Medicine course thread

starry nights

Hey there people!

I've accepted my first choice which is medicine in trinity but now i'm a bit nervous....

the workload in college doesn't scare me but the hospital wwork scares me....

I want to be a dermatologist but before i get a degree in that i've to gather experience in the medical field first. But 80-90 hours a week?!?! WTF?! And the whole day-night-day thing! Will i actually have any social life outside my job?

ApeXaviour

Split your post from that 5 year old thread to this shiny new one.

please keep all medicine course related posts here, thanks.

Drakmord

To be honest, I wouldn't worry about it.
Five years is a long time away, working hours/ conditions may change in that time.
I sometimes get worried when i hear about the 90 hour weeks etc, but really there is no point in worrying about it, we'll just perceiver
I'm a third med btw

theowen

starry nights wrote: »

Hey there people!

I've accepted my first choice which is medicine in trinity but now i'm a bit nervous....

the workload in college doesn't scare me but the hospital wwork scares me....

I want to be a dermatologist but before i get a degree in that i've to gather experience in the medical field first. But 80-90 hours a week?!?! WTF?! And the whole day-night-day thing! Will i actually have any social life outside my job?

Should you not have posted/researched this say, before you filled out your CAO?:rolleyes: I think we all went through this at some stage...

Psychedelia

Ah don't worry, you'll mature a lot in 5 years and your capacity to deal with stress and the world in general will also improve.
Just think how far you've come in the last five years.
Like a 13 year old doing the leaving would probably think it was impossible.
As a 23/24 year old you'll probably be much more ready to take it all on.

as for the hospital placements and such that you'll do during your 5 years you'll be doing this along side many others who are nervous about the prospect.
Best thing you can do is just throw yourself into the work and keep learning!

Larianne

I think the OP would get more answers to his/her questions in the Health Science Education Forum.

Plebs

starry nights wrote: »

Hey there people!

I've accepted my first choice which is medicine in trinity but now i'm a bit nervous....

the workload in college doesn't scare me but the hospital wwork scares me....

I want to be a dermatologist but before i get a degree in that i've to gather experience in the medical field first. But 80-90 hours a week?!?! WTF?! And the whole day-night-day thing! Will i actually have any social life outside my job?

It's generally more like 60 to 70 hours per week. Depends on what hospital you're in. But you knew that before you filled in the CAO?

Know someone who did GEM at RCSI and she's now doing around that number of hours. €35k a year (goes to €50k after 5 years). €70k in debt.

Psychedelia

this thread is for everything medicine related yes?

Regarding the Language Module I read today that if i do that it will be instead of the Science and Humanities module.
Does this mean i will have to complete the Science and Humanities at a later date?
Has anyone done this that could give advice on making this decision?

A Neurotic

Psychedelia wrote: »

this thread is for everything medicine related yes?

Regarding the Language Module I read today that if i do that it will be instead of the Science and Humanities module.
Does this mean i will have to complete the Science and Humanities at a later date?
Has anyone done this that could give advice on making this decision?

I did a Humanities module (creative writing), but I'm 99% sure that if you do a language module you don't have to do a humanities. They all fall into the category of "student selected module", for which you get your 5 credits, as far as I know.

As an aside, the language modules aren't timetabled in the same way as the humanities ones, as they're not medicine-specific, so if you do choose that you'll possibly be staying late after a long day of college... Also, while some of the humanities modules had a fair bit of work for assessment (eg essays), some were ludicrously easy. My assessment for Creative Writing was to write a poem. Just write a poem and you pass. Lovely.

theowen

What kind of stuff d'ya have to buy in first year? (books, coat etc?)

mardybumbum

theowen wrote: »

What kind of stuff d'ya have to buy in first year? (books, coat etc?)

PM sent

Psychedelia

A Neurotic wrote: »

I did a Humanities module (creative writing), but I'm 99% sure that if you do a language module you don't have to do a humanities. They all fall into the category of "student selected module", for which you get your 5 credits, as far as I know.

As an aside, the language modules aren't timetabled in the same way as the humanities ones, as they're not medicine-specific, so if you do choose that you'll possibly be staying late after a long day of college... Also, while some of the humanities modules had a fair bit of work for assessment (eg essays), some were ludicrously easy. My assessment for Creative Writing was to write a poem. Just write a poem and you pass. Lovely.

thanks for the info.
Did you find it worthwhile?
My dilema is wanting to learn a language but not at the expense of my medical degree!

A Neurotic

Psychedelia wrote: »

thanks for the info.
Did you find it worthwhile?
My dilema is wanting to learn a language but not at the expense of my medical degree!

Rest assured that the humanities modules are NOT essential to your medical degree. In fact one of my anatomy lecturers questioned the validity of the whole module just today, said it was taking time away from the core subjects of Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry.

