Still makes me teary each time, as a grown ass man who can count on his fingers how many time ive cried in my life lol

Hi everybody, I’m curious about if anyone else struggles with being very careful on placement, this is in terms of being hesitant to speak to patients who look even slightly unwell or aren’t completely up for talking and being hesitant to go to new wards and find things to do. I’m okay with introducing myself but after that I kind of go blank

My personality is naturally sort of reserved and careful but I find that in my mind, with being on placement I always think of reasons for the sake of the patient or if the doctors look stressed out for me to hold back. I’m not sure if I’m the type of person who is thoughtful in a good way or if I’m too sensitive to the environment and need to just do some exposure therapy by getting more stuck in

For context I’m in third year and not sure if this will improve with time on the wards but lately i’ve been getting put off getting stuck in by little things, some of my peers seem to just jump in with no friction and get good opportunities especially some of the guys so I wondered if it’s related to personality? I’m not unconfident with doing things, it’s just getting there is difficult for me

Feeling bored of passmed as it gets so repetitive. I know it’s good for exams but are there any other resources that teach you well, perhaps more realist of what happens in wards?

Hi all, just a bit of background context.

I am a first year medical student. I had to reapply to Medicine after getting 0/4 offers after 4 interviews, and in my second application I got 2 out of 4 offers after interview.

Whenever I think about my communication skills / clinical skills sessions where I need to actually communicate as a doctor / in a group feedback setting / with a patient actor I get very nervous. This stems from me freezing up / blanking out a lot when I speak (which I did during my interviews for both my first and second applications, albeit still managed to get an offer) and not knowing what to say exactly.

What I think is very odd is that I am a social person, but get very nervous just thinking about roleplaying ‘as a doctor’ with a patient actor / other medical students in my clinical communication sessions. Take breaking bad news for example. In one of my medicine interviews my role-play was very straightforward and I got an offer at this university, but I am not 100% sure (if I was asked) if I can break bad news / do anything of the sorts just because I do not know what to say exactly and fear freezing up in front of the actor / heaven forbid a patient.

Just to add as well, I wouldn’t say I have a lot of confidence either. I also struggle to communicate in a presentation way / communicate out loud, which doesn’t help. And, I say this preemptively, I do genuinely want to study Medicine and envision myself as a doctor.

If any other medical student has felt like this or gone through something like this what did you do to overcome it??

I have read a few things online but I am looking for some advice.

Hello! I'm a first year medical student and it's only been a few weeks but I feel so overwhelmed. Everything I have experienced makes me feel like I shouldn't be here or can't handle it and I'm so confused as to how to manage it all?

My university has a very independent approach to learning and a spiral ciriculum but I am so confused as to how to study? What resources do I use? How do I know if I've covered all the content to enough detail? How do you stay on top of it all? And how do you take care of yourselves and your mental health while doing so? How do you medics do this?!?!

It's so overwhelming looking at all the learning objectives to cover but not know what to do? And also stay on top of all the topics like consultation skills, anatomy etc

My university also does cadaveric dissections and prosections and that was a big shock for me. Does that take some time to get used to and does it get any better? I find the concept really hard to grasp.

Any advice would be much appreciated!! I genuinely have so much respect for higher year medics. You should be so proud of yourselves :)

Hi!! Myself and 3 other final years (all girls) want to do our elective in Sri Lanka and were looking for recommendations for good hospitals to try and go for! We are looking for somewhere thats fun, ideally safe, has beaches, and a hospital that's good but wont be too strict about us coming in every day. We are also aware of monsoon season so would ideally be looking to go to the east / south east to avoid this. We would be super grateful for any recs! :)

Hey everyone, I’m a final year medical student, and I’ve been thinking about making some resources to help students on placement. Before doing that, though, I want to get a better idea of what people actually struggle with.

I’m particularly curious about what you find most challenging, whether that’s clerking, clinical examinations, clinical reasoning, or just knowing what to do on the wards.

I’d also love to know what resources you currently use and whether there’s anything you feel isn’t adequately covered by what’s already available.

Would really appreciate any thoughts or experiences!

Potentially silly question, but how are we actually allocated our jobs?

