All entries for December 2016
December 13, 2016
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas…
For myself and the other 3rdyears it’s the start of our Christmas holidays. The 2ndyears have already had a week off, the poor first years still have a week to go and the 4thyears are in finals revision mode! I managed to conquer the data analysis of my SSC2 project and handed my project in on time (phew!), however the work on my project doesn’t stop there. My supervisor wants us to publish which would be very exciting but this will inevitably mean more writing and more stats (boo!).
Since our 8 week project finished we have been on Advanced Cases 2 which has been a mixture of lectures and time in hospital to refresh our clinical skills before our specialist placements in January. The lectures in AC2 have mostly been revision as well as information about our upcoming specialist blocks. It’s been really exciting to hear what we will be doing in our specialist blocks but also terrifying. My last block is the Musculoskeletal block, and hearing about the OSLER (a clinical exam) we will do at the end of that block terrified me. At that point next year I’ll be 6 weeks away from finals! My first block in January is GP, which I think will be a really good introduction to all aspects of medicine and a chance to practice all my examinations and histories. The GP block is going to have dedicated teaching days which sounds really helpful and we are also going to have filmed consultations. This sounds horrible but it’s actually really helpful. You might realise that when talking to patients you are always nervously biting your lip or that you say “like” in every sentence (I can’t help myself!).watching yourself on video gives you a chance to work on these bad habits as well as identifying things that you are good at and need to keep doing. The scary thing about the GP block is the “independent consultations”. This is where my clinical partner and I will take an entire consultation with a patient and only consult the GP at the end to see if we did everything right-eek!
Also during AC2 we started working with our new CBL groups. Having been with my first CBL group for 2 years I didn’t really want to change as we all got on so well but as a Doctor you will be changing teams every 4-6months so it’s important that get used to working with different groups of people. Our first task as a new CBL group was a small presentation on complementary and alternative medicines, not everyone’s favourite topic but certainly an interesting one! Although I didn’t know the people in my new group very well we all worked well together with the help of some home baked cookies thanks to one of my new CBL colleagues!
Over the last few weeks I’ve also been busy with The Psychiatry Society as we prepared for our December event “The West Midlands Forensic Psychiatry Symposium”. We had students from Birmingham and Keele attend, and a great turnout from Warwick Students. It’s been great working with the committee on such a big event and I’m excited for our upcoming events in the new year! Working with other students on the committee from other year groups reminds me of how far I’ve come, I can’t believe I’m now a 3rdyear medical student entering my final year of clinical placements. Here’s to 2017!!!
Joanne
Luke Pemberton
13 Dec 2016 15:06
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December 09, 2016
Autumn Term drawing to a close.
The autumn term of our third year is drawing to a close and it’s hard to escape the feeling of mild terror that surrounds me. It’s been a great term, and I’ve learned so much, but I know that things are going to get a lot busier for the rest of my time at medical school after the coming Christmas break.
First we had eight weeks of our Student-Selected Component, a research project designed to acquaint us with the world of medical research. Students could either design their own projects or use one which was arranged by the medical school. I elected to do my own, and after a herculean feat of organisation and form-filling, managed to spend a month in The Gambia collecting data for an audit on tuberculosis investigations. It changed my life. The research project was very interesting, and it piqued my interest in global health – and especially the plight of those outside of the UK who are far less fortunate than we are. I read a lot of articles about TB diagnosis and spent (probably) far more time than I would have ever thought I would poring through WHO reports.
After SSC, we enjoyed three weeks of Advanced Cases 2, which combined lots of familiar elements of our course. Over the three weeks, we had Monday and Tuesday in lecture, and Wednesday through Friday on the wards. The lectures have been either covering old topics, introductions to the upcoming Specialist Clinical Placement blocks or covering an entirely new topic afresh. It’s been great to spend some time in the lecture theatre again after a few months of being away. I appreciate the structure and have found that it helps me learn better.
We also met our new CBL groups – after the first two years with the same CBL groups, we have now landed with an entirely different bunch of people. But the great thing about our course is that (I strongly feel) the people really are selected because of, among other things, their ability to work with others. I don’t know anyone in my group terribly well, but I know that we’ll get on just fine because everyone in the cohort is a very easy and personable person to work with. Initial suspicions have so far proven completely correct.
I’m looking forward to the start of clinical placements but have a little bit of apprehension as well. When I think of what we need to know – and know automatically, without hesitation! – before our final exams, a mere 14 months away, I am frankly terrified. But a very wise GP (also a Warwick grad, of course!) once told me that the key to memorisation is repetition. The more you see something, the more likely it is to stick in your head. I’m hoping she’s right. Now it’s just a matter of getting all that stuff onto paper and seeing it in practice. I know what I’m doing over my Christmas break!
John
Luke Pemberton
09 Dec 2016 10:31
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