any meds willing to enlighten us>

me2gud4u

ok so we are in pre med.....and really have not started learning to become real doctors yet..yes yes we know.

Anyway, I have noticed that there are a few board members studying medicine in ucd and was wondering if you could enlighten us as to what we will be doing during our years in ucd med.It would be great if you could tell us the difficulties encountered in the different years, what was difficult getting used to, hard to master and the highlights of the various years. Also what is the system we know it is six years but how is it done, pre med, first med, second med, third med, fourth med, fifth med and then intern year......but yet there is no sign of the term fourth med really mentioned and I have yet to hear the term fifth med.Is fifth med final med?Also do we have lectures in hospitals and when does that kind if thing start?Is it just Vincent's and Mater and Holle's Street for lectures or do we have some in RCSI??
And we have heard biochemistry is terrible is first med is this true?
Anyway information would be greatly appreciate........we're still in the dark with regards to life after the wonderous pre-med!!!!!!

Stepherunie

Try here

Breezer

You'd better not be one of those premeds I caught studying in the library... That's not on, it's meant to be enjoyed and laughed about.

Anyway 1st Med and up to Christmas in 2nd Med is Systems 1 - anatomy, physiology and biochemistry (not as separate subjects, all rolled together with subjects split up by system) with some very limited clinical teaching that won't be examined at this stage, one or two completely pointless modules (e.g. more Healthcare Informatics, yes it's the same thing a third time around) and an introduction to more advanced topics like pathology and microbiology. The 'clinical' lectures are currently given mostly in hospitals, but this is being phased out in favour of practical-type classes given by doctors from the hospitals in UCD. You'll be doing lots of dissections (on cadavers, not locusts or whatever they're subjecting premeds to these days) and biochemistry practicals - the former are interesting, very few people will understand or indeed care about the latter Lately they've been moving a lot of the course onto computer - i.e. self-directed histology CALs, which you will be examined in at some point or other. This is the stage I'm at now so my knowledge after this is based on what I've been told.

2nd half of 2nd Med and up to about March in 3rd Med: Systems 2. All the systems again except this time you're dealing with disease - more pathology, pharmacology and microbiology.

March in 3rd Med to the end of 4th Med is Res Year. 5th Med is Final Med. See Steph's link for more info.

As regards hospitals, you'll initially do courses in both Vincent's and the Mater; for the second part of the clinical course you'll theoretically choose between them, but in reality you'll be all over the place - Vincent's, the Mater, Holles St, St Michael's, St Colmcille's, Tullamore, other random spots around the country. They also haven't quite worked out how they're going to fit modularisation into hospitals yet; this year's 3rd Meds are the first modularised students to be in hospitals so there's going to be a lot of chopping and changing before you get there.

A word of warning: premed is not med. I'm only really one stage beyond you, and I can already tell you that it gets a lot harder, albeit a lot more interesting, as you progress. First Med is a shock to the system but you get used to it - you got through the Leaving Cert and you're eventually gonna have to cope with long shifts anyway. 2nd Med, the first half anyway, isn't so bad IMO, mainly because you've grown accustomed to working again. Enjoy And if I see one more premed frantically studying Healthcare Informatics... :mad:

Stepherunie

Breezer wrote: »

And if I see one more premed frantically studying Healthcare Informatics... :mad:

Seriously?????? What on earth is happening to this place????? You can't study that - the course can be done in 2 hours (as we did).

Also a minor edit to Breezers info, iirc they res aspect of 3rd med is going due to modularisation and you'll be in hospitals for 4th and 5th med only. Though I missed the last Staff Student Committee meeting to adequately remember this info.

Breezer

Stepherunie wrote: »

Also a minor edit to Breezers info, iirc they res aspect of 3rd med is going due to modularisation and you'll be in hospitals for 4th and 5th med only. Though I missed the last Staff Student Committee meeting to adequately remember this info.

Oh there was a very interesting spiel about exactly how hospitals and modularisation would get along. I managed to write some of it down before I cracked up laughing. It's crazy how convoluted the timetable is. I don't think hospitals are being struck off for 3rd Med though, unless I interpreted what I heard wrongly. Must check that.

I had no idea you attended those meetings though. Pretty soon you're going to figure out who I am... :eek:

Stepherunie

Breezer wrote: »

Oh there was a very interesting spiel about exactly how hospitals and modularisation would get along. I managed to write some of it down before I cracked up laughing. It's crazy how convoluted the timetable is. I don't think hospitals are being struck off for 3rd Med though, unless I interpreted what I heard wrongly. Must check that.

