Course information and impressions

[Ronin]

Hello everyone.
I thought that some impressions of the UCD grad med course might be of interest to some of you. I had planned writing this post quite some time ago but decided it would be best to wait until I’d completed at least one term.

So far I’m really enjoying the course and I think the majority of the class feels the same way. Our class is 37 or 38, 2 people have withdrawn from the course. Just over half the class is from Ireland, 3 are from the US and the rest are from Canada.
Ages range from 21 to 34 and we have diverse backgrounds ranging from scientists of all types to lawyers and a property economist.
We all seem to be getting along well and have had ample time to socialise.

Attached is a copy of my timetable for two weeks.




It should be noted that it varies from week to week, tutorials may not be scheduled or only an hour in length. Most weeks don’t have a hospital visit and instead will have a patient centred practice lecture from 9 – 10. It is important to note that omitted from the timetable is the cell-cell signaling and communication course, 3 or 4 lectures a week, as I had an exemption.

A quick aside about exemptions, you need to apply at the start of term. You’ll need transcripts and an overview of your previous course and the units taken.
Half the class applied for an exemption to cell-cell signaling and all with the exception of two got it.
I know of one person applied for an exemption to molecular basis of life and disease but was informed that an exemption would be unlikely as the course is such a major component of term one.

Anyway, back to the timetable. Personally I think it’s really nice, even with the cell-cell signaling course it wasn’t too bad. With the exception of molecular basis, which I’ll talk about in a bit, the workload isn’t too bad either. Our four required courses are specifically for the grad med course, so it’s in a small lecture theatre and usually you’ll be able to get a question answered.

Around 6 weeks into the course we were assigned tutors, med students that had entered as grad med students, before UCD sorted the course out. Their function is just to make sure we’re doing ok, I assume anyway. This really wasn’t thought out very well as our tutors weren’t given too much instruction as to what they were supposed to do, were given this job at short notice and my class had already settled into the course. These problems shouldn’t occur next year as I think that my class recommended that a tutor be assigned at the start of the year.
We’ve had a number of meetings with the course coordinators and organisers because this is the first year the course has been run and they seem to appreciate our input and suggestions on improving the course. On the topic of staff; from lecturers to admin they all seem very pleasant and helpful.
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The 1st term consists of four required courses:

1. Cell-cell signaling and communication
A basic course and if you’ve done a biological science after 1st year college it should all be familiar to you. This unit has a mid term and an end of term exam.


2. Human form
This is our anatomy unit and covers a small amount of histology and embryology but is primarily focused on the back and upper/lower limbs. The unit has two in term mcq exams, each worth 15% and an end of term exam.

There is two hour dissection lab once a week. I initially went into dissections with some apprehension, nervousness and trepidation mixed with a fair amount of excitement and curiosity. After the first dissection I actually found myself looking forward to the next.

You don’t have to dissect, you can observe if you so choose but it really is the best way to learn so I recommend you don’t miss the opportunity and whenever possible dissect. Your time in the dissection room is quite limited but you can, with permission and if no other class present, enter the room to study or dissect.

Our class has two cadavers with about 19 students to each one, we complained pretty much the entire first term about this but this is not going to change. It’s not as bad as it sounds though. Due to the miracle of bilateral symmetry in humans we reduce the number of students to around 9 a side. Of these 9, 3 will dissect. 3 will study osteology and the final 3 will study the prosected, already dissected, material.

The room itself is quite impressive, bright, spacious and due to individual air downflows on each table there is very little smell of chemical preservatives. The only time you experience the preservatives is when you’re studying the prosected material. Not surprisingly the room is rather cold so wrap up before you head in.

This unit also has a two hour tutorial run by consultants which introduces students to the GALs( GAIT/ARMS/LEG/SPINE) musculoskeletal examination.
I really didn’t appreciate how informative this actually was until too late. Ask questions and volunteer to try performing the examinations. I cannot stress this enough. These people are expects in their fields and you can learn so much.


3. Molecular basis of life and disease
This unit covers biochemistry, cell biology, disease, genetics, immunology and pharmacology. It’s designed to bring those without a biological background up to speeds so it covers an enormous amount of information very quickly and it is easy to fall behind.

This unit is very intensive. If you have a degree in the biological sciences you’ll find parts of the unit familiar but there still will be a lot that you’ll have not covered. I’ve a degree in some of this stuff and I was amazed at the speed topics were covered. If you don’t have a background in this area it will appear daunting and overwhelming. While the lecturers and those giving tutorials will do their best to explain topics you will have to devote a large amount of time to enable you to keep up with the lectures. If you need help with this unit, or any others, I’ve found the lecturers to be very accessible and remember that many of your classmates have covered some of this material before and I’m sure will be happy to help.

This unit has a mid term mcq exam worth 25%, a small project worth 20% and two end of term exams, a mcq, 20%, and a short answer paper, 35%.

4. Patient centred practice
This unit is quite different to the ones above. This course is run by two GPs and is very group discussion orientated and aimed at introducing students to ethics, history taking and the doctor-patient relationship. You’ll also have a basic first aid course taught by the Red Cross. You’ll go on hospital visits, Crumlin, Holles St, Mater and Vincent’s and most important of all you and another student will visit a patient to take a history and discuss their illness.
There are numerous assignments during the course which account for 80% of the unit. There is one 30 min end of term exam.

Electives:

One elective is taken from five courses, the name of one escapes me at the moment though. The course coordinators informed students that they would prefer if those of with a science background would take the non science electives and vice versa. I don’t have too much information on these with the exception of my elective social history.The choice of elective isn’t made for a week or two so you are free to sample each of the courses.

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Electives:

Anthropology
Seemed to be a problem in either this course or the other which I can’t remember which prevented our students from taking them.

Food diet and health
You’ll find out why cow’s milk is coloured the way it is, this was an actual question on the mcq exam. It has a mid term and exit mcq exam. Those that took the course didn’t seem to have any issues with it.

Introduction to cell biology
Basic introduction to cell biology, a great deal of overlap with cell-cell signaling and communication. Should be useful for those without a biological science background.

Social history of Irish healthcare
Affectionately known as story time. This is a rather easy and very pleasant course, given by an affable, engaging lecturer. The course mostly covering the period from 1800 onwards. It has a one hour mcq exit exam.

Medical physics
Don’t know too much about this but it is continuous assessment with no exit exam.
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I think the course that UCD offers is very good and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone.
If people would like more information I’m happy to answer your questions if I’m able. If people would like a different perspective I’ll see if some of my classmates would like to post on the forum.


p.s I apologise for any spelling and grammatical errors but in my defence, I’ve never been very good with either.

[PlasteredParis]

Ronin, thank you. This is very informative.

[Goonerette]

Cheers, Ronin. How nice of you to post this.

[malevolent_elephant]

You're so matter-of-fact about it, you make it sound so comfortable! Why is it that everyone on the RCSI thread is moaning about how intense the workload is? I presume it's the same in UCD?

[laceta]

Ronin thanks so much for taking the time to write this, I'm hoping to start the UCD GEP in september and this is so much more informative than anything ive got from ucd themselves! Hope it's all going well still.

[etymon]

Thanks so much for a brilliant post. I have RCSI first and UCD second on my CAO - purely because I did 3 years at UCD a while back - but after reading your post I would definitely not be disappointed with UCD. (Check - would not be disappointed with ANYTHING lol )
How are lecture notes done - handouts/electronically/DIY?
Does the class intermingle with the regular post-leaving certers? If so, is there a closeness/cameraderie within the GEP class?

[Ronin]

For most of our lectures the notes are placed online a day or two before the lecture occurs. Some notes go up the morning of the lecture, some have been put up after the lecture has taken place and with one or two our class rep has had to email the lecturer for the notes. It varies from lecturer to lecturer and module to module but overall the system works.

We have three modules with the undergrad class this term and also had to do a small group presentation with them. Outside the presentation I haven't really mingled with the undergrad class much.

The graduate class are great and we all seem to be having a good time, I suspect the alcohol has helped, so far.

The very best of luck with your CAO application.

[niamh123]

Hi Ronin
Thanks for the great post on ucd, just wanted to ask you about your hospital placements in ucd. How often you are in hospital in first and second year and where are the placements? I know that rcsi are out in beamount observing once a week in the second semester of first year, is there something similar in ucd?any info would be great thanks!

[mrsladybug]

Hi Ronin,

Thanks for the post, hoping to start in UCD in September so great to get a bit more in-depth info about the course from a student's perspective. Just wondering did your timetable get taken down as I can't seem to see it! Cheers

[Ronin]

Hmmm, I've no idea where the timetable went. I'll upload another tomorrow and will get around to writing up my impressions of term two in a day or two.