A Week In My Life As A Second Year HYMS Student
Hiya! My name is Antara Pryadarshini and I am a 2nd year medical student based in the UK. I am an international student from Dubai! So far, I am really enjoying the course and I am so glad that we are able to get a lot of clinical exposure since year 1! Additionally, there is a lot of opportunity to get involved in societies and take up roles which are surely going to reflect well on your portfolios. We have a good blend of the theoretical and clinical side of medicine in the course so if that's something that you enjoy, I'd highly recommend HYMS.
Thursday
Our week starts on a Thursday and includes: PBL Session 1, Clinical Skills session 1 and online lectures.
PBL forms a major part of our curriculum and it is facilitated by a doctor varying from a GP to surgeon. It is a great way to enhance our learning as we interact with a group of 9/10 students and identify key terms, brainstorm our points using past knowledge and formulate learning outcomes for each case.We are expected to come prepared with the information we have researched on a Tuesday.
During clinical skills, we are in a group of 10 students and practice consultation skills with simulated patients and also learn to perform physical examinations on each other. The feedback we receive from our peers, tutor and the SP is so valuable in improving our consultation skills such that we become well prepared before our OSCE’s in February and June!
Additionally, there are a few online lectures on Friday which are uploaded on Blackboard and we can watch them in our own time ideally before the live ones on Monday so that our work doesn’t pile up!
Saturday and Sunday
During the weekends, most of my time is spent doing the online lectures and completing the answers to the PBL learning outcomes. But it can be quite easy to get caught up in work, so I do take some time off as well by watching Netflix, going to events organised by societies, meeting up with friends and cooking.
Monday
This is the day when we have live lectures typically ranging from 2-5 each week.
Tuesday
We have our second PBl session where we review the case by discussing the answers to the learning outcomes. We also use quizzes and other interactive games to consolidate our learning. We also have clinical skills on this day.
Wednesday
We usually don’t have any classes on Wednesday’s in term 1 apart from certain workshops. During Term 2 and 3, we undertake SSIP wherein we get involved in research on a topic of our choice. Usually, I like to get some revision done this day as I do have quite some free time!
Thursday
Consists of GP placement once every 4 weeks, hospital placement every 2 weeks and an SDL week wherein we just have a large GP resource session on campus. Hospital placements start at 9am and involves bedside teaching where we talk to patients and examine them followed by a resource session where we are taught relevant topics related to the concepts in each week by doctors/final year medical students. It is a great way to get some revision done and understand the clinical aspects of medicine not just the theory!
GP placements are usually for just 3 hours and is also accompanied by a large resource session where we mostly discuss views on topics like anti-vaccination, breaking bad news etc(ethical aspects of medicine)
All in all, it can seem like quite a lot but all the sessions are well-organised. However what is most important is time for self-study and that depends from person to person. After sessions, I try to see if I can revise the lectures done in the past week or so to make sure I don’t fall behind. It’s easier said than done so I want to highlight is that it takes plenty of time and effort to devise a self-study schedule to yield good results.