r/medicalschooluk

I was mentally affected by the war as my parents were being bombed in UAE, the financial strains due to the war. I performed consistently over 3 years. I did well in the mock before the war. After the war started my anxiety shot up. I repeatedly fell ill. I got involved with therapy immediately after the war. I was scared to being diagnosed with any mental health condition. I got convinced to go to the gp eventually and got diagnosed with anxiety 2 wks before the exam I did not inform the university because my brain was too reluctant to accept the diagnosis and the failed results of AKT and Osces just added to the anxiety. I was placed in a rural campus for this year and it made things a whole lot worse. Close to exams mu laptop broke down twice I even kept receipts of literally fixing it and then being forced to buy a new laptop.

I will be appealing but I am so scared that they will remove me and not consider my appeal. I have never had a repeat year. They are not even giving me a repeat of 1 year.

I failed my OSCE by one mark and I've really been struggling in the wait for resit results. I didn't think the resit went too badly but the only things I can remember are the things I forgot to do or say. I've been trying to distract myself by going to the gym and creating some structure to my day but my mental health has tanked since I got these results. I've been having dark thoughts every day about what I'd do if I fail the resit, which I've never had before in my life. If I fail and have to resit the year, I'd have to give up my international elective and I'd also lose my scholarship and bursaries, which I've been relying on to stay afloat. How do people cope?

Failed my OSCE exam and being made to repeat the year. The feedback and scoring were very contradictory, in numerous stations I was praised for my empathy but received a poor score in the empathy domain, just wondering if anyone has had any luck with appeals.

We haven't done OSCEs at all in 1st and 2nd year but we have OSCEs exams in 3rd year and beyond. I feel really panicky about this aspect and wondering what I can do early/throughout the year. I want to get decent at them early on because I feel like I will struggle if I do this last minute.

I think that is the main reason as to why I hate clinical placements. I always feel being in the way. Sometimes I am very proactive but I heavily depend on whoever is there that is keen to sign me and often I end up leaving placement very late because everyone tells me to wait for hours.

What can I do to stop having severe anxiety towards this? I am very respectful but I always feel in the way to a point that I can get panic attacks. It may be stupid but being in such a central hospital makes it really hard. I am based in London and I have O&G.

final year student who couldnt identify a STEMI in front of the consultant today. The other day I was shown an obvious pneumonia on CXR and stared at it blankly. anyone got similar stories to help me feel better? I know that the knowledge is there it is just so far from exams + my brain cannot answwer under pressure.

Going into final year and I realise this is my last year of being in medical school which is CRAZY. I want to make the absolute most from the wards / teaching / learning - any tips would be so appreciated ! X

I failed my third year and have to repeat it and i don’t know how to tell my asian parents does anyone have any experience with this? I also don’t know how to deal with my family thinking I am a failure and being disappointed. I am more stressed about telling them than i am about repeating the year. Any advice would help.

Mb for rant

I made no real friends in my first year. I stuck with my flatmate 'friends' all year since they are in my course. One of them didnt want to do stuff out of uni and the other just used me for notes and aired me constantly IN PERSON. I am also increibly socially anxious and dont drink so it is hard to socialise in an area where the majority do drink. My social anxiety was so bad that sometimes my face would twitch when talking to people which i know sounds crazy. Even when walking in public i cant look at other people. I also hyperanalyse every intersction i have leading me to think some people had a distaste towards me. Due to somestuff prior to uni i genuinely believed that people would be digusted by me looking at them or that im a weirdo eventhough ik im pretty average looking. It is just something ingrained into me. I couldnt muster up any courage to make friends in my course besides my flatmates because i didnt go to many sociiety events because in terrified and everyone on my course alr were in groups and trying to join a group of friends is like hell to me. And i want to add this eventhough ik people might think im crazy. While i was doing an icebreaker with my clinical group we played the heads down thumbs up game and for FOUR whole rounds no one picked me just the other two guys every round. I get it can be coincidence but like cmon u kno, but anyways that also lowered my self esteem when it was already low enough.

This all set me up for some terrible experiences for me in lectures, practicals, workshops and clinical skills where im constantly surrounded by happy people with big friend groups. My worst experience was during an exam when everyone was outside the exam hall talking with each other while im standing in the corner, not the worst as it wasnt too long and then we go to like this venue to prevent us communication with the other exam group. I just sat there by myself for like an hour while there are just groups of friends sitting right next to me and everyone is talking while im dead silent. Or on my placement where everyone knew someone where i was just alone and sat alone on the coach while i hear people laughing together.During all of this i genuienly wouldve rather one of my 'friends' be with me then just be alone like that. Sometimes i feel invisble to people as well even on the days i feel like being social. I even feel like i get mistreated by people more then others. I know this is probably in my head but some people don't understand how hard it is to shake. I dont even where i would start if i went to a social event by myself, how to approach how to talk. I did think about attending but in the end i just ended up in my flat. i know i couldve put in the effort but it was the doing part i couldnt seem to do. Its just really hard for me to see everyone having there fun life whereas i am thinking about stuff they never have to worry about. At the very least i did really good academically in my first year.

I was so relieved coming back home as i have so many friends back home and they are really genuine. I have lied to them about my uni experience as i dont like putting my problems on other people( i know this is very contradicting as im posting on reddit) and they seemed to be having a good time in uni mostly. And now im dreading going back to uni.

The social anxiety i mentioned has thnakfully calmed down after i opened up to my parents about it ,after like 8 months,and i can atleast function like a normal person now😅 but the making friends part still needs help. I would like to note that im not diagnosed with social anxiety and i am thinking about seeing a therapist to tackle my issues.

Im going into my second year soon and want to change everything but i dont know about going to a freshers event as a 2nd year i assume there are general tasters for everyone but ye ill see. I would appreciate any tips ppl can give me cuz i need them🙏🏽

Okay so I’m going to try and keep this short,I’ve always been interested in neurosurgery, and a neurosurgeon that mentors me recommended this book.

I HATE IT SOOO MUCH, I’m at least trying to finish it out of respect for the doctor that recommended it but it feels like such a drag. If this was the first book I read about medicine then I’d probably think twice and not in a good way?

My issue isn’t with the speciality, if anything I still love it but my issue is with the writer. The second I got to the part he mentioned his wife all I could think is “I’m surprised she hasn’t divorced him” just to read in the next line that she has but he’s remarried.

This book has been recommended so many times and now I’m concerned I’m the only person med who’s mind literally churns at the mention of this book 😭

all i hear is that y2 was hell, y2 will be hell, y2 will hang me to dry, y2 will mutilate me. i think thats playing on my psyche more than anything i can see actually in year 2 content wise. how do you deal with all the noise surrounding y2 and academic life in general? like try to take on a more positive outlook? i think, in my mind, if i fail i fail. at least i would've tried to succeed. but there's no point bowing out mentally before even reaching the starting line

Missed the resit pass mark by 0.5 marks
Feel awful and lost all motivation
Any advice?

I’m an eager guy and excited to get going with clinical years.

How can I make the most of placement to help me grow into the best doctor I can be?

I don’t plan on staying the full 9-5 most days because studying needs time, but I’m more than happy to turn up early in the AM etc. and I plan on studying content before the placement so I can turn up with an idea of what’s what.

I’d appreciate any advice on what to do and what not to do

Anyone suffered from bullying from medical school. I have completed medical school now but 1st year of medical school was traumatising. Looking back at it I was very badly bullied by one of my coursemates and supposed friend at the time and by several members of my pbl group.

I have no diagnosis of autism but was called made fun off and called autistic all the time. I was constantly mocked by people I had only know for a few months. I ended up really falling out with the main perpertrator who was actually my friend intially and lived in my flat. After christmas break where I ended up being very depressed I decided to cut her off.

It led to very awkward pbl groups and my relationships with the entire group soured. My relationship eventually recovered with the rest of the group after a few years but with the main perpertrator things never recovered.

I became very depressed during the first three years medical school this had knock on effects on other areas of my life and other friendships I had.

My parents had always placed being a doctor on a massive pedestal like being a doctor is close to being god. I didnt know many doctors growing up so imagine my suprise when I went to university and was treated worse than I was in secondary school.

would anyone be able to give me some advice on how to deal with third year. it’s more clinical based this year and i’m struggling with like how to go about being on wards, id like to get the most out of this year as i’ve been quite excited to get to this point of the degree

I‘m an FY2 on Community Psych. Bored out of my mind so thought doing some med student teaching might be a good shout. What sort of topics in psych do people struggle with/need to be taught better? Ideally UKMLA/OSCE relevant

Can someone please explain how the NHS Bursary funding works for Graduate Entry Medicine? I’m completely confused 😭

For someone who is only eligible for the non-means-tested funding, how much money should we actually expect to receive in total for the year?

From what I’ve understood, it’s around £4,000 off course fees+ £1,000 from the NHS Bursary, but I’m not sure if that’s correct.

Also, is the Extra Weeks Allowance something everyone receives if their GEM course is long enough, or is that means-tested as well?

Would really appreciate if someone could break down exactly how much we should expect to receive as a GEM student!

Title.

In my last hospital, ward rounds consisted of being ignored by the consultant I was attached to, some of the resident doctors were not interested in talkong to med students and the ones that were happy to teach were often busy so I'd be standing around doing nothing. I tried to examine at least 1 patient a day, just so it wouldn't be useless.

I asked my course mates what they do, and most of them said they'd usually just self study, and that's what I ended up doing.

Going into my next year, I'm wondering what I can do to make the most of it.

Contemplating asking consultants if I can present a patient to them during the ward rounds right before they see the patient (I.e., what the F1 usually do), however, Im not sure if that's appropriate ?

What do you do to make the most of ward rounds ?

