Week 9-10

There is nothing too interesting I need to put across concerning the last two weeks. All that I can say is that it is now December and I have completely decorated the flat in Christmas decorations, much to their dismay! Decorations hang from the ceiling from tack (because we aren't allowed to poke holes all over the flat), the windows are sprayed snowy white and I wake the flat up most mornings with Christmas music blaring through the speaker in the kitchen.

We have finished the beginning module of Year 1 of medicine! Through the term, we have explored aspects of biochemistry of respiration and nerve conduction, the sociology aspect of medicine, the art of medicine and the statistical side.

This came to a shock for me, so I'll go into further detail:

Sociology:
There is quite a lot of sociology to medicine, which I didn't realise because I have never studied this topic at GCSE or A-Level. In these tutorials, we have looked at what a doctor-patient relationship is, and the different types of consultations. In lectures, we have explored what makes a good consultation for a patient, and what doesn't. This was particularly interesting because we did look at role play and acting situations out during our tutorials!

Art:
This is really interesting! It's amazing some of the art pieces that have been created through medical inspiration. I would recommend you looking at some of the artwork that is available online that has been done by medical professionals and students, that are sometimes inspired by real cases or emotions they feel while working in the hospital. This helps with that common conspiracy question: is medicine a science or an art?

Statistics:
If you haven't done maths, you may struggle at this stage. I did Maths A-Level and I am finding this extremely difficult and confusing. This is studying prevalence and incidence and how these two differ. This is about studying the difference in pattern of particular health conditions depending on location, ethnicity and socio-economic status which is obviously very important for a doctor to know.

We have also been introduced to the structure of our first exams in January, which you can already imagine I'm worried about. This is testing our histology, anatomy and all of the other points I've highlighted above.

For my next blog post, I will be discussing the placements I have been part of.