What's it like?

[arctictornado]

I'm choosing whether to accept Sheffield or Nottingham, and I've managed to come up with five questions to help me decide. Someone PLEASE answer them, I'm well and truly stuck.

What are the students like at Sheffield?
What is the course like? How much of it is lectures, and how much is practicals?
What's daily life at Sheffield like?
How big is the workload there?
How competent a Doctor will Sheffield make me?

[algy_lacey]

Sorry that this is a very late reply - I don't come on here very often any more. I'll try and answer them as well as I can, but I can only give my personal view and I'm about to graduate so things have changed since I came through anyway.

What are the students like at Sheffield?

Mostly, I think we're a pretty friendly bunch. I've not had any run-ins with anyone. I've certainly found students in my year to be supportive and helpful. People tend to cooperate well towards common goals. For example, I recently sat finals and it seemed natural to work together with other students on placement to prepare for them (especially the OSCE). Obviously, people have different learning styles, but I've found people here to be very willing to help one another. I have heard rumours that other years are less friendly, but I don't have any direct experience of that.

This isn't the most academic medical school and the student body reflects that. People who are extremely academic and high-achieving are admired and allowed to pursue that (albeit with some gentle mocking at time), but we're not over-run with scarily perfect types! There are a lot of popular social events - I've always avoided anything to do with MedSoc, but a lot of people enjoy that kind of thing and you'll get plenty of opportunities to socialise with lots of friendly medics.

What is the course like? How much of it is lectures, and how much is practicals?

It varies from year to year. The first two years are primarily lecture based, but with weekly dissection (with a cadaver to about six students) sessions. There are also computer based histology practicals, and possibly some physiology practicals (I did them, but I know their format has changed since then). You will also have regular tutorials - often with an academic F2 doctor. There are also early opportunities to develop some clinical skills - vital signs (BP, temp, etc.) is taught in first year and there are a few schemes to get you used to dealing with patients at an early stage. You'll spend 8 days in a hospital setting in your first year - 4 days shadowing the nurses and 4 days shadowing doctors, including taking some histories. There are also "patients as educators" who are real patients who have volunteered to help train medical students by letting us practise taking histories from them (and examining them when you hit the clinical years) and you will meet them from time to time during the first two years. You'll also spend some time (with a partner) visiting a patient in their own home and learning about how they cope with a chronic condition (or pregnancy).

After the first two years, you'll become a clinical medical student. At that point, you will spend much less time in lectures, though they do still seem to crop up quite a bit! You will spend most of your time on placement, either in one of the Sheffield hospitals (Northern General, Royal Hallamshire, Jessops, various psych units) or at one of the Associated Teaching Hospitals (mostly Chesterfield, Doncaster, Barnsley and Rotherham, though you can also get sent to Bassetlaw, S****horpe, and Grimsby). You will still have tutorials for much of that time, although I've had very few in the last 18 months. There's some teaching of practical skills (examination, clinical skills, etc.) Mostly, you're just out on the wards, in clinic or in theatre. On many placements, you can organise your own time - some people use it more wisely than others! On others, you will have very prescribed hours.

What's daily life at Sheffield like?

Sheffield is my home city and I returned to study medicine after five years away - obviously, I think it's a great place to live. It's a very green city and the countryside is a short drive/bus-ride (or even walk) away. Particularly in the early years, you'll have plenty of time to explore. It isn't the most exciting city and there isn't really quite as much going on here as you might expect for a city this size. It is a very friendly place though.

How big is the workload there?

I'm not the hardest worker in the world and I've got by just fine (passed all my exams, thank goodness). There's a lot of jumping through hoops to complete assignments that seem a bit pointless, but it's probably good preparation for being an F1! On the whole, I would say I've mostly worked 9 - 5 Monday to Friday plus patchy reading evenings and weekends with extra time when I've had an assignment or exams and also when I've been on certain placements (like A&E). You'll probably have some hefty commuting on top of that though (up to four hours per day to some placements by public transport) and I learn best from being on placement rather than from reading books. Other people will spend less time on placement and more time reading. Oh, and when I say "extra time when I've had exams" - I'm talking about lots of extra time (preparing for finals was tough!), but that comes in spurts rather than being true of the whole year.

Also, you can probably get away with quite a lot less (and at times, I certainly did!) in the first two years.

How competent a Doctor will Sheffield make me?

Hard for me to answer that. I feel that I've been prepared pretty well. We get much more exposure to clinical skills and patients than medical students at some medical schools seem to. For example, I understand that at some medical schools, graduates may have only cannulated a patient once or twice before becoming F1s. At Sheffield, I must have cannulated fifty or sixty patients in my 8 week A&E/anaesthetics block alone! Sheffield is also the first medical school to introduce a compulsory 6 week student assistantship (which I am currently doing) where students are matched up with an F1 (the F1 they will be replacing for those of us who have local jobs) and expected to work as though they were already qualified (but under supervision). For example, I've been prescribing fluids and warfarin (with my F1 checking and signing everything, obviously) already - great preparation for when I start work properly in a couple of months.

Sheffield graduates also have a reputation for having strong "soft skills" - in other words, we communicate pretty well, both with patients and colleagues.

I'm certainly very glad that I chose Sheffield