Reflecting on the 1st week of University

So, the first week of medical school is officially over, and Freshers’ is done and dusted! Hopefully this means that from next week onwards I’ll be able to walk down the street to the university campus without being bombarded with leaflets and ‘free’ Domino’s Pizza vouchers every few steps of the way!

The first week of university has definitely been an experience. Whilst other courses don’t really start any content until after Freshers’ is over, with medicine, it’s slightly different. We had a full week packed with various teaching activities…ranging from lectures to PBL sessions, anatomy/dissection sessions, consultation skills and EBM (Evidence Based Medicine) sessions! It’s safe to say that my first week at university was rather busy!

It’s all been quite overwhelming if I’m honest. There are nearly 400 people on my course (393 to be precise), so if you don’t arrive at least 15 minutes early to lectures you’ll find it difficult to find a good spot to sit! Also, there are so many anatomical terms to remember already…and we’ve only just started with the terms for the brain & spinal cord, so God knows how I’m going to cope with the rest of the body! Hopefully it will all be ok though – anatomy seems like something that once you’ve learnt it properly once, isn’t something you’ll forget that easily…I think it’s just a matter of making the time to sit down and actually learn all the terms.

Before starting medical school I was quite nervous about what my PBL group would be like…I’m not the most extroverted of people so I was worried about how I would cope in a group full of what I thought would be highly confident, and extroverted personalities (ie. the stereotypical medical student). But I’m glad to say that I was wrong! My group is so nice, and there’s not really anyone that tries to dominate the conversation and not let anyone else speak. I think and hope everyone in our group feels comfortable with each other and I also think we’ll work well as a team. At the end of the day, although we all come from various different backgrounds (some graduates, some who’ve taken a gap year/reapplied to medical school, some straight from school), we’re all in the same boat…at the start of our journey to become doctors!

Although it has been a bit busy and hectic at times, one thing medical school is not is boring – every day is different from the last and there are so many different ways in which we are taught the curriculum. I am so glad I didn’t go for a medical school with a traditional course, I imagine it’d be quite dull, especially in the pre-clinical years! Already, in the first week alone, I’ve had amazing opportunities, to see and learn about things that interest me, opportunities that would not have been available to me if I wasn’t a medical student!

One thing I had not anticipated is how important time management is at university, especially if you’re living away from home and have to prepare food for yourself! I didn’t have any ‘homework’ or studying to do this week as we’ve only just started the course, but I’m really going to have to work on organising my time better when I do have to study outside of lectures and scheduled teaching activities. One thing I am proud about though is the fact that I’ve been managing to wake up and go to bed early….anyone who know me knows that I am NOT an early bird and that my sleeping schedule is normally the complete opposite!!

It’s currently Sunday and I came home on Friday evening for the weekend, and will leave again for Manchester tonight. I was definitely more than ready to come home – although I only spent 5 days in Manchester, it felt like forever! Not because I don’t like university, but because this first week has been SO full on! I think I’d go insane if I couldn’t come home on the weekends…sometimes you need a break from all the busy-ness to spend time with your nearest and dearest!

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PS. As you may have noticed, I’ve changed my blog name to ‘Diary of a Student Medic’ however I am going to leave my blog url as ‘diaryofanaspiringmedic.wordpress.com’ just so that any previous links to my blog/blog posts still work and do not become ‘broken links’!