A week in the life of a Medical Student

A week in the life of a medical student

When you’re seeking entry into medicine, it can become quite consuming and it is hard to look to the future because it can be so uncertain. If you’re coming straight out of school, or you have completed part of a degree, it is difficult to understand the structure and time commitment of a medicine degree particularly. I’ll try my best to clear up some misnomers and give you an idea of just what you’re in for.

 

To understand this fully, it’s good to have an idea of the general format for an undergraduate medicine degree. The first 2 years are centred around primarily ‘scenario-based learning’ vaguely covering the different systems of the body (Cardio, Respiratory, Neurological etc.) and incorporating basic clinical and science skills throughout. These predominantly revolve around lectures, tutorials, practical classes and clinical sessions with a touch of hospital-patient interaction, but this becomes more so in later years. In the next year or 2, depending on what uni you are at, this will be your real introduction to the clinical environment with more ‘practice-based learning’ in a clinical placement environment. UNSW is unique in its 4th year, since it is a 6 year degree, where most undergraduate programs are 5, they conduct a year of research and electives where you can choose to do either an Independent Learning Project or Honours (You can find more information on this at (https://medprogram.med.unsw.edu.au/independent-learning-project-ilp). In your final 2 years (Either 4/5 or 5/6), you will essentially be placed at a hospital and preparing to enter the real world as a practicing doctor.

So for a heads up, I am a second year student at UNSW so I’m three-quarters of the way through our ‘scenario based learning’ phase. At UNSW, we have 8-week blocks which each cover a different body system and at the end of the 8 weeks, we have one exam that is worth 100% of our mark for that block.

So now I’ve cleared all that up, here is a week out of my calendar in our renal block, about a week and half out from our exam. I’ve chosen this week because it is pretty representative of the majority. We have our blocks broken down into scenarios so to make sense of the week, you have to know we are basing our learning off a scenario focused on nutrition and weight control.

Monday: As per Monday through until Thursday, we have lectures 9-11am, today on cellular respiration. This was followed by an ethics tutorial at 11-12 on the ‘creation of health’. Next was a science practical to assist our earlier lectures on respiration from 12-2pm. Then comes a 1h break, and most of us have group meetings with our project due in a week and use the remaining 5 minutes to scoff down some food. Finally we have ‘scenario group’ where we discuss the scenario in groups and how our learning can be applied to it, particularly today we discussed non-diet approaches to weight-loss. It was good to get today out of the way early on in the week.

 

Tuesday: My catch up day. We start with an hour lecture at 9:00 on obesity in a clinical sense and finish at 11:00 after an hour of pharmacological approaches to obesity. The rest of my day is free, but there is always something to do. We have Clinical skills tutorials run by the medicine society that are handy with OSCE’s (Our clinical exam) coming up at the end of the year.

 

Wednesday: 9-11am lectures on aerobic respiration and how to manage weight loss respectively. Next is an hour long tutorial on liver pathology, which is a carry-on from our previous scenario on alcohol and liver disease. 12pm to 1pm is another tutorial on biochemistry and specifically ATP production. 2 hours break and then scenario group from 3-5pm focusing on nutrition for those with special needs.

 

Thursday: Lectures this morning are on fungal infections for the first hour, followed by fat and carbohydrates for the second (9-11am). From 1pm to 3pm, we then had our fortnightly hospital session (which alternates with campus clinical skills sessions week to week), where we focused on our abdominal examination skills and GIT illnesses. I am lucky to have been placed at Prince of Wales in Randwick as I live 10 minutes away. But for others who have placement out south/west, this can be quite a treck and take up a large portion of the day.

 

Friday: Usually I would have a practical at 9am, but today they have moved it to 12pm, which means I have a chance to sleep in. From here until 2pm, we are covering nitrogen metabolism. At 3pm, we have another science practical until 5 on exercise physiology. Tonight however we have our annual med-ball from 7pm so no sleep for the best of us!

 

Saturday and Sunday: Since I had med ball on Friday night, I spent the weekend working and studying. On Saturday, I studied 9-5 and worked 5.30-10 at a restaurant job and Sunday I studied/worked pretty much all day.

 

So all up, face-to-face contact hours are around about the 23-hour mark, sometimes less, depending on the week as the timetable changes each week, by comparison to most other degrees that follow a structured week-to-week timetable.

Hopefully that gives you a glimpse of what’s yet to come. It is challenging but perfectly manageable. You may find it tempting to skip lectures and leave assignments to the last minute to fit in that extra hour sleep or so you can bum around a little bit longer, but this is only going to create a whole world of stress for you in the future. If I can offer any advice to get you started on your journey, it is to find yourself a good support network, learn to timetable and manage deadlines and you will be set for the next 5-6 years.