All 5 entries tagged Matt

Christmas is over – back to work!

After coming back from the Christmas break already we’re delving into possibly the hardest part of our first year – neuroscience. I find clinical neurology really fascinating but there’s no doubt that for those without a degree background in it, it’s a difficult area to get your head around. Our first day back had five lectures on core neuroanatomy, and the following three days have progressed fairly rapidly. Then we started our first case-based learning session for brain & behaviour, and surprisingly this was much more enjoyable than I thought it would be! Applying what you’ve learnt to clinical cases is by far the most satisfying aspect of our course.

Before Christmas we had our first attempt at OSCEs – the exams we have to pass focusing on clinical skills. They were formative so it was more for our own learning – we didn’t have to pass them – but thankfully it all went fairly smoothly.

It’s pretty terrifying to think we’re around 50% through the pre-clinical stage of our degree and that in a year’s time we’ll be out on placements. Given the huge amount we’ve learnt in the first 12 weeks however, I’m sure we’ll be well versed in our medical knowledge by that stage.

Now we’re back we get to start our student selected component (SSCs), a module we’ve picked that we do out-of-hours one day every couple of weeks. I have global health, something I’ve been quite keen on since working in this area before my degree, so I’m interested to see how that goes. It’s quite relaxed, with the only assessment is an essay towards the end of the year, so hopefully it’ll be a good opportunity to enjoy learning new something without pressure.

Matt

Megan Earle : 20 Jan 2016 11:13 |  Tags: Christmas Matt Mbchb Student Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

First year exams!

It’s hard to believe that in around six weeks, we’ve finished the first of our five blocks of learning for Phase I and had our first exam (I passed!). We’ve covered a huge amount in that time: anatomy and physiology of the gastrointestinal system, basic pharmacology, and of course we’ve covered a lot in terms of clinical skills. We’ve had the opportunity to practice clinical histories, perform general, abdominal and thyroid exams on each other which is a lot more helpful than just reading about the procedures. It does feel a little bizarre that we won’t cover this stuff again specifically until our final exams at the end of the year, but you just have to make sure you stay on top of revising the topics throughout the next two terms.

My biggest surprise so far is that I’ve quite enjoyed learning anatomy. At the start I thought this would be an area I really struggled with, but it’s been taught really well across lectures and on Friday’s in the Surgical Training Centre at UHCW. Sitting down as a group with housemates to go through the content has been the biggest help; if you’re just sat reading an anatomy textbook it can be pretty difficult to motivate yourself so the best thing to do is to surround yourself with as many people and resources as possible!

One thing that feels a bit daunting is that we now start Block 2 completely from scratch. By Week 5 I was starting to feel pretty comfortable with the body system we were covering, but now you go back to square one to study the new systems from the beginning. It’s a comfort that I passed the formative so I must be doing okay, but I do miss the comfort that I had at the end of the last block. I suppose we’ll never be in a state of complete comfort as medics so it’s probably good preparation for the future!

Matt

Megan Earle : 12 Nov 2015 08:34 |  Tags: Exams Housemates Matt Mbchb Student Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

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

WMS – Days 1 and 2

Well, on Monday I started medical school! It’d be great to say we saw patients on day one, ordered our first X-rays, cured cancer… sadly instead it involved a lot of introductory lectures on welfare and what being a medical student actually entails. Hint: it’s not curing cancer. Yet.

Of course we sign up for this long journey towards becoming doctors because we want to help patients directly, but it was driven home that to do this you need to be looking after your own health and wellbeing first. It’s not just a recommendation either; today we signed our student contracts which, amongst many other things, require us to stay on top of our health and to report any problems to the medical school.

Nonetheless it was pretty cool to be sitting in the lecture theatre with my peers, all acutely aware of what we’ve got ourselves into. Tuesday we had our first couple of lectures – introductions to cells and organelles – which as a biomed student can seem a little unnecessary but it’s really important to get everyone up to scratch and to a similar level so we can contribute in groups effectively. A large part of our course is tailored around case-based learning in small groups (whom I met today J).

Tuesday evening we got to meet our medic parents for the first time, who we’ve been assured will be our Lord and Saviour’s for the next year! I’m pretty excited about spending time with the second years who take up a lot of their time with contributing to our teaching, which is quite a neat aspect of Warwick’s course. It’ll be great to have their input on how we can focus our learning effectively.

I’ll try and write up again after the next few days, after which we’ll have had the medics Fresher’s Fair and the (dreaded? notorious?) Doctors & Nurses night (pictures almost certainly guaranteed!)

Megan Earle : 30 Sep 2015 08:11 |  Tags: Matt Mbchb Student Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Meet Matt!

Hi! I’m Matt, and in a couple of weeks I’ll be a first year student at Warwick Medical School! Typing that sentence still feels a bit bizarre as it’s something I’ve wanted to say for quite some time. This was my third application to Warwick and I’m grateful they’ve finally succumbed to persistence and hard work (apparently that’s a desired trait for medical students…) I’ve literally just settled down in my new house with four other medics, and I’ll try to blog about the build-up to Fresher’s week, the event in itself, and hopefully life as a first year medical student if I’m not completely drowning in work!

I previously studied at the University of Salford, an ex-polytechnic university in Manchester. If you’ve ever had the ‘privilege’ of visiting Salford then you’ll know that’s not particularly interesting in itself, but it does highlight that Warwick are happy to take people from any background so long as they meet the criteria to become good medical students and eventually good doctors.

After Salford I worked at a hospital in Manchester as a research assistant where I got the chance to become involved in global health and epidemiology. That’s something I’m quite passionate about, so I was happy to hear about WMS being part of the Medsin network and it’s definitely a society I’ll try and pursue.

For now, I’m just trying to make the most of my last ever free time (kidding, I hope), find my bearings locally and figure out exactly how self-destructive Fresher’s will be (MedSoc are yet to release their devious plans for 2015). I’ll keep you informed as and when I can :)

Megan Earle : 21 Sep 2015 09:42 |  Tags: Fresher Matt Mbchb Student Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem