MRI or Hope

[Zainab Ali]

Hi there,
I have a question for all clinical yr medics especially the ones at Hope and MRI. I have a tie between the two and i need some serious convincing and advice to pick one as i want my clinical yrs experience to be a fairly pleasant one. So plz reply with your views, experiences and preferred choice!!! I really will apprciate it.

Thanx Zainab

[j00ni]

want a doss - MRI. Want a degree - Hope

[Zainab Ali]

Hey Jooni,
how come u r so anti-MRI?????It's the most convenient to commute to plus JRUL is around and also since i'm interested in surgery, the guy at Hope recommended MRI!!! I just can't decide anymore!!!

[belis]

since i'm interested in surgery, the guy at Hope recommended MRI!!!

I wonder why is that. My experience from surgical firm was good with busy timetable and lots of theatre time but I would imagine similar to be true for Hope-maybe it is not.

Anyway, I picked MRI becouse of the location and fact that I have been working in this hospital as a HCA since year 1 so it was comfortably familiar.

It is not to bad. Teaching is not canceled as fraquently as rumours would let you believe however organisation is not so great. Generaly if you want to learn sth you need to be proactive, paster people to teach you and make good use of sign ups. I think DGHs associated with MRI are realy good. If you are prepered to go to NHDGH for a term you can get some excelent teaching-only 2 students per firm over there so you get a lot of individualised attention, which can be lacking at MRI.

[Zainab Ali]

So you do have to Pester them.....plz be really honest and tell me if you had a choice to go back and pick again, which one will you choose. I love the location of MRI and Hope is just a bit too quiet for me. Plus i felt like an alien at hope-just out of place for some random reason, although i was always in aww of the place and had my mind set on going there, it just didn't happen for me. It's so hard to ignore the un organised MRI but at the same time, i just felt right at home for some strange reason. It is central, commutable but lacks organised teaching, so i've heard. It feels like a blind choice at the moment cz i can't tell by a single visit if the place is for me or not, cz i have to spent three years there and i just want the experience to be worth it in the end.

[belis]

So you do have to Pester them.....plz be really honest and tell me if you had a choice to go back and pick again, which one will you choose.

If I had to choose again I think I would still pick MRI. Maybe it is silly of me lol.

As for organised teaching it depends very much on your firm. For the first term I was based at NMDGH with very organised timetable. My next firm at MRI was general surgery and they kept us busy with a full timetable and loads of theatre time. Some sessions were canceled but most of them were recheduled for other times. Now I am on a general medical firm and so far only a single session did not happen-suprise suprise we were given wrong time on medlea lol. Saying that some groups were quite unlucky with their firms and had a lot of sessions canceled.

As for pestering it is usualy welcomed as showing some initiative. If you ask house officers they will usualy let you present your histories, watch you examine etc providing that their are not to busy. There are many sign ups available so if you don't want to ask for teaching in a pestering fashion you can use them to get into clinics and radiography department.

I am not saying pick MRI over Hope by the way, just giving my honest opinion of MRI -a disclaimer lol.

[Zainab Ali]

Originally Posted by belis

I am not saying pick MRI over Hope by the way, just giving my honest opinion of MRI -a disclaimer lol.

Thank you for being so honest. I really do appreciate it. I have seen both the hospitals, MRI is a bit crammed for the undergraduates. I'm sure it is a fabulous hospital, but are the skills labs enough for the medics to get much hands on experience, cuz i felt tht Hope were more prepared in tht respect with spacious organised labs. Plus everything is under one roof for Hope whereas @ MRI i felt tht the fourth yr showing us round on the Open Day, had no clue where the comp labs were and where the library was etc.

Sorry, i just feel so unsure!!! But thank you for your input!!!! I really do appreciate it very much.

[belis]

but are the skills labs enough for the medics to get much hands on experience,

Skills lab is small but it is usualy totaly empty so if you so desire you can practice to your heart content. It is week before OSCEs now so it is a bit cramped but I have still managed to get plenty of practice with my PBL group. It could deffinitly be a bit more specious though. Some new equipment would be appreciated as well.

i felt tht the fourth yr showing us round on the Open Day, had no clue where the comp labs were and where the library was etc.

It just shows you what sort of people are attracted to MRI-he had clearly no bussiness in the library lol. They just opened new postgraduate library this year. It is just round the corner from the undergraduate center. A bit dissapointing though IMO-building itself is very pretty but provision of books could be better. As for computers there is a cluster in undegraduate center-again usualy a bit overcrowded.

I think overcrowding is a main problem. When you go to take history from the patient or examine them and you are 5th student to approach them that day you can expect the patient to be a bit fed up.

[Madimi]

I'm putting Hope as my first choice and MRI as second. Have you a clinical partner yet Zainab?
xxx

[j00ni]

Originally Posted by Zainab Ali

Hope were more prepared in tht respect with spacious organised labs.

Hope's skills lab is tiny

I'm not anti MRI, or anywahere, I was being facetious. What I would advise is that you try to ignore locations, and superficial things. Concentrate on where you will get the best teaching, the best experiences, and where you will be able to best develop your portfolio - since this will affect where you get your jobs and how well you will progress in your career (I know, a scary thought that decisions you make now can affect the rest of your life!!).

Incidentally, without question I would choose Preston given the opportunity again (a fact borne out by chosing Preston as 1st choice for foundation training)