Abbey Barraclough

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

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!