Welcome to the ScotGEM stories editors of 2023/2024!
Welcome to the new additions of the editorial team for ScotGEM stories!
Student Stories
My South African Elective
I am a final year ScotGEM student and this year international electives are finally back up and running! For my first block I was lucky enough to be able to go back to South Africa…
Nith Inshore Rescue: A day of being rescued for ScotGEM
ScotGEM third year students in Dumfries and Galloway participate in a Nith Inshore Rescue training exercise, getting to be rescued themselves!
ScotGEM: An Unexpected Journey
A journey of two ScotGEM students and two GCMs cycling from Belfast to Limerick for the WONCA world rural health conference 2022.
Ushering in a new era for ScotGEM stories
Hello from your new team of editors at ScotGEM stories! To start off the 2022/2023 academic year we thought we would introduce ourselves so you all know a little bit about us and why we chose ScotGEM.
Graduation
Graduation! It’s hard to believe that it’ll be happening just a couple of weeks from now. It feels like it was just the other day when fifty-five eager new ScotGEMs took a seat in one of the seminar rooms at the School of Medicine in St Andrews for our first induction session, getting over a different dose of disbelief that we’d been given a place in the inaugural cohort of the first ever graduate-entry, accelerated medical degree programme in Scotland.
Pass Me The Needle
Having travelled two and a half hours from my rural LIC (longitudinal integrated clerkship) GP practice, I arrived at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, bright-eyed and eager to learn.
An Emergency in the Hills
I had never really given much thought to how my first experience of delivering CPR would go, but I certainly didn’t expect it to be out on the hills, without a phone signal or a single piece of kit.
A Fantastic Fortnight in Skye
Majestic, magical, misty… these are all words that come to mind when describing the wonderful island of Skye.
One Newspaper Later…
Time flies when you are whizzing about every corner of Scotland for four years, but not so much when you’re waiting for a bus in sub-zero temperatures in the middle of the Highlands. Need to learn to drive ASAP.
West is Best
If you don’t believe me, Princess Anne once said, “Sailing on a sunny day in Scotland is the nearest thing to heaven anyone will ever get on this earth…” She should know, with her near 30-year experience sailing her 44-foot yacht around Scotland every summer.
A Year in the Highlands
As part of the ScotGEM course, a year is spent undertaking a longitudinal integrated clerkship. I chose to come to the Highlands and wanted to be near Inverness, and I was assigned my practice in Tain. Before starting the course I had only been to Scotland twice, had never even heard of Tain, and didn’t know what to expect. Our course has an emphasis on general practice, and before starting my LIC I had enjoyed my GP placements but wasn’t sure if I would be better suited to secondary care. My main concern was that general practice meant working alone and I would miss working in a team. I also worried that there would be a lot of referring in general practice which meant not seeing a patient’s journey in secondary care. On a more general note, I was concerned that a career in medicine meant sacrificing hobbies and interests.
Ben Nevis
My third year on placement in Fort William has so far been brilliant. The people who I have met and worked with have taken every opportunity to demonstrate their kindness and generosity. However, I think most of us would admit that at times this year has been tough. We have all had to make the most of what we have around us. This year of all years I have tried to embrace the opportunities afforded to me by the beautiful west coast, and I really could not have asked for more out of my time here.
My Helicopter Ride
Hi, I’m Liepa and I am only an honorary member of ScotGEM. As I am the only Dundee undergrad doing the longitudinal integrated clerkship (LIC) programme in Scotland this year, I have been unofficially initiated into the ScotGEM tribe.
Week 1 of ScotGEM was a blur, meeting all those new and fabulous people… but one thing I do remember clearly is someone official saying: “You are not allowed to ride in emergency or medical helicopters.”
Aberfeldy
This is the verbal picture of my living in rural Aberfeldy for the past four months. Before we delve in, if you prefer just looking at pretty pictures please go and view my friend Alistair McDonald’s previous Tiree post. If ScotGEM Stories were a book (million pound idea!) his would be on the front cover.
Simulation
Last week, the students of ScotGEM’s Year 3 currently based within NHS Highland got together (in an orderly, socially-distanced manner) for some in-person tutorials and clinical simulations at the Centre for Health Science in Inverness.
Wick-ed: A Day in the Life of Joe
Hi, my name is Joe. I’m one of those pesky third year ScotGEM students currently out on placement in a remote corner of Scotland. It is a place that is teeming with fabulous wildlife – I have made many a friend among the local seals during my wild swims along the coast. They clearly thought I was one of them. The place I’m in is Wick. I thought it would be nice to pen a ScotGEM story about a day in Caithness General Hospital, which is to be found bang in the centre of the town. It’s a real do-it-all hospital—from managing the most acute cases, to dealing with a cataclysmic road traffic accident, to helping a frail and elderly patient back into their home in the community, it does it all.
Trauma Call
When the consultant in charge of a hospital’s Emergency Department puts out a trauma call, quite a few things happen almost immediately.
The Silver Dark Sea
I was never fond of the sea. As a young girl, I learnt to accept it as a place of peril and sorrow. Who would have thought that it would become a defining part of my life, bringing me joy and happiness?
Working Through the Pandemic
Hello everyone! A quick introduction: my name is Ash and I am a third-year ScotGEM student. Like most of you, I decided to use the lockdown as an opportunity to wholeheartedly dedicate myself to exams and studies. My disposition involved my array of notes sprawled across my bed, my phone hosting multiple social media apps, music playing from a tab somewhere on the internet, Netflix in the background, Cheetos on my left hand and lastly writing this blog with my right hand.
C-Section
The labour ward is the only place in the hospital where, if all goes to plan, one patient walks in and two walk out (although one carries the other). It was here I was to spend a sunny August morning, watching an elective C-section on my second day of Year 2.
Auchtermuchty – Wear The Fox Hat?
A few weeks after returning from the Christmas and New Year break in 1st year, it came time to mix up the Generalist Clinical Mentor (GCM) groups that I have written about previously here. We all said goodbye to our maiden GCM families and began an 18-week voyage with a new group that would take us to our final destination – the main 1st year exams in June.
Putting the Piper in Piperacillin
The roar of a thousand musicians making their final instrumental adjustments drifts by with the summer breeze. The air is thick, loaded with the tensions of the day. As we march in unison to the arena, not just a band of strangers tied by one common goal, but a harmonious family, we feel the heat of hundreds of spectators’ eyes on us.
What I Think About When I Think About Lockdown
I always tell people that I hate running. It’s not my sport, I’ve always been a swimmer, but I’m determined to be a better runner. Coincidentally, I’m not a big fan of lockdown either. It’s not easy, like most I’ve always loved (and taken for granted) the freedom to travel and visit family or friends, but when lockdown began, I decided I would strive to find a silver lining in it… somewhere.
Virtual Sanity
From Rudyard Kipling’s poem If, “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…” This is a mindset I was raised with, and a global pandemic was about to test it.