I enjoyed Creative Writing a lot, because it was a change of pace from the rest of the course and because it was nice recompense for LC English being ruined for me by a frustrating teacher. Others hated it though!

ohthebaby

I have an offer of medicine, not sure if I'll be taking it though. It just seems like such a mammoth course to take on. Were you guys terrified starting? I just did first year in an arts degree in Trinity and found myself overwhelmed at times. I've always, always wanted to do medicine but I mean if I'm overwhelmed reading about medieval Ireland how would I deal with anatomy and the like? There just seems to be so many different subjects and so much work...

Also, in Leaving Cert, chemistry nearly killed me. I worked extremely hard and got an A1 but is there a major, major leap between LC chem and the start of first year? Like I mean obviously there is but would not having studied chemisty for over a year put me at an awful disadvantage? It all just seems so scary.

Plebs

ohthebaby wrote: »

I have an offer of medicine, not sure if I'll be taking it though. It just seems like such a mammoth course to take on. Were you guys terrified starting? I just did first year in an arts degree in Trinity and found myself overwhelmed at times. I've always, always wanted to do medicine but I mean if I'm overwhelmed reading about medieval Ireland how would I deal with anatomy and the like? There just seems to be so many different subjects and so much work...

Also, in Leaving Cert, chemistry nearly killed me. I worked extremely hard and got an A1 but is there a major, major leap between LC chem and the start of first year? Like I mean obviously there is but would not having studied chemisty for over a year put me at an awful disadvantage? It all just seems so scary.

Feeling overwhelmed in first year is normal. I remember people dropping like flies at O'Donovan's linear algebra course and Trevor West's calculus course. The trick is to make sure you have all the notes and that they are organised neatly. That's half the battle. The other half is surprising yourself at how much you can achieve in the 2 to 6 weeks before the exams. University is not like the Leaving Cert where everyone progresses at roughly the same level: it's about finding your limits. Lecturers pretty much mark everything out of 75%: you have to leave room for the Einsteins who pop up every couple of years.

If you have the aptitude to matriculate, you will discover that you learn very complicated things just by being open to the possibility.

Kwekubo

The trick is to make sure you have all the notes and that they are organised neatly. That's half the battle. The other half is surprising yourself at how much you can achieve in the 2 to 6 weeks before the exams.

This is very good advice. During first year I tried to always print out the notes out in advance, and during the lecture I would annotate them heavily with whatever came out of the person's mouth, so you have a record of all the points that are likely to make for good answers in essays. It still amazes me how biochem came together for me, out of nothing, during the single revision week we had before the Christmas exams.

(btw - Cantab making a calm, empathetic, helpful post? Remarkable. Wonders will never cease.)

A Neurotic

ohthebaby wrote: »

I have an offer of medicine, not sure if I'll be taking it though. It just seems like such a mammoth course to take on. Were you guys terrified starting? I just did first year in an arts degree in Trinity and found myself overwhelmed at times. I've always, always wanted to do medicine but I mean if I'm overwhelmed reading about medieval Ireland how would I deal with anatomy and the like? There just seems to be so many different subjects and so much work...

Also, in Leaving Cert, chemistry nearly killed me. I worked extremely hard and got an A1 but is there a major, major leap between LC chem and the start of first year? Like I mean obviously there is but would not having studied chemisty for over a year put me at an awful disadvantage? It all just seems so scary.

I did find it overwhelming at times, but I imagine that I'd have been the same in any course. The fact that you've already done a year in college will definitely stand to you anyway, as half the battle for me was adjusting to the college style of learning.

As regards Chemistry, it's not really as essential as you'd think, in my opinion. Not for first year anyway... Having a grasp of organic chem helps for Biochemistry, but consider that a good few people in the class didn't do Chemistry at all and passed with no problems.

Overall, I don't think first year medicine is as bollocks hard as some med students would like you to believe. There's a fair bit to do but it's not like you have to study 8 hours a day to pass. I didn't do that much throughout the second semester, crammed a bit at the end and scraped a pass. If you're organised and do a bit of work throughout the year you'll sail it.

Good luck, whatever you choose to do anyway

starry nights

I did realise when i filled in the cao that being a doctor was never going to be a walk in the park. But i'm after reading so many stories, since accepting my offer, about doctors working ten hours with no break and putting patients at risk cos of it. Or one i read about (on boards!) was a doctor working 48hours with only two hour break/sleep. Like WTF?! I'm just really worried that the hours are gonna be too crazy....

Actually could someone give me an idea what i'll be buying for first year? TCD are taking ages letting me know! Actually, would any current or past med students recommend having a laptop for lectures? I have a computer but not sure if i'll need one for taking notes etc...

theowen

starry nights wrote: »

I did realise when i filled in the cao that being a doctor was never going to be a walk in the park. But i'm after reading so many stories, since accepting my offer, about doctors working ten hours with no break and putting patients at risk cos of it. Or one i read about (on boards!) was a doctor working 48hours with only two hour break/sleep. Like WTF?! I'm just really worried that the hours are gonna be too crazy....

Actually could someone give me an idea what i'll be buying for first year? TCD are taking ages letting me know! Actually, would any current or past med students recommend having a laptop for lectures? I have a computer but not sure if i'll need one for taking notes etc...

