#medicine reference

Oh man I HATED cannulas as a med student, although I had the opposite problem, where I would get flashback but couldn't advance and fully site the cannula.

Also apologies for the delay on replying to this, it's been a busy end of placement to get things sorted haha

My tips would be:

take your time with EVERYTHING. Make sure you've got all your equipment set up and to hand, because just slightly turning to try and pick up the blood bottles or flush or something can cause a slight movement in the needle and cause it to come out of the vein. Similarly take your time selecting the best vein and also advance the needle slowly - it's difficult to judge how deep the vein is just by palpating, especially if its in the ACF, so it's easy to get flashback but advance too far. Stop at the first sign of flashback then advance a small amount (about 1cm unless you're inserting a widebore cannula) to ensure the entire needle tip and cannula tip are in the vein, but haven't gone through the other side. Also get yourself and the patient into an optimal position. I can guarantee this helps, because the cannulas I most commonly missed are ones where I'm slightly at an angle, trying to get around stuff around the bed, or have tried to do it without the patient's arm being fully straight. Get a second pair of hands to help position the patient if they aren't able to do it themselves. It's not a failure or sign you're bad at cannulas if you have to do this, and means you're more likely to get it first time so that's better for the patient

Rest added under the cut

Hello everyone! As we are at the start of a new year, I’ve collated this list of online resources/apps that saved me during my revision at various points of med school. I’ll put the links and why I think they are good. These are UK-based resources as I often found when I searched things that US stuff came to the top of the list and that wasn’t always helpful for learning management because guidelines etc differ. 

1. TeachMe Series

These are developing all the time and they have added Obs and Gynae, Paeds and Physiology which are new and I haven’t used. They are kept up to date and written by current health care professionals, and edited to ensure they are correct. The topics have really good diagrams, clinical relevance and key points. 

a) TeachMe Anatomy

When: Preclinical years

Pros: colour-coordinated diagrams, each topic has a clear structure, including vasculature, nerves etc. Clinically relevant links

Cons: detail can be a little overwhelming, I would use this to make notes that I then revised from (definitely not for last minute revision!)

Studyblr photo challenge - day 3/30 [Brainstorming]

Hi! 

This is something that really confuses me as well, so I’m not going to attempt to explain everything because there is a good chance I’ll get it wrong. I think a lot of it comes when the same “grade” of doctor has more than one title, or some of them are general terms, for example “registrar” means anyone after F2 year, but not a consultant, but then different specialties/years have other names as well. 

The number after the CT/ST indicates how many years into the specific training it is, i.e. the higher the number, the more experience they have and are referred to as “senior” registrars, so they are more likely to take cases without any input etc. 

After F2 you can pick specific specialties, for example if you know you want to be a GP, then you go onto the specific GP training program, although I admit I don’t know what the registrars are called, or you can pick “core” medical or surgical training, and specialise further on in your training. 

It’s important to note that a lot of specialities have many different routes to get into them. The GMC have this page about specialty training, and the BMJ have an explanation of doctors titles. 

Another good resource would be the Royal Colleges websites, all of which have information about how to train in their specialty. 

Hello! 

I would definitely recommend reading things for interest, not necessarily textbooks to learn things. I picked topics that interested me, and read books about that, there is one book that I can’t actually remember the name of, but it was a book about the history of medicine, and medical discoveries. Read things for you, make sure they are engaging and fascinate you. That being said, here are a few specific recommendations if you really don’t know where to start. 

Bad Science - Ben GoldacreNot focused on medicine, but a great read. It is funny and interesting, leaves you contemplating lots of things and will make you think about science and the media, advertising and other things like that. 

Do No Harm - Henry MarshThis is written by a neurosurgeon, looking at some of the cases he has operated on and tries to show the human side of being a doctor. I know a lot of people that have read this and loved it. I had mixed feelings about it. 

On one hand, it does give a good insight into the life of a neurosurgeon, but in some ways I kind of felt like he was trying too hard to make himself seem human, but almost in a flippant way. I don’t know, there was something about it that didn’t sit right. However, I am really glad I read it because I could reflect on what I’d read anyway, even if I didn’t love the book. 

This is going to hurt - Adam KayI haven’t read this yet, it is doing the rounds in my friendship group but my housemate has and she absolutely loves it. There are a lot of books about being a junior doctor, and they all look good, but this one is apparently funny and engaging yet realistic. My friend says it says it how it is but it hasn’t managed to put her off doing medicine. 

The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat - Oliver SacksHe is a neurologist who has written many books, on several different topics, but this one is a compilation of cases and is written in a way to be accessible to the general population, not just people from a medical background. His other books are brilliant as well though, so have a look. 

It’s All In Your Head - Suzanne O’SullivanA really good insight into patients with medically unexplained symptoms, which can be distressing for the patient and frustrating for the doctor.

There are so many books out there, I have spent a long time wandering through the medical sections of bookshops just picking up random books and seeing if they appeal. Don’t think you have to learn lots of facts from these books, but if you are going to put them on a personal statement, reflect on them and think about whether you can learn something that you could apply to your future career or medical school. 

So I was asked by @studylizziee for tips on personal statements and I’m sure that with results coming out this week, people are starting to think about medicine applications properly and writing a personal statement. Here are my tips on how to write one, specific to medicine! I’ve split it into advice on writing in general, then specific sections you may or may not want to include

Getting started

Note down in bullet points the general parts that you want to cover and an order that you’d like to put it in

Write down everything you’ve done in a list - outstanding academic achievements, extracurricular activities, books you’ve read, work experience, any volunteering, jobs, literally everything. You won’t put it all in, but you can then work out what you want to mention etc. and you won’t get to the end of your final draft and suddenly think of something else! 

