All 4 entries tagged John

Peer Support

One of the most beneficial and enjoyable aspects of being a student at Warwick Medical School is the way in which members of the second-year cohort work together to help newer students. There are several ways in which this happens and the benefits are widespread and tremendous.

Usually on one evening every week during term time, a group of second-year students will present summaries of particularly difficult topics that the first-years have covered in lecture or group work in the previous week. This is known as "peer support", and is very famous in the MB ChB programme. Six pairs of second-years will each set up in a different classroom and will each cover a different topic, and then the first-years will divide themselves into six groups and split themselves across the stations. Every twenty minutes the groups rotate to another station, and within two hours the evening is completed. Stations can cover all sorts of topics and are usually quite diverse by design.

A handful of times in the year, the second-year students will also organise OSCE (Observed Structural Clinical Examination) peer-support sessions. The premise is the same: first-years will rotate between sessions which cover potential OSCE topics: history-taking, clinical examinations, other important hospital skills such as in-hospital resuscitation and hand washing.

This year also sees something new; in order to keep the continuity between first-year groups and their second-year instructors, the medical society has launched the “student-seminars” initiative, which matches a group of up to twelve first-years with two second-year instructors for an evening per week over the entire course of a five-week block. There are several of these groups running concurrently on various weekday evenings. Topics can be varied and diverse, but the setting is meant to focus less on rotation and covering many topics (as opposed to peer support) and more on covering a handful of difficult topics in depth.

The benefits of each of these initiatives are numerous. These student-led revision sessions allow students across cohorts to bond – I have got to know dozens of people in cohorts on either side of me just through attending peer-support sessions whom I never would have met otherwise. It also allows students to hear real-life accounts and experiences from those who’ve already lived through what they’re going through now. Each session helps students approach topics from different angles – not just the ones that are presented in lecture theatres or on Power Point slides. Not everyone learns in the same way, and hearing another person’s approach on a complicated topic can be extremely helpful for anyone who’s confused. And finally, all of the slides from the sessions are available online, allowing students to access them at any time – providing extremely valuable resources at revision time.

John

Megan Earle : 01 Feb 2016 11:17 |  Tags: John Mbchb Medsoc Peersupport Student Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

The End of Pre–clinicals and the Start of Clinicals

For the past year and a half, we have spent a great deal of time in the lecture theatre and in other practical sessions getting to know the human body inside and out (literally). We have studied the structures of cells, tissues and organs, how they work together, what can go wrong and how to manage it. Most of the work we’ve done up till now has been very theoretical – although WMS does a good job of integrating (or at least introducing) clinical exposure into the curriculum, we have still had to endure more Power Point than any human should have to. This is understandable, of course, as the amount of information we must absorb is just huge and the pace is quick and we need to be able to access a lot of it in the future.

The end of the autumn term also marked the conclusion of the pre-clinical phase of our curriculum. Our weeks of lectures and intense group work have morphed into something much more hands-on and practical in its delivery –and most of us our going into this period with many different emotions swirling about. It’s exciting that we’re finally going to be on wards and working with teams like proper doctors do (which of course we are not, yet). It’s a little scary that our hands are no longer going to be held quite so tightly as before – a lot of our learning is self-directed and self-managed. But it’s also very encouraging to know that we are given responsibility by the medical school (and its overseers) to manage our own education to a high degree.

From what I have heard, Warwick are quite pro-active and advanced regarding clinical exposure as compared to other medical schools around. Although (of course) all students in the country complete the same amount of clinical exposure by graduation, and all must meet the same standard, WMS introduces the exposure far earlier in our medical-school careers than many other medical schools, thus making the process of speaking to patients far less daunting than it might otherwise be. We meet several patients during the first year through a variety of means: ‘community days’, in which we meet non-hospital patients in the community with medically complex conditions; brief hospital-ward introductions and examination practice; and various other opportunities.

But now, as of Monday 4 January, we will be joining the hospitals full-time and our focus will shift to learning in the clinical environment. It’s very exciting. We’re focusing on history-taking and examination of common diseases in our first ten-week block. Although my partner and I are based on a respiratory block, the focus is not on respiratory ailments as such, but rather the basics of patient interaction from the doctor’s perspective. All of our cohort are distributed throughout the three main hospitals in the Warwickshire area, across numerous wards, but all will be following the same basic curriculum. I am very much looking forward to the transition towards becoming a member of the hospital team and putting my efforts into learning in the clinical environment.

