ScotGEM Stories

Hello! My name is Josie and I am a year 4 student currently based in Tayside. Last month I attended my first medical conference, the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Annual Conference in Liverpool. I must admit, before attending I did not have a clue about what to expect! In March earlier this year, I submitted an abstract to present my year 3 quality improvement project at the…

As part of block D, we are starting our second year of ScotGEM in Dumfries and Galloway! It’s been a bit of a rainy start, but on the 24th of August we visited Loch Arthur Camphill Community farm shop and café for a morning coffee and bacon roll, before making our way to Loch Arthur for a refreshing morning swim. After taking in the amazing views during our swim, we made our way back to our…

ScotGEM team, ready to start the trials! On the 19th April 2024, four ScotGEM students (Lydia, Mairi, James and I) travelled to Carlisle for the medical student competition called Wild Trials organised by Glasgow’s Wilderness and Extreme Medicine Society. Wild Trials is a national competition held every year that brings medical students together from across the UK with an interest in…

#ScotGEM #medicalelective #SouthAfrica #EmergencyMedicine

A view from Lion’s Head, Cape Town, South Africa I am a final year ScotGEM student and this year international electives are finally back up and running! For my first block I was lucky enough to be able to go back to South Africa, where I grew up. I ended up in Scotland through being accepted into ScotGEM, and my journey here was via London where I moved for work for a few years, but originally…

A Highland Day to Remember: Glen Affric #ScotGEM #Highlands #Remote #Rural #secondyear #experience

Pass Me The Needle #scotgem #medtwitter #surgery #ruralmedicine

Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.com After having travelled two and a half hours from my rural LIC (longitudinal integrated clerkship) GP practice I arrived at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, bright-eyed and eager to learn. I had three tasks to do. Find a changing room.Find my assigned doctor’s office, hoping they would be willing to teach me and invest in me even though I am only there for the…

A New Doctor in the #WesternIsles #FY1 #remoterural #medtwitter

An Emergency in the Hills #ScotGEM #emergency #CPR #medtwitter

Photo by Michael D. Camphin on Pexels.com I had never really given much thought to how my first experience of delivering CPR would go, but I certainly didn’t expect it to be out on the hills, without a phone signal or a single piece of kit. It was the summer of 2020, and lockdown restrictions began to allow a bit of travel for leisure and exercise. I had plans to meet my brother, brother-in-law…

A Fantastic Fortnight in #Skye #ScotGEM #MedTwitter #highlands

Majestic, magical, misty… these are all words that come to mind when describing the wonderful island of Skye. I was very excited about the prospect of getting the opportunity to work there, even if it was only for two weeks. I wonder if someone would ever give me a job there? Boring medicine chat: I was also pretty excited about the opportunity to experience the rural hospital, lead by specialty…

Island Life #Scotland #WesternIsles #Highlands

Moving further away from home to the Western Isles in the middle of a global pandemic was perhaps a bit of a surprising decision to some people, but after feeling trapped in a city for months of lockdown I didn’t have to think too hard about it. I did worry about the potential isolation, but as it turned out, that wasn’t an issue at all. Before moving I’d made it as far as Barra for a weekend…

West is Best #ScotGEM #Scotland #Hebrides #WestCoast #Sailing

If you don’t believe me, Princess Anne once said, “Sailing on a sunny day in Scotland is the nearest thing to heaven anyone will ever get on this earth…” She should know, with her near 30-year experience sailing her 44-foot yacht around Scotland every summer. Scotland has some of the best scenery in the world, but the crème de la crème is found on the West Coast. Even the film industry has taken…

Dr Roger Strasser and @thenosm #ontario #canada #remoteandrural #meded #northernmedicine

In our latest interview, Callum speaks to Dr Roger Strasser, Professor of Rural Health at the University of Waikato in New Zealand and Founding Dean Emeritus of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) in Canada. Like ScotGEM, NOSM has a distinct remote & rural focus and the team behind ScotGEM visited NOSM as part of the establishment of our course. They discuss the origins of NOSM, what…

My Helicopter Ride #highlands #emergency #mountainrescue #munro #coastguard

Hi, I’m Liepa and I am only an honorary member of ScotGEM. As I am the only Dundee undergrad doing the longitudinal integrated clerkship (LIC) programme in Scotland this year, I have been unofficially initiated into the ScotGEM tribe.Week 1 of ScotGEM was a blur, meeting all those new and fabulous people… but one thing I do remember clearly is someone official saying: “You are not allowed to ride…

Aberfeldy #ScotGEM #Perthshire #medstudent #Scotland #countryliving

A landmark just up the road…

This is the verbal picture of my living in rural Aberfeldy for the past four months. Before we delve in, if you prefer just looking at pretty pictures please go and view my friend Alistair McDonald’s previous Tiree post. If ScotGEM Stories were a book (million pound idea!) his would be on the front cover.

Before you ask, ‘Aberfeldy? Isn’t that in Wales?’, I’ll…

Simulation #meded #medstudent #scotgem #inverness #covid19

Photo by Sinitta Leunen on Pexels.com

Last week, the students of ScotGEM’s Year 3 currently based within NHS Highland got together (in an orderly, socially-distanced manner) for some in-person tutorials and clinical simulations at the Centre for Health Science in Inverness.

It was our last opportunity for group face-to-face teaching this calendar year alongside our friends and colleagues,…

Tiree #island #hebrides #remoteandrural #scotgem #medtwitter

My first day, and an air ambulance.

Unless you are a surfer, birdwatcher or have been around me for the last year and not heard me shut up about it, you probably haven’t heard of the Isle of Tiree. The most westerly of the Inner Hebrides, it takes a four-hour ferry journey from Oban to get to (on a good day) and is renowned for being very sunny, very windy and very flat. The wind aspect makes…