Greetings from Rachel

Hey! My name is Rachel and I am currently a first year here at Warwick, although it is very rapidly coming to an end! This is my first blog so let me tell you a bit about myself and what I did before coming to Warwick.

My first degree was Medical Science at Birmingham. I graduated last July and came straight to study Medicine afterwards. I have always wanted to do Medicine and cannot believe I am finally doing it! I had applied straight from college but unfortunately did not make my offer. Instead of doing resits I decided to look at other degree options and do the ‘long-route’ in! I have no regrets with that choice and would not change anything. I really loved my time in Birmingham and my course. My degree has laid a brilliant foundation for starting here at Warwick, I may not remember a lot of what I learnt but at least not all of it is completely new and scary!

I chose Warwick as I liked the idea of the course only being for graduates, and therefore you aren’t just a handful of students being thrown in with loads of undergraduate students! I also liked the proximity to Birmingham - only 25 minutes on the train! The course structure similarly interested me, especially the anatomy teaching. Having access every week to the plastinated specimens has definitely helped me – anatomy is not my strong point!

I love travelling and during my time at Birmingham I had the opportunity to visit both Kenya and Ghana. I organised the trip to Kenya myself and joined up with people from across the world. I spent time in a special needs school, nursery and health clinic. It was a really eye-opening trip and made me realise how I have definitely taken for granted my access to education and health care. There were times when you wouldn’t see a child in nursery or school for a few weeks as their parents had run out of money, or they would be sent in but with no food or drink for the whole day. Spending time in the health clinic was a fantastic experience but challenging. I witnessed old men crying in agony when their wounds of over 10 years were being dressed, people coming in with a ‘cough’ and getting given antibiotics without any investigation – a stethoscope was not in sight and they definitely were not worrying about antibiotic resistance!

My trip to Ghana was with Global Medical Brigades and I went with other students from Birmingham (mostly medics!). We set up a health clinic in a community where their closest health centre was hours away. We raised money so that we could bring out suitcases full of medication and supplies, and so that we could pay for doctors to come with us. We had a triage, consultation and pharmacy section, and were lucky enough to have both a dentist and gynaecologist so we could have specialist areas. We also got to spend a lot of time doing public health talks and demonstrations. Again, it was a really rewarding experience.

During the holidays I work at a special needs school and at a respite centre for special needs children. I love working with the children and really miss them when I am away! I think this is where my interest in paediatrics has stemmed from, and therefore since starting at Warwick I have helped at Teddy Bear Hospital and taken part in Bedside Play. I am also now a member of the paediatric society committee!

Anyway, I will stop talking about myself now and look forward to writing again soon!

Rachel :)

: 21 May 2014 11:28 |  Tags: Mbchb Medicine Rachel Student Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem