In The Life Of... Graduate-Entry Medical Student!

To continue with our series of "In the Life of..." and to help provide you that insight to medicine and Dentistry, especially with current climate, our next guest writer is Lorraine Renée who is currently a Graduate Entry Medical Student at the University of Nottingham and explains a typical week in her life.

As a first year, your typical week at university may look overwhelming. At the University of Nottingham, we must learn 30 months of content in 18 months! However, once you hit the ground running and realise everyone else is in the same boat as you, fast-paced becomes the new norm.

Monday:

Lectures, lectures, lectures! On a typical Monday, we can have anything between 2-5 lectures, ranging from 1-2 hours long. We have ample breaks in between (can anybody say caffeine?), allowing us to recharge and go back for more!

Tuesday:

PBL/Clinical Skills day. Problem-Based Learning involves meeting up with a group of 6/7 other students and a facilitator, practicing discussion and clinical reasoning over a fictitious case study patient. First, we have our session 3, which is closing off our previous week’s case with reviews of investigations and a management plan. After a break, we start session 1 of a new case with the patient’s presentation, and we disperse to research! After lunch, we learn about various clinical skills, such history taking and physical examination, having the opportunity to practice on each other and real-life patient actors. After a heavy Tuesday, I personally wind down with some yoga 😊

Wednesday:

Anatomy day! Wednesdays usually have a morning or afternoon completely free for self-directed study, with the time in uni spent on an Anatomy workshop. In the workshop, we have mini interactive presentations and get to see cadaveric prosections, allowing us to learn practically.

Thursday:

A much-deserved day off (except in heavier modules)! Use for self-directed study, catching up on lectures or simply getting some well-deserved rest.

Friday:

Session 2 of the new PBL case, where we feedback our research to the group before taking a history and performing an examination on the case study patient. Once these are complete and ‘tests’ have been ordered, time for the weekend!

In short, a week at med school can be enjoyable yet intense. My advice would be:

Get into a routine! Have a schedule, maybe stick to a 9-6 so you don’t feel guilty not working outside of those hours
Make time for you time! Burnout is not fun, so know when to take a break and do something that isn’t medicine focused
Remember, you aren’t alone! Everyone on the course is in a similar if not the same boat as you. It’s not a competition, help one another and do what you can to keep each other smiling 😊