of people interested in medical education. Many of the attendees were clinicians who also worked in medical education, I was able to quiz them about their jobs and how they got into their roles over coffee. I was also able to get to know senior members of the medical school better and understand what it’s like to work in management roles within a large medical school. The most recent conference I had the opportunity to attend was the International Congress for the Royal College of Psychiatrists which took place in Edinburgh. Although I wasn’t presenting at this conference I was able to attend fully funded as I had successfully applied for a fellowship from the RCPSYCH that supports students interested in psychiatry for 3 years, and as part of this you can go to the annual conference for the duration of your award! Being able to attend such a large conference was really exciting but also quite daunting. I took the opportunity to attend sessions on topics that I’m particularly interested in such as perinatal mental health, getting into research and improving medical education and recruitment to psychiatry. In between sessions I met lots of other medical students as well as psychiatry trainees in a special refreshment area reserved for Students and Trainees- a very friendly and welcoming place to enjoy the free conference food!  I was introduced to the Chair of the Psychiatry Trainees committee and learnt about opportunities to get involved in this in the future. I also made contacts with people in Warwickshire who I could get additional clinical experience with in sub specialities like Forensic psychiatry.

I’m looking forward to attending the conference again in the future and been able to present some of my work that my fellowship is supporting me with as part of my elective project. The medical student elective is another major perk of medicine-6 weeks to go and experience medicine in any part of the world! Our elective takes place after final exams in March/April and I’m hoping to go to Ethiopia and conduct a research project in perinatal mental health. We had to submit our proposals for approval last week so fingers crossed it will all be approved and I’ll be off to Africa! Medicine isn’t all that bad after all!

Joanne

Luke Pemberton : 31 Jul 2017 13:48 |  Tags: Joanne Mbchb Student Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem