A day in the life of a medical student

September 11, 2018, by studentcontributor

– 6.30am –

Time to start the day. It’s an early start because I’m on placement today at a GP surgery. I make some breakfast and get ready to head out.

– 7.20am –

I get the bus to the GP surgery at West Bridgford. I’ve also done placements at Queen’s Medical Centre and King’s Mill Hospital near Mansfield. Thanks to the support of the scholarship, the cost of travelling to placements is much less of a worry.

– 8am –

I’m with the GP for the morning. We look through various different cases to start with and then I have consultations and clinical history taking sessions with patients. I also get the opportunity to try out different clinical skills that I’ve learnt. Having interactions with the patients is great – you can see how engaged they are in their own healthcare and how willing they are to listen to your advice.

“Having interactions with the patients is great – you can see how engaged they are in their own healthcare and how willing they are to listen to your advice.”

– 12pm –

I’m lucky the GP I’m with is really keen and wants to show me various aspects of medicine, so we take a visit to a nearby nursing home. It’s great to see how elderly people are cared for and the different side of medicine that applies to them.

– 1.45pm –

I head back to University Park to meet up with a few friends and have some lunch. It’s not often that our timetables align because of our placements so it’s good to catch up.

“Having the scholarship means I don’t have to work extra part time jobs, so I can concentrate on my studies free of the money worries I would have had.”

– 2.30pm –

We do a module called Community Clinical Follow-up – in pairs we’re assigned a patient that we monitor and have calls with throughout the year. We have a two to three hour chat with them about any appointments or changes in their healthcare. The patient is in a more relaxed environment so they tend to tell us more than their GP. It’s nice to get a more complete picture of the patient.

– 5pm –

I coach beginners for the medics table tennis team as part of my role as the Vice President of the team. We currently have recreational training sessions but we’d like to branch out and play other medical schools. Different sports provide different releases for people, for me that’s table tennis and football. It’s been proven to lift your moods so it’s good for your mental health as well.

– 6.30pm –

I help put the tables away at the end of our training session and then I head home. I cook some dinner and relax for a short while.

– 8pm –

My evenings are usually a mix of work and downtime. Tonight is no different – I’m back to work revisiting lectures from the last few weeks. I live with six other medics which has its upsides, like when we have hospital placements we can practice clinical techniques or examinations with each other.

– 10pm –

I have exams coming up soon so I have to be careful with what I do with every hour of my day. Having the scholarship means I don’t have to work extra part time jobs, so I can concentrate on my studies free of the money worries I would have had. By now, I feel like I’ve done enough work for the day. We do a few things together as a house, like watching movies or playing board games. Tonight, we catch an episode of Stranger Things on Netflix which has become quite a regular thing for us.

– 11.15pm –

Sleep, ready to repeat it all tomorrow.

The above article by Mohammad Udin, one of our third-year medical students and a Nottingham Potential scholarship recipient, was first published in the University of Nottingham’s “Your impact – Supporter magazine (Issue 3, Spring 2018)”.

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