Anyone doing Human Health and Disease?

Alice10

could anyone who is doing this course tell me about it??

connealn

Hey, there's pros and cons to HH&D as we call it.

Firstly, its really seen as the 'med reject' course, out of the 26 of us in the course at least 18-20 had medicine as their first choice and HH&D as their 6th. We were told by our course co-ordinator that as we were aiming for med and have 515-570 points we knocked out people who actually wanted this course as their first choice. A huge proportion of the class resat the HPAT and a lot of people are planning to change courses next year, so the class will be even smaller.

Of course, this small course size means that as a class we are all very close and tend to eat lunch, go out etc as a big group.

The course is kind of strange in first year, very similar to general science in that we do maths, chemistry, a bit of biology. We also do neuroanatomy, psychology, a research methods course and the choice of doing a Broad Curriculum course. A lot of this can be very boring and pointless! Our main lecture each week is a two hour Physiology lecture which is the most useful. Consider first year to be almost like General Science but you specialise in physiology.
Next year on seems to be a lot more relevent, as it seems to follow a lot of the med theory course,ie do full anatomy and we do a big research project in 4th year which will be very useful in applying for jobs/graduate medicine.

Most people in our class have the final aim for applying for grad med after the course. We're hoping that our highly specialised degree from Trinity will look better in comparison to everyone else with their biomed science degrees! Some people have decided that they want to go into research or further study physiology.

I enjoy the course, the best things are the small class and the closer relationship we have with our lecturers. Its a very good course to have as a back up to medicine or as an entry to further study as (compared to science) it is quite specialised from 1st year.

Hope I've been helpful!

piby

connealn wrote: »

Firstly, its really seen as the 'med reject' course, out of the 26 of us in the course at least 18-20 had medicine as their first choice and HH&D as their 6th. We were told by our course co-ordinator that as we were aiming for med and have 515-570 points we knocked out people who actually wanted this course as their first choice. A huge proportion of the class resat the HPAT and a lot of people are planning to change courses next year, so the class will be even smaller.

I remember when I first heard they were introducing this course that was my first thoughts ie. it'll just fill up with people who didn't get medicine! Seems a bit harsh on the small subset of people who might like to study it but who don't want to study medicine but then again all's fair in the points system so you put in the work you're entitled to do study whatever you want. Besides it's nothing new; both the Natural Sciences course and Human Genetics in TCD had a lot of medicine hopefuls!!

Seems an interesting course though I would love to have had the chance to do it if it had been available a few years ago :rolleyes:

amacachi

connealn wrote: »

Most people in our class have the final aim for applying for grad med after the course. We're hoping that our highly specialised degree from Trinity will look better in comparison to everyone else with their biomed science degrees! Some people have decided that they want to go into research or further study physiology.

I was thinking the same and was going to do Physiology, then found out that in Ireland at least the Graduate medicine goes almost purely by GAMSAT once you already have a 2.1 in anything.

MadRush

connealn wrote: »

Most people in our class have the final aim for applying for grad med after the course. We're hoping that our highly specialised degree from Trinity will look better in comparison to everyone else with their biomed science degrees!

So you would definitely recommend this course over say, Biomedical, Health and Life Sciences in UCD?

mad al

I'm sorry "connealn" I dont think you were trying to anoy anyone but I could'nt get over your comment "We're hoping that our highly specialised degree from Trinity will look better in comparison to everyone else with their biomed science degrees!". I am a biomed student in DIT. Most of my third year will be clinical based in a hospital. When I qualify I will already be well experienced and I can go and work immediately in any hospital lab within the common whealth of nations due to the acceditation GMIT,UCC and DIT biomed courses have with the academy of medical labratory scientists. Also I can work in any other medical lab either diagnostics or research and I can work in pharmaceutical companies or even aid with the development of new medical equipment.
Also doing a specialised degree in Trinity will be of no extra benifit to you when applying to medicine via the graduate entry route as they only require you to have a 2:1 in an honour degree which can be in any disipline no matter whether its from Trinity or any other third level college. If they were to favour students because of their previous course they have completed they would be lying completely in the entry requirements discription.

