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fourth year diary

Fourth year Chris Wincup describes a week in the autumn term

 

Monday

The week began with a refreshing walk to Brighton General Hospital where I spent the morning in the Dermatology Clinic. This is the third week of my dermatology rotation and I’m beginning to get used to being back in the clinical routine following my intercalated BSc in Biomedical Sciences.

During the clinic I was able to talk to and examine a number of the patients, practising some of the clinical skills that I had learned the previous week.

I had the afternoon free for self study and prepared a presentation for the next day’s dermatology workshop on eczema and pruritus. For the rest of the evening I was free to relax and watch TV.

 

Tuesday

I currently live in a city centre flat that I share with my girlfriend meaning I am always close to a lot of the hospitals I visit as part of the course. Again the day started with the half hour walk to the hospital – the cold, windy conditions certainly helped me to wake up! I arrived at 9.30am to start a nurse-run topical treatment clinic, which focused on educating patients on how to use the various topical treatments that they had been prescribed.

Following the clinic, I met with the other six students in my group and we all pieced together our separate presentations for the afternoon’s workshop. When all of the group work was over we grabbed some lunch and chatted about what we had been up to at the weekend. I was happily boasting about a good Newcastle United result (for a change)!

The afternoon workshop went really well and was a good opportunity for all the students in my rotation to teach each other about a dermatological topic.

 

Wednesday

Today was a rare teaching-free day, to be used for self study. Having spent my summer attached to an orthopaedic team at a busy city centre hospital in Sydney, Australia as part of the medical school’s elective module I am required to write my experiences up in a poster. I spent the morning putting my ideas together and starting to design the poster.

In the afternoon I searched a number of online journals for background information related to my research project.

 

Thursday

Thursdays are fast becoming the most exciting day of the week as it is when I work in the lab on my research project. I arrived at the Medical Research Building in the morning and began searching the internet for more background information before setting up my experiments for the day. My project involves looking at the role different cell populations play in the process of tendon development. This is a really exciting project as it allows me to look at the factors involved in tendon repair following injury. The Medical Research Building has brilliant new facilities and is a great place to be involved in research at an undergraduate level.

After a quick lunch it was back to the lab to continue my experiments. I spent the remainder of the afternoon learning how to isolate tendon tissue ready for my cell culture experiments. Before heading home I had a meeting with my project supervisor to discuss what experiments I will be performing over the next few weeks.

 

Friday

Friday started with a short walk from my flat to the GP surgery that I am attached to. The practice is situated opposite the iconic Brighton Pavilion and within walking distance of the pier; both of which always remind me of my Fresher’s week at BSMS and visiting these places for the first time.

I arrived at the GP’s and was offered a cup of tea before seeing the first patient. The General Practice visit always provides the opportunity to practise a variety of history and examination skills due to the number of different conditions that patients present with. Today I practised a respiratory examination on a patient with a chest infection and also learned how to assess a knee injury for the first time.

I grab some lunch on the go while heading to the University of Brighton campus for afternoon General Practice lectures. The afternoon’s subject was based on patient equality and the talks lasted for an hour and a half. Following a short coffee break we broke into small groups to discuss the topic further. Group work is always a great way to share ideas within the General Practice module as a number of different opinions can be heard and it certainly makes for an interesting debate.

Finally I made the trip back to my flat where I put my feet up, reflected upon what I had learned during the week and began to plan a relaxing weekend.