Hi! My name is Jai, a year 12 student and an aspiring doctor. I was determined to get involved with gaining further work experience during the Covid-19 crisis. This would strengthen my application towards my future aspirations of becoming a doctor. Especially at a time like now, it is important that we can keep engaged and involved with the community in order to aid ourselves to learn and gain new experiences by the day. I started off by getting involved with campaigning for Medic Mentor by working as a team with my peers to get incredible numbers of donations! The success of this encouraged me to get involved further with other activities to keep me as busy as possible. After all, it is a great chance to make good use of the time we all have currently. I came across an opportunity to do some work experience with Brighton and Sussex Medical School which was virtually delivered. As an aspiring doctor, it was extremely appealing and I knew this was something I would enjoy.
The programme was conducted in an organised manner comprising six modules of various areas of medicine. This included the NHS and General Practice, Elderly Medicine, Mental Health, Surgery and Inpatient medicine, Emergency Medicine and Palliative Medicine and Communicative Skills. I was extremely interested in learning about new areas of medicine and coming across new terminology, after the course I have definitely gained a further understanding of the wonders of the subject. It was fascinating to learn about the different rewards and challenges that various areas of medicine entail and particularly the effects it can have on the community.
The course was really interactive involving videos, presentation slides, quizzes and an opportunity to complete a reflection at the end. The new experiences I gained were absolutely amazing and I am ever so happy that I could complete the course within the comforts of my home! I believe it was a wonderful idea to still be able to gain valuable experiences throughout an unprecedented time like now. The knowledge of various medical conditions, values of the NHS and a visual insight of the life of a GP, Doctor and Surgeon were just some of the much larger list of outcomes from this course and I believe it would benefit many of us to get involved with opportunities as such! I would definitely recommend this programme to others who wish to gain extra work experience.
I have completed my reflective piece as part of a task from this work experience and I wish to share my experiences with others who may be interested.
My Reflection on the Brighton & Sussex Medical School Virtual Work Experience
Throughout the course, I have encountered many new fields of medicine and found it interesting to learn some of the terminology associated within them. Holistically, I can see that there are some common skills and strengths that doctors and the rest of the multidisciplinary team have. It is clear that there is a lot of problem solving involved and sometimes it is best done when worked as a team. The communication skills and empathy that doctors have in order to ensure a good rapport between them and their patients is extremely vital. The problem solving encountered in primary care as well as the uncertainty in A and E would be the most crucial aspects of a patient’s medical care I believe, as the decisions involved in those places are what treats them. The utmost support and guidance that medical staff provide is absolutely incredible and I really enjoyed understanding the NHS to a deeper level.
Some of the most challenging situations are approached within a place of medical care, and it is clear that medical staff can encounter various levels of emotional stress, whether it be from discharging a patient that has known the staff for a long time or the unfortunate but inevitable events of death. Especially in palliative care, I can see that no matter how experienced a doctor may be, delivering bad news is always a challenge. But doctors can establish a good rapport between them and a patient, and I think that as well as there being negative moments there are also numerous positive elements that can be acknowledged.
Developing a better understanding of the various routes into a particular medical field, such as general practice or elderly medicine has made me want to pursue a career in medicine even more, as I found it extremely interesting to explore the different opportunities. The experience has definitely furthered my interests in becoming a doctor and I have learnt many new perspectives that can be seen towards medicine.
Here is a link to the Brighton and Sussex Medical School Virtual Experience page for more information: https://bsmsoutreach.thinkific.com/courses/VWE
Written By Jaishibani Mande Nagarajan – Year 12
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