The Medical Student's Survival Guide

Bk. 2

Elizabeth Cottrell, David Mitchell

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781315346984
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medizin
• Subtopic: Gesundheitswesen, Verwaltung & Pflege

To the unsuspecting, wearing a stethoscope could not be more easy. You pick it up, place it around your neck and...hey presto...you look like you know what you are doing and people think you are a doctor...This is the no-nonsense guide to the reality of medical student life. Everything you need to know is here. What are my chances of delivering a baby? How many questions should I ask? How do I insert a nasogastric tube without the patient knowing it's my first time? Where will I live when I'm on clinical rounds? Why can't I wear trainers? Will patients like me? What is a patient's 'pack year' history? How do I break bad news? How can I get more sleep? And much, much more.

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Medicine is a vocation in which a doctor’s knowledge, clinical skills and judgement are put in the service of protecting and restoring human well-being. This purpose is realised through a partnership between patient and doctor, one based on mutual respect, individual responsibility, and appropriate accountability.

In their day-to-day practice, doctors are committed to:

• integrity
• compassion
• altruism
• continuous improvement
• excellence
• working in partnership with members of the wider healthcare team.

These values, which underpin the science and practice of medicine, form the basis for a moral contract between the medical profession and society. Each party has a duty to work to strengthen the system of healthcare on which our collective human dignity depends.¹

Medical school is fantastic, fun and fulfilling, but it is also tough. It may mean leaving home, fending for yourself for the first time, and it is mentally and physically challenging. The sister book to this, The Medical Student’s Survival Guide 1: the early years, contains information on: medical school: the early days the people you will meet competitiveness, attitude and behaviour course structure learning and exams projects presentations money life away from medicine medical student socials

medical school: the early days

the people you will meet

competitiveness, attitude and behaviour

course structure

learning and exams

projects

presentations

money

life away from medicine

medical student socials

when things go wrong in the early years

how to get the most from the early years.

Similar to The Medical Student’s Survival Guide 1: the early years, this book contains information on avoiding or managing the hazards of being a medical student, as identified by the medical student welfare surveys performed by the welfare subcommittee of the British Medical Association Medical Students’ Committee (BMA MSC).

To succeed at medical school, you will work harder than you ever imagined. Your role and your presence will not always be appreciated, and you will have to mature quicker than many of your non-medical student peers. That said, medical school offers unique, intriguing and humbling experiences and opportunities. Few other degrees offer such insight into the lives of other people; this will make you very worldly wise. Medicine provides the buzz of success, the heartbreak of tragedies and mental and ethical challenges that go hand in hand with caring for, diagnosing, treating and managing patients and their friends and relatives.

The two Medical Student’s Survival Guides have been developed to provide you with realistic insights into undergraduate training. The Medical Student Survival Guide 1: the early years contains information on the ‘pre-clinical’ years at university. The present Survival Guide is targeted at medical students entering the later years of their course, the majority of which will be delivered in a clinical setting. Although it is recognised that this split is not as clearly defined as implied in many medical schools, as some of you will receive clinical training from the first year, information contained in each Survival Guide will be signposted in both books to assist you to access the relevant information. The content has been informed by the enthusiasm, experiences, challenges and successes of the author and UK medical students. The Survival Guides may not always provide solutions but confirmation that your views, experiences and problems are not unique. Medicine and medical training is constantly changing and evolving. Therefore be proactive in finding the most up-to-date information that is available. The Survival Guides will signpost you to sources of current information on many of the topics covered.

The Survival Guides will not guarantee you a pass in your exams; however, they will provide you with information that will make the day-to-day experience of being a medical student much easier.

The Survival Guides contain quotes, thought bubbles, speech bubbles, arrows and stars:

Quotes by UK medical students and literature: opinions, thoughts and advice that demonstrate the diversity of experiences that occur throughout medical training.

Thought bubbles: examples of questions you should be asking yourself.

Speech bubbles: questions commonly asked by tutors and examiners or useful phrases for you to try in the appropriate situations.

Arrows: action you could take to further your experience, knowledge or practice.

Stars: important and key knowledge that undergraduate students should grasp during medical school. Although not exhaustive, they will signpost important concepts and illustrate the level of understanding required of you.

The Appendix contains Resources, a directory containing comprehensive contact details for relevant organisations. Contact the organisations themselves for the most up-to-date, detailed and accurate information.

When applying to medical school many potential students declare a ‘commitment to life-long learning’ to demonstrate their desire to obtain a ticket to the marvellous journey that medicine provides. But what are the different routes, diversions and delays that today’s medical students face, and are these causes for concern?

Medical students have to build a commendable CV in an environment where competitiveness and ambition is rife; passing written and clinical finals is simply not enough to join the bottom of the medical career ladder. So what can medical students do to distinguish themselves from a plethora of cloned colleagues? Get work published? Intercalate? Join their Medical School Committee? Evidently, competitiveness is an aspect of any career pathway, although there must surely be a feeling of déjà vu with personal statement writing and UCAS applications in the not-so-distant past for final-year students.

Another concern inherent among students is that of finances. Medical students ar...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• About the author
• About the contributors
• Acknowledgements
• CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
• CHAPTER 2 CLINICAL YEARS
• CHAPTER 3 TALKING WITH PATIENTS AND COLLEAGUES
• CHAPTER 4 HISTORY-TAKING
• CHAPTER 5 EXAMINATION OF PATIENTS
• CHAPTER 6 PRESENTING PATIENTS
• CHAPTER 7 WARD LIFE AND ROUNDS
• CHAPTER 8 CLINICS
• CHAPTER 9 THEATRE
• CHAPTER 10 COMMUNITY PLACEMENTS
• CHAPTER 11 HOW TO GET THE MOST FROM MEDICAL SCHOOL
• CHAPTER 12 ELECTIVES
• CHAPTER 13 WHEN THINGS GO WRONG
• CHAPTER 14 DIFFICULT INDIVIDUALS
• CHAPTER 15 LIFE AFTER MEDICAL SCHOOL
• EPILOGUE
• APPENDIX: RESOURCES
• REFERENCES
• INDEX