Christmas holidays and Warwick Traditions

The Christmas holidays have finally arrived! I don’t think we have ever been so grateful for December to show its face as we are all pretty tired and in need of a rest. However, there has been a lot going on over the last few weeks of term that have been exciting to be involved in.

We had Revue 2019 which is an evening where we put on a comedy sketch night evening for the rest of the med school and staff. It is my favourite evening of the year and the final week of preparation is my favourite as it’s just lots of pizza and team spirit as we push to the end of the 4-week rehearsal slot. I decided to just throw myself in this year and I was dancing (something I haven’t done since I was 14) and acting and singing in the end of act songs. Our normal sketch of Warwick V Buckingham (the only medical school we share a hospital with) went down well and I got to play a Warwick student. There was a point where I was crying dramatically which was snapped and is the most memorable picture of me I have ever seen. It was such an amazing night and we managed to raise a lot for a local sexual violence survivors’ charity, so it was all for a good cause.

I also made my debut as a Keynote speaker which felt weird to be standing at the front of the lecture theatre instead of sitting on the seats. It was for the MMI day run by a group of WMS medical students targeting widening participation students in the local area. Ollie had messaged me before asking if I was Miss or Ms, I asked if neither was an option, apparently it wasn’t. I don’t do formality! I was talking about medical school interviews and one thing I wanted to do was to avoid just regurgitating what is already out there on websites, instead focusing on aspects often missed such as supporting each other in teamwork. Normally, you just show off about being a leader and follower, but I believe that the aspect of comradery and support is just as important. One point I hammered on about was resilience. As grad entry students, most of us have seen our fare share of downfalls and built up that resilience which is so important in the tough world of medicine. I was given a huge box of chocolates to say thank you and as much pizza from lunch as I wanted, of which I was more than happy about!

I also got to finally partake in the long-held Warwick tradition of peer teaching. I taught in the anatomy and physiology days for block two and I found that I enjoyed it! Going back over my notes from first year was a bit surreal as it only hit me then how much work I had done over the Easter holiday last year but it was useful for making my sheets for the first years. It also meant I was refreshed on topics we had covered more than a year ago which considering one of my topics was drug metabolism, was actually a good thing! The physiology day brought its own challenge of having 12-minute slots to deliver topics normally taught in 60-minute lecture slots. It was hard but I decided worksheets were the best way to go here. I really did enjoy my weekend of teaching, it was a bit surreal to be teaching as I was always in awe of the second years last year who had passed the first year exams so to be able to be in that position myself this year, is amazing.

Teaching has also given me a bit of food for thought over my future career. I had never really considered the AFP programme, but I recently found out it also involves medical education as your “academic rotation” and now it’s something I am looking into. I am interested in medical education and developing my teaching and presenting skills so I can see myself applying to AFP come fourth year now!

So, now it’s Christmas. I am so grateful to be able to have 4 weeks off just sleeping and relaxing. I know next year is going to be a slog so I want to re-charge as much as possible. It also means I get to have a cuddle with my dog, something which I really need!

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas and I’ll be writing again after the 25^th!

Eden Villiers : 14 Jan 2020 08:55 |  Tags: Abbie Mbchb Patients Student Wards Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem