Tuesday 7 April 2009

UCL Open day

It was really interesting to see another medical school, and to be in London again for the first time since last June. UCL is in really great position near to Tottenham Court Road with three major hospitals close by. I really like the structure of the UCL course with the Vertical and Horizontal integration, and the intercalated B.Sc. The main down side for me is the cost of living; London would be significantly more expensive than most other places in the UK.

Thursday 2 April 2009

Medisix

Definitely feel more than ever that Medicine is for me, so many of the lectures were really interesting especially the immunology lecture. I found out that I do not want to be an ophthalmologist, after seeing a video of a cataract removal using an intra-capsular method. Medisix really gave me a chance to see what it would be like to live at a university and to speak to medical students ranging from 1st years to 5th years and from Sheffield to Cambridge medical school. Thanks to the Med student who interviewed me it was really helpful! The pathology lectures were really interesting; the lecture entitled “The Forensic Pathologist” by Dr Alfredo Walker from Forensic Science Service Ltd. showed me, it’s not quite Silent Witness . It’s far more interesting! I also came to the conclusion that I, as a member of the general public had held the view that all pathologists were all of the forensic variety, I’d never thought of a Haematologist as a pathologist or as Bioterrorism something that was within the realms of pathology. Essentially I came away from the conference with a more accurate view of the areas of Medicine, that up until then I had been a little gray on. Some of it came as no surprise such as the fact you had to pass Royal College exams and that as a Doctor you are signing up for lifelong learning, I didn’t realise that there were so many Royal Colleges though. I also didn’t realise just how interesting working in preventive medicine can be, the lecture on “Communicable Diseases” really sparked my interest about the HPA’s work. I certainly want to be a doctor!