John

Megan Earle : 06 Jan 2016 11:51 |  Tags: History Hospital John Mbchb Patients Student Wards Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Working in the hospital

As part of the introduction to Core Clinical Education that all second-years will be starting in the New Year, we have been spending each Monday at our respective hospitals completing several different orientation tasks. Students in our cohort are assigned to either UHCW (University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire), Warwick Hospital or to George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton. It has been fascinating to see how hospitals work, and this extended orientation session has had the very welcome effect of showing us not just how doctors do their jobs, but how all teams work together to make the process of healing, treatment and management as therapeutic for each patient as possible, whilst working with finite and closely-managed resources.

Students at my hospital are given multiple different tasks to complete over the term; these include bedside-teaching sessions (practicing taking histories and performing examinations), mandatory orientation sessions (such as introduction to outpatient services) and some optional sessions that we chose before starting. The purpose of these tasks is to ensure that students develop respect and appreciation for all members of every team, and see how the many, varied cogs of each ward’s wheels fit so nicely together.

One of my morning placements was in the operating theatre, the purpose of which was to observe several operations and see how the team members’ tasks complemented one another. I had the privilege of witnessing three relatively routine procedures take place back-to-back and watch the progression of each from start-to-finish. Each of these procedures required the patients to be given general anaesthetic, and I was present for the entire process. I watched the anaesthetist and the ODP (Operating Department Practitioner) prepare the drugs, was present when the (conscious and alert) patient was wheeled in, and observed everything from that point forward.

I once watched a documentary about a Formula-1 pit-stop crew; the stops were so tightly choreographed that each team member had certain spots where they could place their feet so that they did not get in the way of anyone else. The amount of precision and professionalism in this operating-theatre team was not far off of that. Every task was completed efficiently and quickly, and with minimal disruption to the patient’s wellbeing. And this was the most impressive and best part of it all: the patients are so vulnerable and so trusting of their medical professionals. Each was literally unconscious, and yet no doubt entered anyone’s mind that each would be given anything but the most dignified and respectful treatment possible - and so they were. It made me proud to be part of a service which takes its duties so seriously, and in which the absolute highest standard of care is not merely something to be aspired to, it is something which is actively practiced and expected.

John

Megan Earle : 04 Dec 2015 09:02 |  Tags: Hospital John Mbchb Student Surgery Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Being introduced to general practice

Along with all other Phase II students, my clinical partner and I spent a day last week being introduced to general practice by spending some time floating around the GP surgery to which we had been assigned. This introduction involved shadowing various professionals around our allocated practice and trying to get a handle on what each of them does.

Although I had seen GP surgeries from the patient’s perspective a fair number of times, being on the other side was very eye opening. It certainly changed my perspective about what GPs and their colleagues do and how complex running a practice can be behind the scenes. Needless to say, there’s a lot more going on there than meets the eye.

Most of the visits I’ve ever had to a GP surgery have been of the quick, ten-minute, in-and-out kind: I describe my problem to the doctor, and he or she gives me advice, a prescription or a letter. But of course there is much more to it, and our introduction showed us a little more of how complex that is.

We spent some time observing the receptionists (a missing member of staff for any number of reasons can mean that they’re really run off their feet – especially in the morning), got an introduction from the dispensary nurse (our practice also functions as a pharmacy because it’s so rural), shadowed each of the nurse practitioners for an hour or so apiece and even had a view from the waiting room – and all of this was before lunch!

There is a common misconception that GPs only deal with coughs and colds, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. We saw all sorts of minor procedures, including cleaning and redressing of wounds, taking bloods, vaccinations and lots of other things which aren’t really complex enough to warrant a hospital visit – plus, the nearest hospital was ten miles away, which is s significant distance for the less-mobile among us.

During lunch, my clinical partner and I each followed a different doctor on their home visits, and then we each observed about two dozen consultations apiece in the afternoon. The presenting complaints were as varied as can be imagined – and there was not a single cough or cold among them! If you like variety, thinking quickly and the surprise of not knowing what condition the next patient will present with, then general practice might just be up your street.

In the New Year, spending time at the GP surgery will form a key element of our core clinical education – we will be there at least once a week for each of the thirty weeks of the CCE segment. I’m already looking forward to it. The professionals in the office were very welcoming, the practice is run very efficiently and the idea of completing this portion of my education is very exciting.

John

Megan Earle : 20 Nov 2015 14:56 |  Tags: Gp John Mbchb Student Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem