Abbey Barraclough

Abbey Barraclough

/ Rebekah Fleming

To prescribe, or not to prescribe? That is the question!

So in the middle of our second term of fifth year, we had our final formal exam – the PSA or Prescribing Safety Assessment. It is a national assessment of all final year medical students and dictates whether you can prescribe as a junior doctor. It is a fairly new thing and has only been around a few years, honestly a lot of us moaned and groaned about having to do it. However, on hindsight, it wasn’t all that bad and actually none of us should complain at having them make sure that the patients we will soon be writing out drug prescriptions for are safe. You’re given a BNF (British National Formulary), which is the bible of all things pharmacological, both online and on paper which is a real help. They do everything they can to help you, and it didn’t feel like one of those tests set out to trip you up. It is just a test of the common drugs you see in the various specialities, common interactions, side effects and the different ways you need to monitor them. Obviously there were some harder questions in there but you expect that. My top tips for all of the subsequent years would be, just as Tom Fisher the pharmacist advised, just familiarise yourself with the layout and the style of the questions with the PSA practice papers online. And not to stress out too much, I think it’s easy to underestimate the amount that you pick up naturally about prescribing and drug safety just by being on the wards.

The PSA came at the end of a week called Leadership and Management. This was completely different to any other week you have in fifth year and although full days of lectures can be a struggle – there were some real gems we all gained from it. It started with a simulation day. None of us really knew what we were in for until we got there and then it all became clear… The plan was to stress us all out! Not in a sadistic way I should add but to show you how easy it is to make mistakes when put under pressure, either by the environment or the team you’re working in. It was a real eye opener and an excellent learning point before we all enter the working world. There were then lectures all based around preparing us for life after medical school: pay, banding, qualities of a good doctor, teamwork, handling complaints and making mistakes. The talk on making mistakes and what to do when we inevitably as humans do make them was one of the take home talks. Doctors came in and honestly spoke about their mistakes and how the handled them, the good and the bad. It was an excellent way to remind us that even though mistakes will happen, how we approach them as a professional can make a huge impact on the outcome.

Finally, jobs came out and we all have one! So massive congratulations to all of the fifth year Lancaster Medics – celebrations are definitely in order! I am sure there will be lots of that, we have so much to look forward to, grad ball and graduation, in our final term back in Lancs. Almost at the end now!

Abbey Barraclough

/ Rebekah Fleming

The Situational Judgement Test

We have made it to Christmas! One third of the way through the year already, two fifths of our fifth year placements done and one of the biggies out of the way – the SJT. The Situational Judgement Test, or SJT because we medics love a good acronym, is basically the final years version of the UKCAT. It’s a fancy aptitude test that’s going to tell us if we are going to be good doctors or not. That’s the gist as I understood it anyway – there has obviously been a lot more research into it and that’s probably a massive over-simplification! You’re given a score out of 50 and that’s added to your academic score to go towards your junior doctor application. So it counts for almost half your final points – it’s pretty important! The questions are based on different ethical situations that you will encounter on the wards and how you think is the best way to respond. For example ‘you see a colleague shouting at another, do you a) do nothing b) talk to the colleague about their behaviour c) talk to your senior about the situation’ etc. There are two sections to the paper, the first you have five options and you have to rank most-least appropriate and in the second you choose the three best options from a longer list.

The actual test actually makes a lot more sense than the UKCAT, it’s only the same in that it’s meant to be one of those that you can’t revise for and is more about aptitude than knowledge. But I would argue that and say that revising for it is a good idea. There are practice papers online and it was definitely worth going over them, getting used to the style of questions and running through the timing. Going over the GMC guidelines is another good tip! After a while you begin to see patterns in what they are wanting from your answers, like talking to the person directly before escalating it to seniors was a common one. It is, or should be, common sense but I won’t lie some of them are a bit more tricky. I suppose it’s like anything, we just have to sit and wait now!

Next term we have our prescribing exam, should (fingers crossed) find out where we will end up as F1 doctors and start prepping for life after medical school. Along with helping to sort out things like the graduation ball, it will no doubt be a very busy but very exciting term! However for now, we have a few weeks off to put our feet up and make the most of our last Christmas without the threat of working. Hope everyone has a lovely Christmas and we shall catch up again in the New Year!

Abbey Barraclough

/ Rebekah Fleming

F1 Bootcamp

We have had our first month on placement as fifth years. Hectic is an understatement! But I am so glad that our course is the way it is. With finals all done and finished last year, it feels like placement now is all about focusing on becoming junior doctors and the job that we will be expected to do fairly soon. I’m on a surgical ward placement at the moment, working the hours of the F1 through the week and trying my best to keep up with what’s happening. You get to do loads of clinical skills and it’s great because you are taking the bloods and doing the cannulas but not just as a routine exercise. You’re involved in all of the aspects of the care the patients get, so I feel like I’m getting a better understanding of why things are being done and learning to interpret the results we get from them because I know the clinical history. It’s hard, but when you have a good day it’s brilliant! Plus, what better way to be a good junior doctor than to have seen first-hand the good, the bad and the ugly of the job.

On that note FPAS opened yesterday, that’s the application form for our foundation years. The form itself is relatively straightforward. Ranking the deaneries (fancy word for an area you apply to) is not. You have to list, from your first preference to last, all of the deaneries in the UK and even though you hope you won’t end up with your last choices, you still find yourself umming and arring because ‘what if?!’ We have two weeks to make up our minds and get the forms in, then it’s a waiting game. It seems like a huge thing to be applying to be a doctor but it is so exciting to think that soon we will be graduating and stepping out into the real world. If the rest of this year is anything like the last month has been, Lancaster is prepping us for it very well!

Abbey Barraclough

/ Hannah Crawford Leighton

Our Last Ever First Day

I’m not going to lie, I’m brand new to blogging and very inexperienced in anything vaguely technological, but when the opportunity arose for one of us oldies to share our experiences of 5th year with you it sounded like an ideal way to record our last year and hopefully, if at all I can, help some of you along the way.

We’ve had our last ever first day today. Four summers ago, when I sat there as a fresher, to be where we are today seemed like a lifetime away. Saying ‘fifth year medical student’ seems almost surreal; I’m not overly sure how that’s happened. It’s a terrible cliché but the time has literally flown by. And sitting there and realising that this was our last first day, this was our last start of a year in Lancaster, this was our last induction as medical students was terrifying. One minute you’re starting out in medical school, the next you’re doing finals and then all of a sudden its SJT’s, deaneries, FY1 applications and the prospect of your future life as a doctor. It’s exciting too though. The dream is almost a reality. Even if that dream has lost some of the rose tinting you had at the start and is a more realistic version of that same dream, it’s a dream nonetheless. You work so hard to get into medical school, and then harder still when you get here and it finally feels like the end is in sight. Although, of course, our enthusiasm for ‘life-long learning’ will never cease – I would love a show of hands of people who put that in their personal statements!

We are very well supported here at Lancaster, it’s one of the many perks of a small medical school and that is making the whole prospect of applications less daunting. The staff get to know you, you know where you can go for help and you know that you will be able to get that help if you ask for it. We get to know the clinical and educational staff throughout the years and being able to pick a referee who actually knows you, and well, is something we shouldn’t take for granted. Many of the larger medical schools really struggle when it comes to that bit of the form, or so we hear.
We were also introduced to the portfolio today; the fifth year equivalent of the log book. It is huge! All the things we need to be deemed competent as a junior doctor are there ready for us to get signed throughout the year, along with clinical cases, case based discussions and continual reflection to see how we’re improving. So not too much changes between the years. And it’s good practice for the rest of our careers. Starting out with all the enthusiasm of a new year, I’m very much hoping to keep on top of everything and be meticulously organised. But for someone who organisation doesn’t come all too naturally, I might have to keep you posted on that one!

I don’t want to get too emotional thinking about it being our last this and our last that. I love Lancaster and have had, am having, the best time at medical school here. Now all I have to do is fill in those blank pages of the portfolio and (fingers crossed) manage to get a job somewhere. If only it was that simple! Wish us all luck!