I had no idea you attended those meetings though. Pretty soon you're going to figure out who I am... :eek:

Having sat through the meeting where a certain rep made it all about him I know how messed up it is!!!!!! I thought i'd lose the head just trying to grasp why the devil they were going on about!

And I think I've already worked out who you are :P

dajaffa

This year's 3rd Medical Year (stage 4) students are doing 3 weeks each in the Mater + Vincents + after that they're picking which of the 2 they'll go to for 4th + 5th year.

Breezer

Yes, in theory that's what they're doing. The Programme office and the teaching hospitals are running around like headless chickens trying to figure out what's actually going to happen though. Where the choice applies, you'll be in the hospital you pick, but a lot of the time you're going to be in random locations. So it stands at the moment anyway, that could all change by next September.

panda100

dajaffa wrote: »

This year's 3rd Medical Year (stage 4) students are doing 3 weeks each in the Mater + Vincents + after that they're picking which of the 2 they'll go to for 4th + 5th year.

Choose the mater! Best hospital by far!
Bigjimthefirst went to vincents.......neeed I say more

If you want to get a good view of the what life in the hospitals is like and meet your future interns,sho's,consulaltants etc then head down to old belvedere rugby club tonight for the hospitals cup finals.
Schmoozing on nights out plays a big part in your future medical careers!

Malmedicine

Stepherunie wrote: »

Having sat through the meeting where a certain rep made it all about him I know how messed up it is!!!!!!

Thats pretty harsh Steph. he was going through a rough tumultuous time!

My advice enjoy yourselves. Take part in extra curricular activities. Don't be a boring med hed who doesnt go out except after exams, then gets hammered and proceeds to spend all their time talking about study and how hard everything is and how no one else except you ever has work to do, enjoy college life. Say hello to people outside your course make friends, Med heds have really annoying snobby (i got 570 plus points, Im brilliant top star in the country and you lowly arts/comm/rad student are just jealous) traits sometimes. Do enough to pass pre clinical years excel in clinical years.

Oh and this is really important be nice to STEPH cos she has teeth and will bite.

1 more thing you used to be the smartest best highest achiever hardest worker you knew, not anymore . . . . . try not to freak out. It happens BIG TIME @ xmas results in 1st med.

Stepherunie

Malmedicine wrote: »

Thats pretty harsh Steph. he was going through a rough tumultuous time!

My advice enjoy yourselves. Take part in extra curricular activities. Don't be a boring med hed who doesnt go out except after exams, then gets hammered and proceeds to spend all their time talking about study and how hard everything is and how no one else except you ever has work to do, enjoy college life. Say hello to people outside your course make friends, Med heds have really annoying snobby (i got 570 plus points, Im brilliant top star in the country and you lowly arts/comm/rad student are just jealous) traits sometimes. Do enough to pass pre clinical years excel in clinical years.

Oh and this is really important be nice to STEPH cos she has teeth and will bite.

Damnabit you obviously know me in real life

And I am nice! I take offence at that comment! There's only one med I ever shouted at and that was more than deserved and all there agreed!

Oh and as for the rep at the meeting - ah it was fun really - my lecturer kept pulling faces at me from across the room (he may have been bored too).

Oh and I apologise for the waywardness of this comment but yes, I concur with all the non steph related comments in that piece - The only meds I've never known to be dislike were the ones with the holier than thou attitude. Has to be said the physios were worse for doing it to rads - the immortal food chain holds.....

MatthewVII

panda100 wrote: »

Choose the mater! Best hospital by far!
!

A somewhat biased view, being a Vincent's man myself i guess i have to root for the home team. But in all seriousness, each hospital has its own appeal:

Mater : Great for Infectious Diseases, Cardiothoracic Surgery, general medicine. Has a nice A+E department but a poor student a+e infrastructure. teaching is better spread throughout the year but there aren't as many facilities for students

Vincents : Great for Liver medicine, Cystic Fibrosis, Breast + Endocrine surgery and general surgery. Better organised a+e teaching sessions but work is very unevenly divided between the two halves of res year and the second half is massively intense, with 19 lectures a week and 4-5 tutorials all on top of your regular training with the team. Assignments and reports keep you on your toes, but there's great services for the students and it's all in the spirit of education... or something like that

Both hospitals are nice, really depends what you want out of it.

Not that any of this has any relevance to the OP, but i just didn't want vincent's to go unrepresented, and also didn't want to be too vincent's biased.

eek