I have just found out that I failed my 4th year, while I am incredibly upset about it. I just really want to offload and dump everything thats being going on somewhere without having to look at someones face. I feel so many different things even if it's not my first time failing. I feel like I am being punished for something I have done in my life, also feeling like I am completely useless and just a fraud who somehow got lucky for the past 5 years (I am in 4th year, but a direct entry student, its weird) and constantly reinforced by my tutors who keep saying that I am up to scratch with my knowledge I been doing this degree. In 3rd year, I joined the current university I am at and felt completely isolated, it felt like I couldn't engage with anyone or make any friends because it feels like I can't connect with people or even hold a conversation about anything for the fear of being judged. I signed up to my GP and admitted to having suicidal thoughts and feeling psychotic over this at my signup checkup with one of the nurses who then sent me to the GP and who then sent me for an emergency psych appointment because they thought I was having an psychotic event and was a danger to myself. They came to the conclusion that its depression with psychotic symptoms but I believe they put it on record that is a major depressive episode and told the GP to prescribe me medication and refer to talking therapies. The GP also said that the psychiatrist recommended an autism referral which he didn't mention but the waiting list for that was 3 years lol. I just generally found the talking therapies unhelpful, I just couldn't engage with them for some reason, maybe I am just really unwilling to change for some reason. The medication had no noticeable benefit and I just stopped taking it which I maybe shouldn't have done. I passed 3rd year, and then I failed my first 4th year exam, I just felt even more suicidal, this time, my student support felt like I was a danger to myself and sent me to A&E, and after being seen there by the mental health nurse, she just recommended talking therapies even when I told her that I just find them unhelpful. She also booked me an appointment with the pharmacist to discuss my right to choice regarding my autism referral. There is just too much to talk about and rant. I just can't even organise my thoughts anymore.

Hey guys, I’m a final-year medical student who has been referred to a full FTP panel. I was hoping for some advice on how best to approach the hearing and what I can do to give myself the best chance of a positive outcome.
My situation is quite serious because I’ve previously been referred to a full FTP panel for similar concerns. The main issue this time is my attendance on placement. Previously, there were also concerns around attendance and engagement because I had missed compulsory teaching sessions and some coursework deadlines.
At the time of my previous FTP, I had significant extenuating circumstances. I had a lot going on in my personal life and was being persistently harassed by someone, which escalated to several sexual assaults. It was an extremely difficult year and had a significant impact on my mental health. I was later diagnosed with depression and PTSD and engaged with therapy, which helped a lot.
Afterwards, things improved and I was doing well with medical school again.
Unfortunately, towards the end of my final placements this year, my attendance became sporadic again for a period of around six weeks. During the last two weeks in particular, there was a block of time where I wasn’t attending at all.
There were a number of things happening at the time. My grandfather was diagnosed with cancer and later passed away. My home environment became quite chaotic with family flying in and out, and my parents went away to be with him. I was therefore taking care of my younger siblings on my own, including cooking, cleaning and managing things at home. I was struggling to keep up with the demands of the course alongside everything else and was also starting to fall back into a depressive state.
Towards the end of the placement I re-established full attendance and also made up some of the days I had missed, although I know I didn’t make up all of them.
I completely accept that, regardless of what was happening personally, I should have informed the appropriate people that I wasn’t attending. At the time I felt extremely overwhelmed and distraught and found it difficult to communicate what was going on, but looking back I realise that I still had a responsibility to communicate properly and seek help rather than simply not attending.
I had a meeting with the medical school where I apologised and accepted the mistakes I had made, but they have now referred me to a full FTP panel.
There are also outstanding probity/professionalism concerns. After the attendance concerns were raised, I tried to make up some of the missed placement time by liaising directly with staff members at the hospital. The university told me not to do this, but I still went ahead because I was feeling helpless and felt I was receiving conflicting information about what I was supposed to do. I realise now that I should have followed the university’s instructions rather than trying to resolve things myself.
There is also an honesty/probity element because they feel I haven’t been honest about my attendance and that I wasn’t professional in how I communicated with staff after the concerns were raised. There are some days where I genuinely was present despite being marked absent, and I have provided several pieces of evidence for these, although the university has so far not accepted them.
My biggest worry is that I have previously been referred to FTP for similar issues. I’m concerned the panel will see the recurrence as evidence that I haven’t learnt from the previous process or that I’m likely to repeat the same mistakes again.
I’ve also started wondering whether I could have ADHD or another underlying issue affecting my organisation, prioritisation and ability to manage competing demands. I’m considering seeking a proper assessment/support for this, regardless of the FTP outcome, because I want to understand why I struggle with these things and put appropriate strategies in place. At the same time, I’m worried about whether raising this now could negatively affect how the panel views my fitness to practise.
For anyone who has been through an FTP panel, supported students through one, or has experience with medical education:
What is the panel actually looking for at this stage? What can I do to demonstrate genuine insight and that this won’t happen again?
I’m especially interested in what I should be doing before the hearing in terms of evidence, reflection, remediation, support, occupational health/GP input, etc.
It honestly feels at the moment like they’re trying to remove me from the course, so any advice on how best to approach the hearing would be really appreciated.
Thank you.