Clinical years

[The-mayan-prophecy]

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[M Clayton]

It's been a couple of years since I was a clinical medical student at Newcastle but let me see if I can help to answer your questions...

Is it a pain moving around for the final three years, trying to find accomadation e.t.c. Is thier help in finding accomadation, like is thier accomadation at the base units which are available for medics or is it pretty much trying to find somewhere to live on your own.

Back in my day (boy, do I feel old!), there was slightly less onus on you to move around but, as Andrew has said, the majority of guys that started off at UDQC chose to stay on Teesside in the flats/houses that they'd lived in during second year (obviously, you can't live in halls for 2 years*).

Nowadays, you can't be in the same base unit in 3rd and 5th year so you'll have to move at some point. If a group of you are moving to the same base unit, it's reasonably easy to find yourself a decent house to rent for the year. If you're on your own (unlikely), you can opt to rent hospital accommodation although depending on your base hospital, this can be great or (more likely) a total dive.

There's usually plenty of people looking for house mates though, so I wouldn't get too worked up about it.

What is clinical teaching actually like, do you just follow a consultant around and then get tested on what you have seen. Are there still lectures, seminars, tutorials e.t.c and where are these based.

Again, it's variable. You start clinical teaching with the 15 week Foundations of Clinical Practice Course - this teaches you all the basic history, examination and practical stuff you need to function on the ward safely. You're then likely to rotate through a variety of different "firms" in the acute hospital (including A&E, critical care and psych) where you'll work with the junior doctors as part of the team. There will also be lectures at your base hospital as well as occasions when the whole base unit are brought together for sessions. The format is pretty similar in final year (albeit with more expected of you - and why not? you're nearly a doctor at that point) but 4th year differs considerably (12 week lecture block in Newcastle, 3x 8 week SSCs anywhere in the region and 8 week elective anywhere in the world).

During clinical teaching are you very much on your own or is there say a group of students together?

It's a mix - there's a lot of small group teaching but you may find yourself being the sole student attached to a firm at any one time (this is not a bad thing, trust me). As I've mentioned, there are occasions when larger groups convene for lectures/seminars etc.

From personal experience what is more enjoyable phase1 or phase2 mediicne

Without shadow of a doubt, clinical medicine was the point at which I became certain that I wanted to be a doctor. I still love going to work every day!

[quote]And finally, do the clinical bases differ, so if someone went to tyne and another to wear would they have studied diffrent things and would the way in which they where taught be diffrent.
I.e more emphasis on teachin to help you pass exams at some bases and others teaching clinical skills, or are all the bases pretty much identical in how they go about teaching med students.[/quote[

It would be foolish to suggest that the experience's will be the same across the 4 base units - there's a lot of ground there! However, the learning outcomes do not change - you will be taught and examined on the same material as your peers - the approach to teaching may differ but it will all be covered.

the medical school claims the teaching is very similar between base units since they have been given a curriculum to follow. However, according to the exam results from the past few years, consistently, one base unit does do better than the others.

Have things changed drastically in the past few years? Back when I sat on the staff-student committee, the data consistently proved that there was no statistically significant difference in the exam results across the base units... student satisfaction scores differed (in some surprising ways) but results did not.

*Some smart Alec will plunge in at this point and say that you can if you get a job as a Senior Resident but that's the exception rather than the rule.

[The-mayan-prophecy]

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[scott]

Hi, I'm going to start in Newcastle this year. I know that in HYMS, you choose a partner in Year 1, whom you tag along with throughout your clinical years. You share the same accommodation and do the clinical rotas together for the 3 years. I kind of hoped this would be the case in Newcastle but it seems like it isn't?

[MCStott]

No but you are in a group in third year with like the same 4-6 people, in both hospitals and general practice, so i assume you get to know them very well!