“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” reads the banner greeting women as they emerge from the British pregnancy advisory service (BPAS) clinic in Bedford Square. This banner along with a handful of campaigners is part of the “40 Days for Life” campaign, a pro-life vigil praying for an end to abortion. […]
Category: Students
Maham Khan: Foundation programme application, London or bust.
The news this week from the UK foundation programme office (UKFPO) cast a devastating blow to the confidence of many applicants, when they announced that not only was this year’s programme oversubscribed, but that applicants’ choices of foundation school had forced them to implement their contingency plan for scoring the applications. Applications for foundation posts […]
Aimee Rowe: Drawing for surgeons
Drawing for surgeons is a two day course convened by Rowan Pritchard-Jones, plastic surgeon, and his art teacher colleague. The course is aimed at surgeons and trainees, from F1 upwards. As a medical student I didn’t quite fit these criteria, but I requested permission to attend-a request initially greeted with a degree of bemusement but […]
Maham Khan: Cheating in the foundation application process
Sharing cases and risking places, be careful with whom you discuss your white spaces. As registration for the UK foundation programme opens this week, final year medical students across the world wait, fingers poised above keyboards, gearing up to answer the five life changing white space questions. White space questions are compulsory short answer questions […]
Gaurav Gulsin, Sachin Gupta, Mostafa El Dafrawi: Read it and weep
In recent years, there has been a growing emphasis on keeping up to date with the current scientific literature. To practise evidence based medicine, we have to constantly read and appraise medical journals, and implement (or disregard) their teachings into our everyday work. This means that students and clinicians alike are required to read more […]
Neil Chanchlani: Conscientious objection
“See one, do one, teach one?” Gone are the days when medical students did what they were told, learnt what was on the syllabus, and spoke when spoken to. “See one, do one, teach one?” Not a chance. Instead, they conscientiously object. […]
Jonny Martell: compassion fatigue
The medical school sausage factory is fattening me up and rolling me into shape. Another year has passed. I am gaining knowledge and growing in experience. And losing my empathy. Apparently I shouldn’t beat myself up over this. It’s par for the course, a common side effect of the rites of passage journey into medicine. The journal […]
Kate Chapman: Is it time to see sense about C-sections?
The UK’s caesarean section rates have risen massively, almost doubling in the past 20 years, so it was with interest that I heard the news that 4 PCT’s in southern England are to stop paying for caesarean sections above the national average rate of 23%. Each caesarean section costs £800 more than a vaginal birth, […]
Guy Rughani: Thou Art therapeutic
“My parents called the police and had me sectioned. I thought: ‘I’m going to paint.’” David is a participant in “Thou Art,” a project which explores the effects of community-based art therapies on the wellbeing of mental health patients. Led by Olivia Sagan of the University of the Arts London, the project is a collaboration with […]
Guy Rughani: New hospital gallery honours Britain’s first female doctor
Tasteful up-lighting, shiny touch screens, and slick videos are what we now expect of the modern museum. Actually, they’re not museums any more – that’s far too stuffy. They’re “galleries.” With this in mind, London’s latest medical attraction doesn’t disappoint. The Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Gallery at UNISON’s new headquarters opened last week (Dr Anderson’s 175th birthday) to […]