I’m Scottish in a Scottish uni so know I’ll be able to stay here, but my partner lives in the central belt and our hope is that I’ll be able to join him there, but I have no idea how the allocations work once we know the foundation school 🫠

Is it the same as the first round where they do the first pass system and try to give everyone their first preference and then come back to anyone who’s first choice was full and work down the list again? Or is it just they run down the list of people and give them the first job on their list that still has spaces and then move on?

Thanks so much!!

I had ward round today and it was awful. The consultant was extremely rude and condescending to a nurse, would talk about patients as if they weren’t there, wouldn’t introduce themselves to patients or tell them what the plan was, and wouldn’t listen to patients when they were talking.

I was so shocked as a GEM student. I worked a corporate job for 10 years and I have never seen a senior member of staff be as rude as this other people. To give you an idea of what it was like, when a patient asked what a suprapubic catheter was for he responded urine, but it was loud and the patient was hard of hearing. Instead of getting closer or speaking louder, he basically shouted “this is for your wee wees” as if he was a child. The patient looked so upset. Another patient tried to tell him about abdominal pain, and while he was talking the consultant turned around and started talking to someone else then walked away.

I hate that I was part of the ward round and it feels like it reflects on me. I went around to take histories from the patients I thought had it worst to try and give them a good interaction, but I’m absolutely dreading doing it again tomorrow.

What do you do in this situation? Just accept it? I don’t feel like there is anything I can do.

Hi! I’m currently in Y2 and i mainly use anki to study. Are there any question banks I could use to supplement my learning? Would you say Passmed would be helpful in preparing me for my final exams? My school doesn’t really provide enough questions. I would really appreciate your help :)

Thankss

So in essence im looking to get into CST, and from what im reading and looking at the pros and cons of intercalating. Im i better off spending the year i wouldve spent doing an extta FY year to build the portfolio?
EDIT: from what AutomaticFoci i can clarify what im asking for
:: in terms of point gathering opportunity, does intercalation provide any more than trying to get publictions as a medical student/ FY?

Hi everyone

I need to know if anyone else in their final years feels the same as me. I’ve just started 5th year and I feel so insecure in my knowledge and like I’m completely not cut out for this line of work and know nothing. I feel like how I’ve passed everything this far is some kind of fluke, which I think is made worse by the fact I get kind of average scores in every exam I’ve never done super well.

I’m currently in a GP practice which has proven to be quite an unsupportive environment and I’m kind of left to flounder. For example, not having access to the system or patient notes, no medical equipment in the rooms I’m being given etc. I feel like I can come up with differentials and management, but then I feel really incompetent when I’m grilled by my tutor and I’m not sure of second and third line drugs, or I don’t know exactly where we would be referring to, or I’m missing some of the patients history as they don’t know all their meds and I also can’t access it . The list goes on. Some of the examinations I am expected to do have never been covered by my unis syllabus (for example testicular exam, thyroid exam, shoulder exam, hints) and I feel like it is my responsibility to teach myself but I doubt my own ability to do so and my tutor hasn’t been super useful for feedback or targeted learning so far even when asked. It’s making me feel even more incompetent that I’m going to be an F1 in a year and still have big knowledge gaps.

I’m trying to decide if medicine is really for me because I just feel so unsure and honestly it feels really stressful. I don’t want to go down GP route, but I think if I struggle in a GP setting why would I suddenly gain some competency elsewhere?

Sorry for my rant just suffering

I hear these stories that people get put onto circuits with rogue stations. Some of the Older years have told me that some of the circuits are a lot harder than other ones, even though they are meant to be “equal” overall in difficulty.

Firstly, are the medical school allowed to put you on a circuit that is (unofficially) harder, with the awareness that you are more likely to fail?

Also, OSCE Examiners… are the medical school allowed to intentionally advise you to be more harsh/stricter when marking certain students, for example because the university have had previous meetings with the student, and don’t want them on the course/to qualify? The reason I ask this is because I don’t have a lot of trust in the people running my Academy, and think if they could get away with this, they would do it.

For people who say no, how is anybody going to ever find out if the school did do this? It would be very easy for it to go under the radar.

Thanks

Hi, I entered year 3 around 2 months ago and I just feel pretty lost on how to tackle the content. I know consolidating my prior knowledge is important on conditions and such so I’ve been doing my ankis here and there - for context, my exams are in June/july. However, things like anatomy or more niche biology stuff I’m still pretty shaky on but I don’t know if I should focus on those as well or just smash out passmed questions.
I hear people say to just do tons of passmed questions so hopefully if I start now I’ll have around 8 months until my exams , but I don’t know if that’s a bit of a dodgy technique if you get what I mean. I get that it helps with pattern recognition and it’s important to understand the answers in the questions but what would you guys personally recommend? And would you say passmed is a good way to start off?

We do have an MLA map from uni with conditions and presentations, not really sure how to navigate it especially since it’s not all-inclusive, was thinking of making notes for the conditions and ankis to solidify background knowledge

some of my onc knowledge is kind of shallow, and i'll realise when a question comes up with ovarian cancer symptoms then it'll be germ cell not epithelial, or a renal question won't be clear cell and i don't really know why. i'm happy to dig through all of it myself but thought i'd ask if anyone had an easy list/place they find stuff out?

Hi! I’m a medical student from the UK and I’m hoping to organise a medical elective in Central America. I’m still in the early stages of planning and would really appreciate advice from anyone who has done an elective in the region or has experience organising one.
I’m particularly interested in hearing about:
Which countries you’d recommend for a medical elective, and why.
How you organised it – did you go through a university, hospital, NGO, elective provider, or arrange it independently?
Hospitals or organisations you’d recommend getting in touch with.
Costs and accommodation – roughly how much did it cost, and how did you find somewhere to stay?
Safety and practicalities – any advice on travelling, vaccinations, insurance, or things you wish you’d known beforehand.
I’m keen to have a worthwhile clinical experience while also learning about a different healthcare system and the challenges of delivering healthcare in the region. I’d also like to make sure the placement is ethical, properly supervised, and genuinely useful to the host institution and patients.
If anyone has any recommendations, contacts, resources, or personal experiences they’d be happy to share, I’d be very grateful!

Starting my first surgical rotation in a couple weeks (3rd year ) throughout med school my anatomy foundations have been very weak and got away with it but now I want to start studying a little everyday but my uni only gives a list of conditions I want a anki deck or perhaps a book I can study slowly with the most clinically important anatomy ? Any recommendations or advice

Hi everyone,

I am considering taking an interrupted leave of study (suspending my studies) for this year. Before I make it official, I want to know if I will still have access to Moodle during my time away.

I’d love to use the time off to quietly stay on top of the reading materials and review past lecture slides so I don’t fall behind when I return.

Does anyone have experience with this? Thank you!

For context I admire and respect nurses and I believe they don’t get enough credit for their effort.

I come from a really traditional background and I’ve got uncles constantly asking me how nursing school is or if I’m a nurse yet. I always clarify that I’m not a nurse nor am I in nursing and that I’m in med school trying to become a doctor.

For context I’m also a first gen in the medical field in my family. But they called my brother a doctor/med student all through high school and he never ended up studying medicine. So I’m sure they know people go to med school to become doctors.

It’s also happened to me with men trying to get to know me. I tell them I’m in medical school and they reply with something like “ohh I know lotsss of nurses” or “so you’re training to be a nurse then?”

But a family friend claimed I’m being too arrogant especially since I’m just in second year and there’s no need to rub it in.

But the thing is that I worked really hard to get into med school especially coming from a low income traditional family, my parents didn’t even know I applied to medical school because I didn’t want them to discourage me.

Even if everyone mixes it up I’d like my own family to at least acknowledge it.

I feel as if my uni pushes ai on us way too much. We've been encouraged in past modules to produce ai images for coursework and it seems that around 60% of every lecture includes ai generated imagery.

I have my own thoughts about ai and do use LLM when revising but, it always rubs me the wrong way that the lectures i'm paying to attend have that crappy ai generated image look. But the thing that annoys me most is when the images they generate are just incorrect or make no sense. Arrows that go where they shouldn't or mislabled diagrams. It seems to devalue what we're being taught and I genuinely don't understand why anyone would think an ai diagram would look better over the thousands already on the internet?

Now that our computer generated ranks for the latest F1 allocations were given to us, just curious if I would have got Scotland with my rank (8363). Could people that got Scotland share their rank?

Hey guys,

Currently in final year dealing with FPO. The new F1s have got their ranks today. If anyone is happy to share their rank and which deanery they got would be really helpful :))

(Figuring out if London or KSS is the way forward)