{"id":444,"date":"2008-09-02T14:39:25","date_gmt":"2008-09-02T13:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=444"},"modified":"2008-09-08T14:26:40","modified_gmt":"2008-09-08T13:26:40","slug":"jessie-colquhoun-standfirsts-and-softball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2008\/09\/02\/jessie-colquhoun-standfirsts-and-softball\/","title":{"rendered":"Jessie Colquhoun: Standfirsts and softball"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" Last\u00a0Tuesday I would have been\u00a0starting my first term as a fourth year\u00a0medical student.\u00a0 Instead I started my 11th week in the BMJ office as\u00a0Student BMJ\u00a0<\/a>editor.\u00a0 The position is a year long, and then I’ll go back to Manchester medical school to join a new year.\u00a0\u00a0So it has taken eleven weeks to write this blog.\u00a0 I’ve only just had the time and the confidence.<\/p>\n

Office life and medical journalism are not what I expected.\u00a0 Perks include being able to wear jeans to work and the caramel slices that appear on the grey filing cabinets at the back of the office on Friday afternoons.\u00a0 I also like our approach to sporting events as I learned last week that an annual softball championship is held with our friendly rivals the Lancet<\/a>.\u00a0 But mostly I like the excitement of the job: Listening in on discussions about the latest NICE<\/a> guidelines and WHO<\/a> recommendations; understanding what Open Access <\/a>is and seeing the BMJ go ‘POP<\/a>‘ (publishing oblivious of print) on the web.<\/p>\n

My job is to be a ‘sieve’ as one of my editors told me- reading submitted articles and picking out the good ones.\u00a0 Submissions are diverse, and from those I’ve read today I’ve learned that children get hydrocephalus after meningitis (from Thomas Jaconelli, 5th year medical student York Hull)), that a GCS <8 indicates a severe head injury (from Andrew Baldwin 5th yr medical student Brighton and Sussex) and how to spell ‘Hirschsprung’s’ of (Hirschsprung’s disease) (from Dr Ian Coulter FY1 Paediatric Surgery, Edinburgh).<\/p>\n

Since Hugh, the last student editor, left in July, I have been the youngest person in the\u00a0office.\u00a0 This is rather daunting and I’ve made a few mistakes.\u00a0 I still feel like a student during meetings, and I definitely don’t feel like a journalist, although I’m starting to get the hang of the jargon: ’embargoes’ and ‘standfirsts’ are the latest additions to my journalist vocabulary.\u00a0 My first job ‘event’ was the ‘Student in a tent\u00a0protest<\/a>‘ press conference in June and I got very confused when I was welcomed at\u00a0the entrance with ‘Medical student or press?’.\u00a0 I mumbled ‘both’, a\u00a0comment that received puzzled looks.<\/p>\n

My first issue<\/a> as editor is out.\u00a0 Tell me what you think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last\u00a0Tuesday I would have been\u00a0starting my first term as a fourth year\u00a0medical student.\u00a0 Instead I started my 11th week in the BMJ office as\u00a0Student BMJ\u00a0editor.\u00a0 The position is a year long, and then I’ll go back to Manchester medical school to join a new year.\u00a0\u00a0So it has taken eleven weeks to write this blog.\u00a0 I’ve […]<\/p>\n

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