However I also had human health and disease on my CAO and I contacted the co-ordinator of the course and she informed me that they were hoping to give 5 students with the top grades at the end of the course the oppurtunity to enter into the accelerated medicine course in Trinity if they were interested.I dont know if this is true or not.
I hope the course is going well for you. It sounds interesting anyway.

connealn

mad al wrote: »

I'm sorry "connealn" I dont think you were trying to anoy anyone but I could'nt get over your comment "We're hoping that our highly specialised degree from Trinity will look better in comparison to everyone else with their biomed science degrees!". I am a biomed student in DIT. Most of my third year will be clinical based in a hospital. When I qualify I will already be well experienced and I can go and work immediately in any hospital lab within the common whealth of nations due to the acceditation GMIT,UCC and DIT biomed courses have with the academy of medical labratory scientists. Also I can work in any other medical lab either diagnostics or research and I can work in pharmaceutical companies or even aid with the development of new medical equipment.
Also doing a specialised degree in Trinity will be of no extra benifit to you when applying to medicine via the graduate entry route as they only require you to have a 2:1 in an honour degree which can be in any disipline no matter whether its from Trinity or any other third level college. If they were to favour students because of their previous course they have completed they would be lying completely in the entry requirements discription.

However I also had human health and disease on my CAO and I contacted the co-ordinator of the course and she informed me that they were hoping to give 5 students with the top grades at the end of the course the oppurtunity to enter into the accelerated medicine course in Trinity if they were interested.I dont know if this is true or not.
I hope the course is going well for you. It sounds interesting anyway.

I didn't mean to cause annoyance in the slightest and I'm very sorry if you were offended. I'm not downplaying your course in the slightest and I had biomed courses in several other universities and institutions as my other choices.
With respect to the grad-med 2:1 situation, i knew that was the requirement in the UK along with interviews as well as the GAMSAT but wasn't sure if that was the case here.

I'm not sure what the situation is with graduate medicine in Trinity at the moment. I think they were thinking of introducing it but we were then told that they had decided against it. It will be interesting to see how it works out in the next few years as most (if not all) of the other med schools in the country offer graduate places.

mad al

Nah dont worry none taken. I just wanted to clarify that in Ireland the gamsat is primarly what entry to grad med is based on and as long as you have 2:1 honour in any level 8 course of any disipline you have an equal chance as anyone else. Yes it certainly will. Thats what I was told when I contacted Trinity as well that they do not have a grad med course but they do sometimes offer students a place based on their final results and thats where your course may be of an advantage.

Good luck with it.

Confused_!

I was thinking of doing this course too, just wondering what kind of jobs you can get out of it? Do you have to do a masters afterwards or can you do research straightaway? Or is just used for getting into grad med?

Moliform

Hi guys, just wanted to add this for anyone thinking of accepting this course because they didnt get medicine.

If you do accept a course like this but you are thinking of repeating the HPAT the following year and switching courses, I've heard that this is not looked upon too well by the school of medicine (as both courses are ran by the same school and staff-the same goes for physio, radiation therapy, etc).
Also, if you do drop out of any of these courses because you switch to medicine, most people dont realise that all your transcripts (including the course you dropped out of) will be viewed by interviewers upon completion of your medicine degree. So, if you didnt do very well in the first year of HHandD because you are studying for the HPAT (and it will take a lot to do well in both as these courses are fairly full on), this could go against you when competing to get on a training scheme after your medicine degree.

If you are seriously thinking about resitting the HPAT, it may be better in the longer term to defer any other courses you have been accepted on. Unfortunately the competition doesnt end with the CAO!

Best of luck with the choices

Btrippn

Hey,

I realize this post was created over a year ago but I thought I'd mention a few things about the course in case anybody else happened to stumble upon this page hoping to get a decent insight into the course from somebody who actually wanted to do it.

I remember looking at this post after being accepted into the course last year and it didn't really imply that there was much to look forward to, however 1st year HH&D turned out to be the best year so far! Yes it's true that a lot of people in the course had medicine down as their first choice, however a lesser number ended up repeating the HPAT because they enjoyed the year so much. It is also true that you have to do maths and chemistry but the flaws from the previous year were improved on and we also did embryology instead of neuroanatomy.Next year we also get to work in the new biomedical research building also and we no longer need to do maths or chemistry.

The people in the course got along so well and there was a class night out nearly every fortnight as well as two trips abroad throughout the year!If you put a bit of work into the course every week in you'll do well throughout the year no problem as there is also a good amount of continuous assessment involved.

As for jobs involved after the course there's a vast amount of research oppertunities as this is a biomed course, you can go into teaching , postgrad med,research etc.

Hope this helped anybody who was looking for more info on the course , goodluck!

Nemanja-Smith

/\ /\ /\ this is true

Daragh00

any indication on hours or timetables for JF?

Gordon Gecko

For the record: only students with a 2:1 degree or higher in Dental Science are eligble for an advanced placement medical degree in Trinity (i.e. you go straight into 3rd Med)

Gordon Gecko

Gordon Gecko wrote: »

For the record: only students with a 2:1 degree or higher in Dental Science are eligble for an advanced placement medical degree in Trinity (i.e. you go straight into 3rd Med)

Actually that's not strictly true, HHD students do most of 1st med so are allowed skip it and go into 2nd med.

blubloblu

Deleted User wrote: »

Actually that's not strictly true, HHD students do most of 1st med so are allowed skip it and go into 2nd med.

Really? Does it say that anywhere? I've only found the Dentistry one

https://www.tcd.ie/Admissions/undergraduate/apply/transferred/from-third-level/ wrote:

Medicine: Advanced entry to Medicine is only available to Dental science graduates, who may be considered for entry to the third year of the five year course. Applicants must have an honours Dental degree with a minimum grade of 2:1 and have completed the Membership (MFD/MFDS) or Fellowship (FFD/FDS) examinations of the RCS or equivalent. Research (publications/presentation) or suitable experience would be an advantage.

It's not in writing but I've been told it by someone in the School of Medicine...they can't put it in writing coz there haven't been graduates yet and stuff, but it makes sense; 30/60 credits of our 2nd year is common with 1st med.

Anita Blow

Deleted User wrote: »

It's not in writing but I've been told it by someone in the School of Medicine...they can't put it in writing coz there haven't been graduates yet and stuff, but it makes sense; 30/60 credits of our 2nd year is common with 1st med.

Can't imagine that's true.
If that was the case then Physios would have a better claim to transfer into 2nd med since the Physiology/Anatomy course is identical for nearly the full year.

Abby19

Anita Blow wrote: »

Can't imagine that's true.
If that was the case then Physios would have a better claim to transfer into 2nd med since the Physiology/Anatomy course is identical for nearly the full year.

Actually Pirate Queen is correct. I too spoke with someone in the School of Medicine who is involved with the HH&D course, and the plan is that it will become the 'Graduate Medicine' entry route to Medicine. It cannot be advertised as such until there are graduates, and everything is finalised. During their degree they will have covered everything in first year Medicine, not only anatomy and physiology, but also Biochem and I assume Human Development and Behavioural Science, Ethics, etc. But there would still be a limited number of places, and access to them would be very competitive. You'd still have to pay for 4 years of fees, but at the undergraduate rate ~€9k as opposed to the Grad Med rate of ~15k a year.

Anita Blow

Anita Blow wrote: »

Can't imagine that's true.
If that was the case then Physios would have a better claim to transfer into 2nd med since the Physiology/Anatomy course is identical for nearly the full year.

As what Abby said, we also do all the anatomy & physiology of 1st med (like the physios), but also cover lots of biochem, embryology etc that they wouldn't.

NeuroCat

Deleted User wrote: »

As what Abby said, we also do all the anatomy & physiology of 1st med (like the physios), but also cover lots of biochem, embryology etc that they wouldn't.

Anyone in Physiology will most likely have studied at least 2 Biochemistry modules in second year science. (I actually think it's a requirement if memory serves). Also they may have studied microbiology, infection and immunity etc.

NeuroCat

NeuroCat wrote: »

Anyone in Physiology will most likely have studied at least 2 Biochemistry modules in second year science. (I actually think it's a requirement if memory serves). Also they may have studied microbiology, infection and immunity etc.

I was referring to physiotherapy. We also do the same biochemistry modules as SF science students. We also study microbiology & immunology. I posted a full course outline on the first page of this thread

supraspinaswim

So was it stated whether we'll have to do a fellowship or exam to get the grad med entry ?

Jammyc

supraspinaswim wrote: »

So was it stated whether we'll have to do a fellowship or exam to get the grad med entry ?

For grad med, you're the same as anyone with any other degree. You'll have to sit the GAMSAT and get a II.1.