Don’t worry too much about your first sentence, you don’t need to start from the beginning if that makes sense! Write paragraphs about work experience etc, even if they will come further down in the statement. It means there’s something on the page, and it will help you to get your first paragraph sorted later! 

General advice

Tell the truth - seriously, don’t try and exaggerate, you will get caught up in it at interviews, and if you get a place on a course/at a university that you are not suited to then it is a real waste, both for you and for other people who may have missed out on a place. It is not worth it.

Don’t worry if you are applying to a fifth option - keep it all tailored towards medicine, most biomed/science courses will not discount you, they know they will be fifth choice, they are used to it

Don’t send it to one of these professional paid for writing/editing services - a personal statement is better if it sounds like it’s been written by an enthusiastic 17 year old, I know it’s cheesy but that’s why it’s called a personal statement!

Get someone like a parent or teacher to read through it - not to check the content, but to do a spelling/grammar check, and to make sure that the sentences flow well and make sense (sometimes non-medical people read them at universities, so try not to go too technical)

Use simple sentences, don’t try and use complex impressive language etc. If a personal statement is hard to read, the admissions officer will switch off and may miss important points

Write drafts, and especially for the first one, don’t worry too much about the character/word limit. Write down the main points that you want to get across, order them coherently, fill out the points and write it. After that, edit it several times before you start to cut things down. 

When you are trying to cut it down to the limit, reword sentences rather than cutting points and make sure you haven’t repeated yourself. 

Avoid lists - i’ll talk more about this in the experience section, but lists are boring to read in a sentence, and for medicine, it’s all about what you have learnt rather than what you’ve done. 

Hello :) 

First things first. It’s okay to feel overwhelmed, I did in first year, in fact I’ve felt a bit overwhelmed at some point or another every year of medical school. You’re transitioning between very different ways of learning and it can take time to find your feet and work out the best method for you. 

The most important thing is to know what you need to know. Medicine is huge and you can’t possibly learn everything, that’s why there’s specialties and why the course is so long. Your medical school should have learning outcomes, whether they are linked specifically to lectures of just general learning outcomes for the topic you are studying. These define what they can put in an exam. Sometimes lecturers go way beyond the learning outcomes and it can feel like you need to learn all of it, when in reality they are putting it in for added information. 

It’s annoying, but they often are giving you information that will be useful when you’re a doctor, or in later years at medical school so it isn’t relevant to you right now. My first bit of advice would be to find the learning outcomes and use them when you are writing up lectures, so that you can focus on those topics. 

It is good to make sure you understand a topic, because if you don’t understand it you won’t remember it. however if you’re spending all your time going into detail, you won’t remember things anyway, because there is just too much. 

I like to make notes on lectures quite soon after we’ve done them, however I type them up because it’s quicker. If you make notes on the computer you can add to them if you have small group sessions as well, so you’ve got a good set of notes to look over. Typing up isn’t as good for remembering things, but it is quicker and you can copy diagrams etc into it as well, which is quicker. 

People learn differently, I don’t actually start ‘revising’ until a few weeks before the exam, especially if we are still learning new things. I guess I do ‘cram’ a little bit, but I find if I start too early I forget it again anyway, and I don’t like to go over things more than once really, because it gets too repetitive for me, and I lose interest. 

One of my housemates, on the other hand, has to go through things 3 or 4 times, but gradually making fewer and fewer notes (she types up rough lecture notes, then writes them on paper, then makes flashcards or mindmaps). She is very disciplined and this would overwhelm me, but we both get similar grades (well above the pass mark).

Hopefully you can see that there isn’t a ‘correct’ amount of work, or way of doing medical school, and hopefully this will put your mind at rest a little. If you are feeling overwhelmed, change how you are doing it. Get advice from friends, students in the year above or staff. If you have a personal tutor, talk to them about how much work they would expect students to be doing and if they have any tips specific to your course. 

I was ‘behind’ through first year, because I have very high standards for myself, but I still did well and over the years I have worked out how to learn better. It is tricky at first but you should know that everyone feels like it during medical school. It’s high pressured thing, and people understand. I advise you take a step back and work out if you are doing more than you need to to do well and pass. 

This is an assumption about medicine that really really annoys me, You can have a life outside of medicine. You NEED a life outside of medicine. Yes it can be tricky and some weeks you’ll feel like you can’t do anything other than medicine but you should stop that. If you don’t do things outside of medicine then you will burn out, it’s not worth it. 

Sorry if this sounds a bit rant-y but I’ve had a very long day, incidentally I have done absolutely no medicine. I had a 6 hour rehearsal for the musical I’m performing in next week, then went to the gym, then caught up on watching Strictly with my housemates. 

I’m not saying you won’t be busy as a doctor/medical student but you do have time. During my first three years, I was on the rowing team and played in the band. I went to church on Sundays, and a house group on a Wednesday. I went out with friends, went to the gym or ran. It is totally possible, and you have time to do what you love.

It’s about time management. I’m not saying I’ve got it right, but what I think about is prioritising. What are the extra things I want to do, every week. For me at the moment this is wind band, church and parkrun on a Saturday morning. I put them in my diary and unless something else big is happening I will not miss them, even if i feel like I have ‘too much work’. Then look at when your lectures are, whether you can fit things in between them, or get work done in longer breaks so you have time to do things in the evening. Take time to relax, don’t try and work whilst you’re watching TV. You won’t be productive and you won’t enjoy the program. Simply take the time out to focus on the TV (or read or whatever you want to do).

In terms of your actual timetable, it will vary depending on whether you are on clinical placement or not. If you’re on placement, you will often be in 9-5 but again it is manageable. In the first couple of years you may be in less often.