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My name's Neil, I'm a third year medical student at The University of Manchester. I studied
for three years at Nottingham and another year at Sheffield. Upon completion of my Masters
I realised that I enjoyed the science but I also wanted a career where I could interact
with people and get to know lot of people, and try and help them as well...so medicine
was the perfect course for me really. I was interested in coming to Manchester for both
the course and the city itself. I'm actually from around here...I was born in Macclesfield...so
I was quite familiar with the city. if you were to ask me what Manchester offers that
other universities don't it would be the PBL structure of the course. The first two years
you spend in what's called Phase One, and then you go into Phase Two in Year Three.
Phase One essentially revolves around learning physiology and then associated pathologies
for certain conditions. You do get exposure to patients from an early stage, and that
really gives you the tools required to be able to conduct yourself well in a hospital
environment. Year Three you begiin life as amedical student in a hospital environmentand
thre teaching revolves around consultant-led teaching, which is at one of four base hospitals,
a opposed to being at the University. the highlight of my student learning experience
would be acquiring the skills required to be competent in a clinical environment. During
Phase One we're taught how to communicate well with patients and how to perform basic
skills to begin with, such as taking blood pressure, or examining the eye or the ear.
As we move on we get taught more advanced skills like taking a blood sample or performing
an arterial blood gas, and there really are great opportunities in the clinical environment
to have hands-on experience. You always feel like you're well looked-after, and there's
plenty of people who are more than willing to help you and watch you perform, for example,
an examination and give you useful feedback so you can improve and hopefully be a very
competent doctor when you qualify. Life in a teaching hospital is busy, jam-packed with
activities and plenty of great opportunities. You are fully immersed in the medical environment.
If you read about a condition in a textbook you don't then wonder what its like to live
with a condition, there's literally always somebody with that condition that you can
ask about how its affected them, what the side effects of the drugs they're on, or what
they've had to go through, or how it affects their family, and you really do get a very
contextualised idea of what its like to live with various illnesses. I should also add
there is ample opportunity to attend theatre. Mot of the surgeons are very welcoming, and
will enable you to observe and will ask you questions on the spot, maybe about your anatomy
knowledge. And that, for someone who maybe would like to go into surgery, to be exposed
that early on is absolutely fantastic. The clinical skills lab sessions invlve being
taught how to perform a skill on, for example a prosthetic arm, for the insertion of a canula
or taking blood for example. The idea is we go through the theory and have ample time
to practice before trying the skill ourselves out on the ward. The skills lab at the Manchester
Royal Infirmary, which is where I'm based, operate more -or-less a 24/7 opening times,
which is absolutely fantastic for us because we also have maybe a spare half hour in the
day and its a great use of time to not only learn new skills but also practice them. The
advoce I'd give to somebody who would like to come and study here is to work hard and
do your best to achieve a place. its absolutely fantastic pace to study. You really do feel
very well taken care of and you have excellent opportunities. The city itself is fantastic,
there's always sopmething going on, and there's various medical societies and therre's fantastic
opportunities to get involved in anything you're interested in. There's of course the
university societies, but there's also numerous medical societies so not only do you get to
do something you enjoy, but you get to know people on the course.