Month: September 2015

The beginning of the end…!

/ Hannah Kolbe

So it’s official, this is our last year of being a student! If anyone reading this is a prospective Lancaster Medical School student, this believe it or not will soon be you. I remember being told that 4 years ago as we got our pictures taken together as a year group and thinking they were mad. There was so much to learn, so much to see and so many challenges to overcome…but they were of course right. There is still so much for me to learn and I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready for the big wide world, but it’s exciting to think at the end of this year in just under 11 months the reason I came to medical school will be reality. But there is 5th year to do first, and I can’t wait to get started.

It’s an exciting yet potentially worrying time to be a final year student currently, with all the discussions about what FY1 holds for me next year and the big changes set to come into place. This is the year that applications open for the foundation programme, where medical students from around the country decide where they want to work for the next 2 years. I think I am as prepared as I can be for this huge task, and there is always someone to speak to for help and advice along the way… I’m sure I’ll need it!

But before all that, I’ll re-cap what the first few weeks of 5th year have been like so far. At the end of year 4, after the dreaded finals were over, we were all off on our electives. Electives in Lancaster take place just before 5th year and give us a chance to go anywhere in the world (within reason!) to see what medicine is like elsewhere. It’s a 5 week placement with some travel time stuck on the end if you’re feeling adventurous. I decided to stay in the UK for my elective, and went to a Hospital right at the base of Ben Nevis in Scotland. My friends went to exotic locations like Malta, South Africa, Australia, Barbados, Cambodia – you really can go pretty much anywhere. I can honestly say, although the sun shine was lacking, I’m really glad I went where I did. As you can probably imagine, lots of people climb Ben Nevis each year meaning more people getting involved in traumatic situations. I went with the ambulance team and worked in A&E a lot, and it was sooo exciting! There is lots of advice about planning your elective when the time comes, so really think about what you want to get out of it and where you can see yourself living for 5+ weeks of your summer (you get your exam results while you are away!!) I’ve just finished writing my report about it and would recommend it to anyone!

Aside from submitting our elective reports, the beginning of 5th year so far has involved handing us a huge folder which by the end of the year will be fully complete. For now though, it is a series of things we have to do according to the GMC to become safe and competent doctors next year. Each year you will have a logbook to keep track of what you’re doing each year, and each year the skills advance and you start to feel like you’re becoming a doctor. In order to make sure we are able to carry out some practical skills on patients, we have had 2 weeks of lab-based training on models. I feel quite prepared for things like this having studied at Lancaster, because you are interacting with patients in a Hospital and GP setting from year 2, with log books each year that let you know where you’re up to.

In year 5 you get 5 rotations, each lasting 7 weeks – A&E, Ward placement, GP and 2 areas that you are interested in (I’ve picked paediatrics and intensive care/anaesthetics). I just started on A&E last week and am doing my first night shifts this weekend, so wish me luck! I’ll keep you posted on how it goes and how I find 5th year as I work my way through it – I think it’s going tibia good year….!

Huz Khojani

/ Lauren Kennedy

Starting 4th year

You would imagine that starting fourth year of medical school would be a daunting experience, knowing that your final university exams would be at the end of it. But as it turns out, that isn’t the case. There is a tremendous amount of confidence that comes from passing exams at the end of a medical school year, and so by the time that you’ve done it three times, you feel unstoppable. “Bring it on!” you declare to the challenge that lies ahead.

The first day of fourth year starts very similarly to how every other clinical year does; an entire day dedicated to talks that reinforce the principles of that we have been taught from the beginning, such as how to keep patients safe as well as ourselves. Then, during the final segment of the planned day, we are given the information that is most important to us; how fourth year is organised and which groups we are placed in.

In a nutshell, fourth year consists of a whistle-stop tour of the entire hospital (excluding the Accident and Emergency department). Four weeks are spent on each specialty except Medicine and Surgery, which get double the time. This makes sense, as these can be argued to be the “meaty subjects”. Because there are so many specialties to see, the year group is divided into groups that would rotate between the specialties. The concept of having “rotations” has been persistent since second year, however this year the groups are as small as five students. This means that a majority of the academic year will be spent with the same four people.

The first big change of the year that is quickly noticeable is the higher level of respect given on wards by doctors and more junior students. Along with the respect comes an expectation that we are able to perform more and better clinical skills on the wards. This means that we are given more responsibility in clinical practice, which I very much welcome. So far, the year has had me and my clinical partner running our very own GP clinic, as well as clerking patients in on a paediatric ward. Clerking a patient means that you are the first person that a patient talks to once they are admitted to the hospital. This can seem incredibly challenging as there are no patient notes and you are left with nothing but a stethoscope and your own clinical knowledge to determine what might be wrong with a patient. However, having a hands-on experience to this degree does make you more emotionally invested into the patient’s condition, resulting in remembering the features of the patient’s diagnosis for a long time in the future.

Not all clinical experiences have been rewarding however. The most frustrating time that I have had this year was when trying to examine a child who refused to let me go anywhere near them, but managed to pull at my ID badge and undo the lanyard that is attached to it from around my neck. Being particularly fond of my picture, the patient decides to put my badge into their mouth and starts chewing on it. The next half-hour is spent trying to get it back, which was a lot harder than expected.

As eventful as fourth year has been so far, I look forward to the challenges that it will definitely bring in the future. By this point in medical school, instead of seeing these challenges as problems you see them as opportunities to continue growing

Beth Stockton

/ Lauren Kennedy

First day on the ward

Our second week in hospital was the first time we were sent to the wards to speak to real patients. It was scary because there was nobody with us, and we had to approach nursing staff and the patients ourselves to ask to speak to them. You feel bad bothering them, but most patients are actually happy to have someone to speak to, and the nurses give advice on who might be better to speak to as well which was really helpful. It’s difficult to write notes the same way as we practiced in the OSCE because you can’t control what order patients tell you information. There tends to be a lot of stories that, even though they can be interesting, they aren’t what you need to write in your history. It can be hard to steer patients towards what you need to find out, but I’m hoping that will come with practice.