All entries for April 2015

It’s the finals countdown

2 weeks to go until clinical finals, and I’ve got cabin fever. I spend the days either endlessly reading and re reading my notes, or for a bit of light relief I head to hospital and try and find some patients who are willing to talk to me and let me examine then, and who haven’t already been seen by 6 students that day. At this time of the year, that’s a difficult task.

The university have arranged various lectures and mock exams for us, which have been really helpful. They have the same format as our finals exams, which is that we go and see a patient, take a 10 minute history, do a 5 minute examination and then present our findings, a differential diagnosis list, a list of investigations that we’d like to do, and a management plan. It can be quite gruelling, and I’ve found out that the best plan is to approach each case using the same framework. At least then if/when I freak out I have a basic plan to fall back on!

At the moment most of us spend half the time thinking that we wish we’d sat finals a month ago, because then at least it would be over, and the other half thinking that we’ll never know enough and that 2 weeks isn’t long enough. I’ve been dealing with this rollercoaster of emotions by ploughing through my Easter chocolate in record time, and regularly shouting at my notes. It does seem to help, but my housemate expressed some concerns about me last week. I’m also physically attached to my pocket copy of Kumar and Clarke (the bible), and I suffer separation anxiety when I have to leave it somewhere.

It is nice to see things coming together though. Until recently I wondered if I’d actually learnt anything whilst I’ve been at medical school. I know that sounds ridiculous, but as a graduate in a biological subject you already have quite a lot of anatomy, biology and physiology knowledge. Revising for finals and seeing patients has made me realise just how much I have learnt. Practicing medicine needs a whole new skill set and a different way of thinking to studying pure science, and that is what this course has taught me. I’m far from perfect, but I’ve come on such a long way that for the first time I feel more excited than scared about starting my first job now. Bring on August.

Megan Earle : 29 Apr 2015 11:02 |  Tags: Finals Mbchb Sarah Warwick |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

In need of some support

Well it’s the last day of my Easter holidays, and exam fear has set in. My revision plan over Easter may have proved a little over optimistic but overall I’m pleased with the amount I have covered. One of the main things about medical school is that for a lot of learning comes down to repetition, and lots of it! I haven’t been able to do this as much over the holidays as I had planned but I hope that the work I have done has laid a good foundation to really consolidate that knowledge over the next six weeks (eek!).

Despite living like a hermit over the holidays working from home has worked well for me, personally I find working in a library with others a bit distracting, I find myself much more interested in total strangers conversations rather than my own work. I do find it helpful to work through clinical cases in groups though, other people will pick up on information that you considered irrelevant. Learning how to answer questions based on clinical cases is very different from anything I’ve done before, you really need to pay attention to the small details in the case as the answers are often right there in front of you, it’s easy to miss marks by just not reading all the information thoroughly.

Another thing that helps to develop this skill is Peer Support. Peer Support is run almost every week as a revision session for first years. The current second years teach us important topics from the weeks lectures. This is a really great resource; the second years really focus on the examinable topics and show us where to focus our learning so we don’t waste time. They are always willing to answer any other questions we may have about the course and most importantly are full of encouragement! Even after Christmas when the second years were no longer based at the medical school they braved the Gibbet Hill traffic to teach us every week. Peer support has even been run over the Easter holidays, for me these sessions have been a welcome break from my study and a chance to do the many practice questions they have provided for us. I hope I get the chance to take part in peer support next year, it’s not only an invaluable tool for the first years but many of the second years say it really helps them to revise key topics and keep things fresh in their minds. It’s also a great chance to develop presentation and teaching skills for that all important CV!

Despite the ever present exam fear I am looking forward to Block 5: Reproduction and Child Health. Pre reading material has been provided to us by the block leads and by peer support to help us get off to a good start in our last Block. I really hope that I can still take some enjoyment out of block 5 despite what lies in wait after!

Megan Earle : 21 Apr 2015 09:19 |  Tags: Joanne Mbchb Peersupport Student Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Jobs!

Last week we waited in suspense for the UK foundation system to update and tell us what jobs we will be doing for the next year. Last October we applied to individual areas, and then in March we ranked all of the jobs in the area allocated to us. Our scores and job rankings were then matched, and we were then told the news that we’d all been waiting for!

I got my first choice job, which has care of the elderly and gastroenterology at a district general hospital (DGH), and then vascular surgery at the big university hospital. I’m hoping that the smaller hospitals will be better for general experience because they tend to deal with less super-specialist stuff. It’s all very well working with a surgeon who only does whipple’s procedures (or pancreaticoduodenectomy as its also known), but if you don’t have to look after a patient with pneumonia all year then that’s not very helpful!

Care of the elderly should be interesting, as elderly patients are often very complicated and have multiple health and social problems which need sorting out. I’m dreading vascular surgery as I’m not a budding surgeon, and I don’t do well in theatre. Having said that, juniors tend to spend almost all of their time on the ward looking after pre and post op patients, and hopefully in the rare event that an extra pair of hands is needed in theatre, I can send the medical student….

The job I’m most excited about (and the reason I picked this rotation), is gastroenterology. I like that gastro doctors have so many different things to look after. They do everything from the mouth to the other end (with a bit of help from the surgeons), as well as the liver and pancreas. They also help to look after diseases that affect the whole body, like inflammatory bowel disease.

Although we all had our job preferences, at the end of the day most F1 jobs are basically the same. You do three jobs over a year, you cannulate lots of people, and you do a tonne of paperwork. There are a few exciting bits in between as well. Having said that, it’s nice to know where I will be and what I’ll be doing for the next 12 months, and it’s a nice boost with 2 weeks to go before finals!

Megan Earle : 15 Apr 2015 10:17 |  Tags: Jobs Mbchb Sarah Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Procrastination…with more work

I have followed my own advice and after having a very productive first two weeks of my Easter holidays which were spent largely confined to one room of the house, I have sacrificed productivity for some much needed socialising. In life pre medical school my weekends were very much my own time and I prided myself on meeting up regularly with friends scattered round the country. That all came to a sudden halt when I started medical school, weekends are very much needed to relax at the end of a busy week and catch up with work, spending large portions of time on trains just isn’t really an attractive option anymore so I’m making up for it now over the holidays!

Even while “relaxing” there is still work to be done, so called “easier” jobs that are a bit more fun than trying to commit what feel like a million drug names to memory! After the holidays my Sleep medicine student selected component (SSC) finishes with our presentations. I’m presenting on sleep and pregnancy, something which I’m interested in – but like a lot of things at the moment, I know nothing about. I’ve being trawling Medline and Pubmed for some helpful references but now I need to put it all together and keep to a 10 minute time limit!

While it’s a bit stressful preparing for a presentation I have enjoyed the SSC, it’s been nice just learning something for fun without the pressure of exams. As part of the Sleep medicine SSC we all got the chance to go to one of the country’s best sleep research laboratories in Leicester. We were shown how the experiments worked and got to speak to a patient who was suffering from narcolepsy. There aren’t many places in the country with dedicated sleep labs and even at Leicester the lab only runs clinics part time. The doctors at the sleep lab all work in different specialities but have special interests in sleep medicine so it was really interesting to speak to them about how they first got involved with sleep medicine. It’s really exciting to know that there are still areas of medicine that are still in their infancy, that still need development so that patients suffering from these misunderstood conditions can be helped.

Having more fresh air this last week may have taken me away from my studies but overall it’s been very beneficial. I ventured to a comedy night in Warwick, enjoyed pizza with an old friend in Oxford and in between some walks and numerous tea rooms I’ve actually had a very productive Easter weekend in the Lake District with my family. Maybe views like this and copious amounts of chocolate eggs are what my brain needs in order to learn neuroanatomy!

Megan Earle : 08 Apr 2015 17:00 |  Tags: Joanne Mbchb Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem