Final Year

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….!

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!