Published at 15:59, Wednesday, 05 March 2008

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l SHREE’EESH Vaidya originally looked towards a career in architecture; he had always enjoyed buildings, designs and construction. But it was towards the end of his GCSEs that he began to change his mind.

l He wanted a career which involved working with people and his A-level options of triple science and mathematics meant he was able to consider a career in medicine.

l After sixth form he took a year out to gain work-place experience and worked in offices, factories, a B&Q store and even undertook shift work. He also travelled round parts of India during his year out.

l At only 23 years old, Shree’eesh is now in his final year studying Medicine and Surgery MBBS (Hons) at the University of Newcastle and has just completed a GP training placement at Distington Surgery.

l Shree’eesh, originally from Grantham, Lincolnshire, speaks to Futures about his training in West Cumbria and why the area has offered a wealth of experience for him and endless opportunities.

EVERY single person is different and individual; even if they have the same condition, their response, reaction and how they are managed will be very different. I find that really exciting. It’s one of the main reasons I went into medicine.

The default setting of medicine is to help people, and I love the idea of being able to make sick people well again. It’s your job description.

So when I applied to my university choices I was really eager to start learning and threw myself into student life at the University of Newcastle, where I spent the first two years based at the Stockton campus at Durham.

From the first month of starting the course we were seeing patients, so we were integrated more or less immediately. But the course was mainly lecture-based.

The course structure was very in- depth and we would be given a system to study everything from the heart and anatomy to physiology and biochemistry. You would then see patients with problems relating to those systems and be involved in their diagnosis, which would really cement all the theoretical work we had studied.

All of our practical experience took place in hospitals where we would spend an allocated amount of time with patients each term.

It was a shock to the system when we began seeing patients as the idea of becoming a professional starts to sink in. You have to become totally independent; taking responsibility for both yourself and your patient; it’s quite a scary thought.

But it doesn’t take you long to get into a routine of theoretical and practical learning and that’s key when it comes to the examinations; you must pass written papers and clinical situations where you are assessed on your knowledge, professionalism and skills but you are often assessed in groups for this.

When it comes to the second year, however, things get much more intense and you have to know every part of the anatomy; every nerve, cell and vessel from the fingers to the toes.

But to help us learn and remember it all we carry out dissections, which is actually a fantastic way of learning as it really helps to reinforce everything you know. You have the chance to see it in front of you.

The third year is a clinical year spent in the hospital; you even have seminars in the graduate centre there. You see patients all the time, which in turn means you learn so much over a short period of time also because you’re in that hospital environment constantly.

It’s really good fun, though and it’s so enjoyable meeting patients and applying your knowledge to make them well again. We are not left to our own devices, though: we are taken through everything – even communication skills – and doctors are constantly on-hand to help us if we need them.

You’re on a very quick learning curve when you train in hospitals as it’s real people you’re dealing with and we are shown how to undertake everything from paperwork to practical procedures, such as taking blood, which is quite a milestone when you are still in training.

By the third year we were diagnosing more, formulating plans and helping out with minor surgery.

The fourth year of my course was a predominantly lecture-based format. All fourth years move to the Newcastle campus and that in itself is another big change; Newcastle is very different from Stockton.

But I love it. We’re now focusing on biochemistry, all the things you can’t see, such as the make up of blood and molecules. Then you have to choose three six-week options: two must be clinical the other can be non-clinical.

The non-clinical option can be anything you are interested in or something which you feel will broaden your horizons, as long as it can be associated to the medical profession. Some people choose photography or medical law and often students use their elective to spend time abroad learning the language of that country which would tie in quite nicely because of the nature of medical language. For my options I chose orthopaedics, anaesthetics and anatomy; it’s basically your chance to learn what you want, so my options reflected the subjects which both interested me the most and subjects which I hadn’t had the opportunity to experience yet.

As part of that you go on an eight-week elective to study medicine abroad. It’s a trip which you must organise and fund yourself so I went back to India again with my flatmate.

The elective is designed to widen your aspect and broaden your experience, so I chose India as I wanted to improve my language skills in a medical context so I would be able to translate for patients at some point. Also there’s no point being a doctor if you don’t know anything about symptoms or illnesses which are not native to Britain; if you ever happen to come across unusual cases then you will have an idea of how to go about assessing the patients and finding out what’s wrong.

The experience was absolutely fantastic and for medical students I would definitely recommend it. There is no better way learn then when you’re out in-the-field.

Then the fifth year dawns and you think you’ve forgotten everything you’ve learned as the precious year has mostly been practical experience, but it soon comes back to you.

The fifth year entails what’s called an Essential Senior Rotation which is arranged in core blocks including mental health, paediatrics, women’s health and GP understanding, all of which you must gain three weeks’ experience in. And it’s with the GP experience that I found myself here at Distington Surgery.

I’ve loved every minute of it here. The surgery has been a really friendly place to work and the doctors are keen to teach, which makes learning a whole lot easier. They’ve also let me do a lot of things on my own such as seeing patients and formulating my own plans, but they’ve also been at the ready if I’ve needed any help. When I’m making a diagnosis the doctors will come in and I’ll explain what I’ve found and the patients’ symptoms; they’ll then take me through everything and I go on to prescribe to the patient so it’s very much training on the job.

The university places us in a number of surgeries around the North so we have no choice as to where we’re placed but I’m really pleased it’s been in West Cumbria.

We have numerous choices of where we can go, from Tyne and Wear to Teesside and Northumbria. Under the Northumbria option is Carlisle and West Cumbria and during my time spent here I will also be in the local hospitals.

After my time in West Cumbria I will spend a few weeks training in Carlisle. There are huge differences in the hospitals here compared to the North East; in what I’ve experienced they’re much quieter here with regards to patient numbers. So I think this has been the perfect place for me to train and gain GP experience; the doctors have had more time to teach me and make sure I fully understand what I’m doing.

I’d certainly recommend any medical student to train here; the learning environment is very positive and intimate so obviously the quality of my learning has been very high.

Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk