Studying at medical school

Hells Bells.

There really is a lot of work to get through and to learn. Where does one begin?!

I think for UK students, having A levels in Biology and Chemistry is a great (Perhaps vital) starting point for my course. My graduate group have mostly worked for the past few years and so although we have covered these subjects, the details can be rusty. I am quite lucky because I have spent the past three years studying chemistry to A level and I had the best teacher in the world (Brian Jones, I salute you!)

Each day, the five year students do one module in the morning, and the four year group do that, and an extra one in the afternoon. I have had an email off a fellow nurse asking about my timetable, so here it is:

Monday a.m Biological Molecules
Tuesday a.m Genetics and the basis of disease
p.m Health Psychology
Wed a.m Health and disease in populations (Epidemiology)
Thurs a.m Tissues of the body (Histology)
Friday a.m Metabolism

As well as this the four year course (GEP) have a clinical skills module. We started this last week (On our first day!) when a SHO came to show us how to do cardiovascular examination. This will be built on during the next four years. We also have other things like communication skills and multi-disciplinary team (MDT) skills. The latter went down like a lead balloon with many of us on the GEP. Having spent the last eleven years working in a MDT I would rather not have to do this, and could use the time trying to get my head around genetics. But there you go - I can't complain too loudly because this is the only problem I have with my course and I can't exactly roll up to the tutors’ door and say, "You can bugger orf. I am not coming to your MDT skills lectures because I am ahem......an expert" I am not an expert at MDT working, but I have done it to death and don't feel that this module will make me any more of an expert than I currently am. So there!

So that's basically what we have to do over the next eleven weeks. We then have four weeks off at Christmas, which will be taken up with revision, as our exams are first week back. We have exams on all the listed modules and have to pass the lots of them. Nice!

With all these modules, my innate worry is where do I bloody start? The uni boffins have told us that we can't learn it all and so have to form "structures" in our minds which we can "hang" our knowledge on. They mean that we have to understand what we are doing (Too much to learn, parrot fashion) and try to keep relating things to the bigger picture. Clear as mud then. I have read an excellent posting from "The haversian canal" on learning at medical school:

http://nielsolson.us/archives/2006/03/recent_thoughts_on_medical_education.php

This nice chap writes really well about learning at medical school and also wears a Navy lieutenant uniform, which is never a bad thing.

I have also taken heed of poor Charlie Brown at
http://thatmedschoolguy.blogspot.com/

He is a little further into his first months at medical school than me and is very stressed. His advice is to revise, revise, revise. Not sitting here writing my blog then!

This post is a bit long so I will go. I have to end by telling you about my Jay-Z experience. I LOVE Jay-Z and have seen every live show he has done in the UK over the past five years. I paid ....a.....fortune....on ebay for front row seats at Wembley. Like a weeks wages (In the good old days, when I worked for a living) All I can bear to say is that I got stuck in a 5 hour traffic jam (At the M5 at 1900 on a Sunday night - where the hell where you all going?) and got there for the last 10 minutes. This brings tears to my eyes. See how close we were:

I just about had time to take this photo and then he went. I can't put into words how gutted I am.