I think there's some changes coming in actually, though they've been coming for a while and never materialised afaik.

jmn89

OP - I can totally relate to how you feel - I felt the same way a few years ago and am entering my final medical year tomorrow actually!

First year is a little daunting alright... I mean, you go from having an extremely finite amount to learn (where it's possible to know the entire curriculum for a subject), to having three-four subjects where you need to pluck from lots of different sources and think on your feet a lot more... that said, there are over 100 other students in *exactly* the same boat as yourself and everybody gets through somehow.

With regard to hospital work... it's much less daunting that you'd think. It's a lot less intuition and more algorithm - House etc can be quite misleading.

However, the inhuman working hours remain. The European Working Time Directive was supposed to address this point but remains unworkable - there are too few doctors to allow cushy 9-5s and weekends and nights on call are relatively frequent (and only interns have the post-call day off - i.e. night call).

In short, with any luck you'll come to really love what you do and find that everybody is fairly equally bewildered and intimidated. I'm actually really looking forward to my internship, despite the hours.

(P.S. dermatology is extradordinarily competitive - are you sure?)

starry nights

jmn89 wrote: »

With regard to hospital work... it's much less daunting that you'd think. It's a lot less intuition and more algorithm - House etc can be quite misleading.

(P.S. dermatology is extradordinarily competitive - are you sure?)

That's a relief! Still feeling a bit uneasy but I'll see how i find it!! :P

Is it really? I couldn't find anyone to talk to properly throughout the year about it, but i really want to be a dermatologist, it's the reason i'm doing medicine!

Shan32591

anyone have a list of books and other stuff for first year med in trinity, please and thank you

A Neurotic

Shan32591 wrote: »

anyone have a list of books and other stuff for first year med in trinity, please and thank you

Your lecturers will rcommend some texts in the first week or two. Most people in my class went for Gray's Anatomy for Students, Netter's Atlas of Anatomy, Sherwood's Physiology, and Stryer's Biochem.

Personally, I recommend Instant Notes for Biochem. Very concise, learnable, gives you enough info to pass without getting bogged down in detail. Sherwood is very accessible. Some weren't too fond of Gray's Anatomy.

I'd recommend trying a few out before buying any. Books are expensive, and perhaps not completely necessary to purchase, with the library and all.

EDIT: Also, if you got over 560 in your Leaving Cert, you'll be getting a bookvoucher worth 150 euro, so you might want to hold off on buying textbooks until you get that, if you're eligible.

Shan32591

Thank you!

Brods

You need a white coat, a ton of a4 pads and pens. Everything else is optional I'd say...

I haven't bought a single book (my book token bought my family's christmas presents in HMV and HF :P) but it completely depends on how you learn. If you need to know every little bit of a course to put together the big picture a book might be helpful or if you can't study in the Library because its too distracting you may find yourself without a book in the run up to the exams (there are probably 5-10 copies of each book that can only be used in the library-i.e. Counter Reserve) but in reality all you need to know is the lectures and you'll get a First or a high 2.1 in first year anyway... I do use the library books though, heavily. But I'm a dork. There's also the BioSoc second hand book sale every year.

I got a disection kit in first year because I loved anatomy. Someone in your group is likely to have one though and it just gets confusing and the cadavers get ruined if there are 3 or 4 scalpels being weilded in the first week.

I imagine the people posting here worrying about struggling with the workload are exactly the people who won't struggle. First year is a piece of piss if you're capable of getting into medicine. Still, I was worried in Sept 2007 :P

You're all going to have the time of your lives!

Edit: oh I lie, I got a Netter's Atlas, probably a good idea...

Shan32591

thanks for that! i'll still probably buy some of the books though

theowen

When will we see the cadavers for the first time?

theowen

A Neurotic wrote: »

Your lecturers will rcommend some texts in the first week or two. Most people in my class went for Gray's Anatomy for Students, Netter's Atlas of Anatomy, Sherwood's Physiology, and Stryer's Biochem.

Personally, I recommend Instant Notes for Biochem. Very concise, learnable, gives you enough info to pass without getting bogged down in detail. Sherwood is very accessible. Some weren't too fond of Gray's Anatomy.

I'd recommend trying a few out before buying any. Books are expensive, and perhaps not completely necessary to purchase, with the library and all.

EDIT: Also, if you got over 560 in your Leaving Cert, you'll be getting a bookvoucher worth 150 euro, so you might want to hold off on buying textbooks until you get that, if you're eligible.

On or over 560? I got 560...

blubloblu

Not under 560 apparently http://www.tcd.ie/calendar/assets/pdf/entrance-awards.pdf

theowen

blubloblu wrote: »

Not under 560 apparently http://www.tcd.ie/calendar/assets/pdf/entrance-awards.pdf

Poo. Thanks. Is there someone you can go to and ask am I elligible for any scholorships?

blubloblu

theowen wrote: »

Poo. Thanks. Is there someone you can go to and ask am I elligible for any scholorships?

If you got 560, that's not under 560, so you should be eligible. Is that confusing enough?:p