The University of Nottingham Open Day!

Apologies for being such an appallingly infrequent blogger!

I went to an open day last month at the University of Nottingham's Graduate Entry Medical School at Derby, and I've got to say that I was very impressed!

I wasn't feeling that well, in fact, I was thinking about cancelling altogether, but I persevered nonetheless, and dragged myself out of bed to go.

The day started at half 9, with a 30 minute registration period where we were all given complimentary tea or coffee in the cafe.

Whilst we were all sat down, uncomfortably chatting to those who we'd never met before, the academic admissions lead was orbiting the tables and chatting to us all. Turns out, he sings in a choir in my hometown. 

Small world...

Anyway, at 10 we went for an hour of presentations, one on 'How to Get in' and one on the course structure.

They were informative, yes, but you couldn't help but notice a change in tone, and everyone's faces suddenly turn a bit sullen at the prospect of GAMSAT!

After this we were separated into different groups, and went off for a series of different workshops.

The first that my group went to was 'Meet the Students', which is pretty self explanatory, really.

It was quite reassuring to hear about the six or seven students' experiences with GAMSAT...

Many of whom had failed first time, or weren't from a science background, just like me!

Then we moved on to 'Clinical Skills', led by a lovely lady lecturer/GP, where we got to try taking the pulse of a real-life medical student, and then also got to try the percussion test on her.

After this, we got a free lunch thrown in!

We got back downstairs (and there are a lot of stairs at this medical school, believe me!) and were greeted by the biggest banquet of triangular shaped sandwiches anyone could ever dream of. 

After our 55 minute long lunch, my group then got separated for our PBL workshop. Which I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed!

We got the case of a 49 year old travel company director, called Henry Fotheringham, who had come to his GP (that was us) presenting with epigastric pain. He'd been suffering for three days, but hadn't been to see his GP for the past decade. 

So we spent 25 minutes trying to work out what was wrong with him.

The seven of us, obviously pessimists, were convinced that our imaginary patient was suffering from something serious like cancer, that was, until, we were told by both of the medical students who were acting as our facilitators, that it was probably something as simple as reflux...

From this, we moved to anatomy...

We'd been told at lunch, that someone in another group had fainted and hit his head at the sight of a cadaver...

So, feeling quite under the weather and weaker than usual, I was convinced that I was going to faint too!

I was the first into the room,

'Cause I'm a geek like that...

And said "Hello" to the lecturer and her two medical student assistants, and casually walked past the chest of a dead body without even flinching...

Go me!

I found the workshop absolutely fascinating! We got to look inside the heart of the body, which was enlarged due to calcification. 
And we even got to see the dangling, stringy looking nerves that reach the arms!

After 25 minutes of that, we moved on to our final workshop, which was Neurophysiology. 

We got the opportunity to volunteer to have electrodes attached to our arms and have an electric current pass through it.

Apparently a test for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome...

You really do learn something new every day...

25 minutes of this and testing reflexes was over quickly, and then we departed back to the lecture theatre for a Q&A session.

By 3:10pm the open day was over...
And there I rediscovered my determination...

Who'd have thought the sight of part of a dead body could awaken somebody's faith in themselves...

The University of Nottingham's Graduate Entry School of Medicine at the Royal Derby Hospital.