Medical Education Fellows blog, April 2023

Careers in medicine

Last month we welcomed almost one hundred Year 11 and 12 students from 21 local schools to Tunbridge Wells Hospital for an evening of talks around a career in medicine. The evening aimed to provide information about what a career in medicine entails, with opportunities to talk to doctors and ask questions.

Sessions included:

  • Talks from the director of undergraduate medical education and medical school admissions tutors
  • 1st year medical students from University College London gave a talk on how to get into medical school
  • 5th year medical students from King’s College London talked about life as a medical student
  • The MTW Medical Education Fellows talked through what happens after graduation and career pathway options after completing foundation training

Three simulation practical sessions were also run, with great feedback from students. Participants were able to have a go at cannulation, intubation and played games with the laparoscopy training models. Students were also invited to ‘meet the mannikin’ and discovered how to listen to the SimMan’s heart and lungs, and feel pulses.

Feedback from students included:

I really enjoyed this event and any questions and worries I had were answered. This event really made me sure of going into medicine in the future.

Very enjoyable. Eye opening to options.

Thank you so much. You solidified what options I should take and the approach towards them seems easier now.

Transition to Foundation Year 1 Programme

Earlier this year, we prepared our final year medical students for life as a junior doctor during their TTF1 (Transition-to-F1) block. This involved weekly three-hour workshops covering topics such as prescribing, common clinical scenarios they would see in practice, shift working, resilience and wellbeing.

We used a mixture of interactive activities to make this fun and informative; students had the chance to take part in discussions, work through their medical knowledge, play games and see how fallible memory can be when handing over…and have a go at prescribing on mock drug charts.

Feedback from students was positive:

The cases chosen were relevant and you discussed the practicalities of dealing with each case in real life.

Detailed and tangible advice

Covered lots of topic about what to be aware of and what support is available to us

Overall, the block was a success. We have taken time to plan how we can improve our sessions even more before getting ready to welcome the next lot of students.