Why Oxford?

Guys,

Thought I'd dedicate this post to why I chose Oxford and my college in particular, as this will be of interest to both 6th form students and preclinical students choosing clinical school.

I'm at Balliol, which in my opinion is one of the best grad-friendly colleges around. We've got our own graduate complex called Holywell Manor, and it's a great place to meet people from other walks of life, and generally get away from medics! Balliol's pretty good with equipment and elective grants too, think it's £250 for the former and £400 for the latter. We've also got two clinical tutors, an academic doctor and an ENT surgeon, both who are really good and helpful, so definitely the teaching side of things is fine.

I really love Oxford, haven't looked back at all since leaving Cam (esp since most of my friends went to London). The course is really well organised, the real advantage being the small attachment sizes that give you a lot more individual or 2-1 teaching, and the fact that Oxford lot are a pretty down-to-earth bunch. The one big plus/negative point, depending on how you see it, is the fact that we do exams after each rotation in 5th year - this cuts down on the load we do in finals, but does mean that you have more regular exams. I prefer this though, it definitely reduces the stress of finals!

Clinicals in general is a lot more fun (and tiring) than preclinicals. The pace of learning is a lot more varied (and generally slower) than preclinicals, which is nice especially since you're here all year round. Do be aware that the Oxford course has far fewer holidays than Cam and most of the London unis - a week for christmas, four days for easter, and 3 weeks for summer! I don't mind it too much (you just learn to make better use of your weekends) but to some people that's pretty off-putting.

That basically in a nutshell is Oxford... At the moment I've just started our 8-week Pathology course (bit like undergrad - lecs and practicals), which is actually pretty interesting and all clinically relevant. Also kicking off big time are rehearsals for our clinical school pantomime - Tingewick - which takes up a lot of our spare time but is really good fun, as you get to know the rest of your year group pretty well!

That's all I've got to say for this week, I'll hopefully be adding more posts soon!

Kief

Fresher's week # 2

I'm now well into the clinical course at Oxford, coming up to 4 weeks since I started in early September. At the moment it's Oxford freshers, and it's great for us clinical medics as it gives us another 2 weeks of fun!

So to bring you up-to-date with what I've done so far at clinical school... I'm currently coming to the end of a 3 week introductory attachment - I've spent a week and a half in an oncology ward and another week and a half in renal medicine.

So, yesterday I decided it might be worthwhile spending an afternoon with the phlebotomist to brush up on my blood taking skills. This was definitely a good choice and I learnt loads from one of the most experienced phlebotomists in the hospital - thanks fit Rach :-). My technique has improved so much that i can now get blood out of almost anything (maybe even a stone!) - maybe now, Dave, one of the other medical students might let me take blood from him again! I made a bit of a mess the first time I did - was a bit of blood fountain - lol. I've told Davinder (who's in my group) that he should definitely go and do it for an afternoon and then he might have the competence that Dave and I now have...! But then again, who knows with Davinder (only joking mate, if you're reading this).

I'm also learning a lot from the other medical students I'm working with... for example, Dave, a star pupil in our attachment, in one of our communication skills sessions went up to the patient and said (I quote) "Hi, my name's David, I'm a medical student. Is is OK if I practise my skills on you?!" - at which point the patient actor was like "What skills?!?!" and we were all in fits of laughter on the floor. The other medical students in my attachment group are all really cool, but some are definitely keener than others (there's this girl called Anna who demands to be on the top of every sign-up sheet). Hopefully she isn't reading this blog.


Anyway, that's all I have to say for now, I'll hopefully update you in a week on what I've been up to!

Kirthi