Bursary Reports 2013
Carly Jane Lewis
a local girl who is a medical student at Leicester University.
The past year has been a period of my life that I will never forget. To be given the opportunity to be a doctor is something I still find very humbling, and to know that people will eventually be putting their trust in me to improve their health gives me a feeling that I can't describe.
The whole world surrounding university and my placements has been fantastic. I can honestly say I have loved every minute of it so far; granted there have been days when my patience has been tested, I have missed "home" at times, and I have thought that 24 hours is never enough to get everything done that I have needed to study or read up about. But on the flip side of that, being in the hospital environment and meeting the patients gives you a sense of achievement, when they tell you about their condition, and you understand what they are talking about, rather than asking them to explain what they mean! And by observing their "characteristic" signs and symptoms, you remember that patient with how they walked, or the distension in their abdomen, far more than reading a list in Kumar and Clarke! All the patients have been lovely, all eager to help you in your progression of learning, and enjoying the company that you offer them!
At university the lectures have been informative, and the addition of having guest lecturers in shows you how far you can progress with your knowledge once you have qualified.
But the part that has been invaluable for me has been the addition of having a dissection room. Learning anatomy can be repetitive, and difficult to visualise from a book, but having a cadaver to look at, and see how everything connects, and fits together has been great. "Charlie" (as we felt giving our cadaver a name gave him more respect) has become the extra member to our group learning, and he has given each of us the same amount of help with our studying as any of the other group members!
I am looking forward to going back to university in September, and eager to learn more. The past year has been enjoyable, interesting yet hard work, but it was made a lot easier by the bursary which the Kidderminster Medical Society kindly gave me, financially it has helped tremendously. I am a mature student, on the wrong side of 30 now, and I feel I have taken the biggest step in giving up full time work, leaving my partner to support the house and mortgage on his own so I can go to medical school. But its a choice I wouldn't hesitate to do again. You only get one shot at life, and the more I have seen whilst being in my placements, its important that you follow your dreams and goals, and I am looking forward to continuing with mine next year!
Carly Jane Lewis
Heather Bailey
This is a report of my first year of the graduate-entry medicine course (GEC), after being very luckily selected for the KMS bursary in 2012. I have lived in the Birmingham/Worcester region for my whole life so far, which is one of the reasons I selected Birmingham medical school. My undergraduate degree was in Biological Sciences, which I studied at Oxford University.
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After undertaking a range of work experience activities in a number of hospitals including the QE, Heartlands, Coventry and Rugby and volunteering with a charity that worked with children with learning disabilities during my undergraduate degree I became passionately set on medicine as a career.
My last degree had a strong focus on plants and animals rather than human biology, which was a challenge at first. However, the PBL style of teaching that the GEC course offered was very good at accommodating everyone’s strengths and weaknesses. This is because the aim of the summary sessions at the end of the week was to check that everyone was at the same level. During these sessions the problems anyone had were raised and tackled by the whole group. Therefore I never felt like I was behind after the PBL was completed despite my lack of prior knowledge starting the week. That it is not to say it was not a challenging year-because it was! There was a lot of ground to cover in very little time, but that is also what kept it interesting.
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I bonded very quickly with the others in my PBL groups, some of whom are now my closest friends. After the first rotation of groups my first group ‘RED group’ would still meet up, and below is a picture of a curry we arranged:
On top of PBL teaching I also had a GP placement on Wednesdays in Wolverhampton. This offered a more ‘clinical-feel’ to the year, and was great preparation for the years to come. It also helped on the weeks where I felt overwhelmed with work by providing a break from books.
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The summer examinations were hard, but I was extremely pleased and surprised with my results, which was a great end to the year. Come September I am placed at Wolverhampton hospital, predominantly in Cardiology and Care of the elderly. I am really excited for the year ahead, and I hope it will help me get a better-informed idea of what specialties I may be interested in for the future.
Before being awarded the KMS bursary I was very worried as to how I would afford the year, in particular the upfront cost of the tuition fees that student finance would not cover. However, because of the bursary I no longer had this worry. It has therefore been a tremendous help in enabling me to undertake medicine as a graduate. I did also decide to keep my Saturday job to help me with living-costs, but because I had won the bursary I was able to take time-off when I needed it for revision for termly ‘reflection exams’ and then for my summer exams without having to worry.
On top of the course and my Saturday job I did manage to scrape some free time during which time I managed to make the best of the University, medsoc and the City. Including running the Birmingham half marathon with 3 other GECs for charity, attending the medsoc ball, which was a great night to mix with other medical students from other years as well as some of the professors.
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I also took part in the ‘harborne-run’ after our exams, which was a fancy dress evening ran by medsoc. I am the one dressed as cat-women.
Overall it was a brilliant, but challenging year. I have gained lots of new skills, made some great friends and I have learnt a lot of medical science in a very short amount of time.
Thank you very much KMS for the opportunity to study a second-degree without the financial worry I had coming into the year. I cannot express how much I have appreciated the bursary and how much of a difference it made to my year.
Yours sincerely,
Heather Bailie