Spread this like the Bubonic plague:

A very stubborn dreamer

So I just read through this Swiss forum (link in the title) where a kid was asking for help on how to go about studying Medicine in Switzerland. Now granted he had a few misguided notions that deterred him from wanting to study in England, not to mention most of his reasons for wanting to study in Switzerland were quite weak. The few good ones (arguable nonetheless) however include; the pay in England being awful, the Swiss having a better quality of life and the extortionately high English tax rates.

It was quite funny reading how people were trying at first to subtly shift him off his path, when that didn’t work they were basically telling him in quite kind words (considering this is the internet) that he was wrong. Even with this there were a few alternatives put forward as to how he could still achieve his goal, but to be honest, studying medicine as a foreign student is very difficult (nigh impossible). The reason for this is as one of the people on the forum said “Getting one new doctor out there costs 300,000- or thereabout! That’s an insanely huge cost! The state pays for it because it’s a worthwhile investment, but that’s only if the new doctor stays in Switzerland, and the risk of seeing that new doctor leave the country is higher with foreign students…”.

Now considering that I’ve also had somewhat of the same dream as him – though I’d firstly like to study in England then hopefully practice in Switzerland – this kid has made it painfully obvious that I definitely need to do way more research before I even begin to spout the contents of my willful thinking. As such my next post on any other future plans of mine will be well researched before I lay out hypothetical plans on how to go about bringing it to fruition.

Addabee x

My Dream Work Place

This is the beautiful Bupa Crombwell Hospital, a private practice in Kensington, London. I passed it daily for two weeks whilst I was doing my work experience in Slough and I’m totally in love with it!

The Hospital boasts state of the art diagnostic equipment and is internationally renowned for it’s speciality centres which include the; Heart, Lung, Orthopaedic, Paediatric and Women’s Health Centres. The hospital also offers hotel accommodation for patients, ensuring a comfortable environment. This level of hospitality even won the Laing & Buisson Hotel Services Award in 2009. This is certainly the cream of the crop among hospitals.

Now I know working privately is no easy thing to accomplish having to fend off extremely fierce competition and all, but let’s just take a look at the path I’ll have to take. So the obvious would be the Med School, Foundation Training then Specialisation which is the norm. Next would be to continue training in my chosen field in order to eventually become a Consultant in said field (by the way, all of this is with the hopes of having landed placements at top teaching hospitals). Even after becoming a consultant I’ll need to develop myself into a leading member in my field of speciality. I’ll also have to develop myself as a caring, respectful, ethical, enabling and dedicated physician. All in order to get a foot into the door of my dream work place. Simples right? Well what’s a dream if it’s not grand.

Addabee x

Medlink 2013

Medlink was amazing! Honestly if all medicine-type conferences are like this, I can’t wait to be a doctor that continually improves himself by attending different conferences. So what is Medlink or what was it like you ask?

Well Medlink is quite rightly called ‘the home of future doctors’ and it serves as a community for prospective doctors, all gathered together. In order to relate information about pathways into Medicine, well established and world-renowned doctors in their own rights delivered key-note speeches and lectures on things ranging from how they’ve molded their careers, to the different kinds of doctors and medical units. Featured speakers included the revered Lord Robert Winston (I’m appalled at myself for not knowing of him before the conference), the funny man himself Dr James Ridgeway (honestly I’d pay to see him do stand-up) and a host of super doctors especially action-man Dr Stuart Maitland-Knibb. It just goes to show that not only are doctors  life-savers, they’re also damned interesting people.

The lectures themselves were very informative touching on subjects ranging from different medical specialities to alternate routes into medicine. Though the lectures came thick and fast, they were all definitely insightful for example Dr Stuart’s talk on ‘Pre-Hospital Care’ was particularly inspiring. He spoke about the work of the East Midlands Immediate Care Scheme, the quick-paced work of as an Air ambulance medic. For the faint of heart (Dr Stuart’s work can definitely not be said to be a walk in the park) we had a charity lecture on ‘Liking & Attraction’ where James’ comedy produced hilarious quotes such as “no one moans in my lectures except with pleasure” (someone actually did moan with pleasure weirdly enough).

So what was Medlink like you ask. Well if you’re thinking of a collection of snobbish gazillion A* hoarding students well you’re very wrong. It was more of a laid back (“so laid back we were horizontal” – Dr Stuart) collection of prospective Med students just trying to understand a bit more about this life-long career we’re about to throw ourselves head first into. So yeah, it was epic!

Addabee x