All 2 entries tagged Freshers

WMS – The Rest of the Week

Things have already stepped up a little in terms of expectation since my last post. Whilst this week has been a relatively gentle introduction into med school life for a biomed graduate, we’re under no illusions as to the scope and breadth of work that’ll be piled onto us from next week.

How many lectures, you ask? 15 lectures and a group session over three and half days. Then we have an additional day where we’ll be spending our time at University Hospital of Coventry & Warwickshire (UHCW) to learn clinical skills and anatomy.

This is a really cool feature of the course, where we get to look at (outrageously expensive) plastinated body tissues to learn anatomy. It’s consolidated by radiology teaching and then we try to apply our new anatomy knowledge to a relevant clinical skill. This term we’re focusing on Health, Metabolism and Homeostasis which ultimately means we’re studying the entire abdomen, thyroid and a few other bits and pieces. Therefore our clinical skills should reflect that by the end of term – we should be able to take good histories of abdominal problems, examine the abdomen and thyroid and so on. The pace is incredibly daunting, but the support network in the medical school seems really good.

It’s not all hard work. Thankfully on Thursday night we got the chance to unwind at Drs and Nurses night at the Kasbah nightclub. On the whole guys dress as nurses and girls dress as doctors, but it’s pretty casual and you do get a good mix of both. I’m still struggling days later to remove leftover eyeliner and nail varnish!

I did hope to relax this weekend but there are a few bits and pieces to finish before the coming week, including finding some resemblance of organisation for my notes. Tonight we do get a final chance to unwind as a group with the Fresher’s ball in Kenilworth. Our first black tie event! J I’ve seen pictures from previous years and it looks like a great chance to meet students again outside of a work environment.

Matt

Megan Earle : 09 Oct 2015 10:05 |  Tags: Freshers Kasbah Matt Mbchb Student Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Preparing for the MB ChB

Congratulations to all of you who have recently received your offers to study at Warwick. Before I got mine I remember anxiously scrolling through the student room desperately waiting to find out when I’d be receiving my offer, or most probably my rejection. Anyway, the wait is over and you can finally relax! Whether you’re working or still studying you can finally look forward to starting your medical career in September, which you’ve no doubt been working extremely hard towards for quite some time. Before getting here it’s tempting to think that there’s loads of work to do and things to sort out and whilst there may be some truth in that, I think it’s really important to enjoy the summer - you’ve worked hard, it paid off, you deserve it!

Here are some tips to make the “Big Move” a little bit easier.

• Go to the house hunting day - MedSoc will organise a day where next year’s students can come to Warwick for an informal “getting to know each other” day. This is your opportunity to find a group that you fit with. Granted, you probably won’t get to know each other’s deepest secrets or be taking anyone home to meet your parents after one day (or you might but I’d probably advise against it), but you can get a good idea of what people are like and whether you could see yourselves getting along for the next year. Choosing housemates is really important, particularly if you are going to live with fellow medics. Having the same timetable will mean that you will be spending A LOT of time together and that might mean little problems that wouldn’t have been an issue in another life become the most unbearable thing you’ve ever had to deal with. Facebook is a wonderful way to have a chat with someone and a little Facebook stalk never hurt anyone.

• Don’t buy textbooks before you get here - It’s tempting to buy loads of stuff you might think you need before you get here in an effort to hit the ground running but it’s better to leave it a while until you’ve identified what kind of textbooks you learn best from. I have a huge, expensive physiology textbook that I still don’t understand a word of so it’s serving its purpose as an effective doorstop at the moment. If I’d taken the time to have a look at books from the library I might have saved myself some valuable beer money.
• Buy a fresher’s pass/band - Definitely indulge in the first week. It’s so important to get to know your coursemates, your housemates in particular, and to have a bit of fun. You’ve probably been working super hard for the past few years and you’ve a lot of hard work coming up so enjoy fresher’s week to the full. Remember fresher’s week when you were 18 (you might not if it was particularly indulgent)? How lucky are we to get to do it twice!
• Be humble, ask for help and just admit if you don’t know - we already know you’re amazing. You’re here and you’ve already got some stellar academic credentials under your belt, but then so have all of your classmates, and you’ve still got a long road ahead. You can learn something from everyone whether it’s lecturers, fellow students, doctors, nurses or even your patients. If you’re like me you’ll spend the first semester not knowing anything about anything and that’s OK, for a while! The patients that you meet will be nice to you and are only talking to you because they want to. It’s not compulsory for ill people to have the same conversation over and over again with various groups of nervous medical students. Listen to them and enjoy it, they’re more often than not an expert in their condition and it might just make all the pieces fit together for you.
• Finally and most importantly, I think, is to remember to do it your own way. Everyone will approach things differently. It’s really easy to get bogged down with thinking about how much more work other people are doing or how much better their learning style is. Before exams, when you’re laid in bed and the fear descends over you try not to forget how far you’ve come and how much you’ve achieved already. You’ll do it again. You’ll make it.

Amy

Sarah Hill : 14 Apr 2014 14:47 |  Tags: Amy Classmates Freshers Housemates Mbchb Medsoc Student Textbooks Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem