TSR Med Students' Society Part V

I wouldn't take the endo bsc if you don't really want to do it. If you got an offer from second year you stand a good shot of getting one next year, and then you'll have more courses available to you too.

Okay I need some advice about which elective option would help my cv/further my career more.

We have a 6 week internal elective (so has to be within the UK) at the end of 5th year just before we graduate. I am 95% sure I want to specialise in obs and gynae, so want to build my CV for that. What would be better out of the following:

A) An audit within obs and gynae that I could potentially run all by myself, but probably be unable to re audit and unlikely to present anywhere
B) Get involved in somebody's research and hopefully get a paper published
C) Just do a placement in obs and gynae, although I am doing 4 weeks placement in that area for my external elective this year
D) Another option, please suggest

If I was to go with option C, are there any particular hospitals that are renowned for their obs and gynae department?

Thanks in advance

I guess the three main things to consider is what do you think you'd enjoy and gain the most from academically and professionally, what you already have CV wise and what you are lacking, and what is realistic in the time frame you have.

Option B on first glance appears to be the 'best' CV wise, as there generally is some truth in the publish or perish dictact especially when competing for speciality posts. BUT I have serious doubts whether you'd be able to get a paper out of only 6 weeks of work- there are strict criteria on authorship which involve being very involved in the work, and getting published is a long-winded drag which takes months (if not sometimes years) from data collection to published paper. I can't imagine that it would be easy to get involved enough in clinical research in six short weeks to make it on to the authors list. CV wise, it would be very clear that it was not principally your research.

I would go for option A, as a good meaningful audit is way more doable in 6 weeks. If you try and get an oral presentation or a poster out of it in as flashy a conference as you can possibly pull off plus submit it to national prizes etc then thats pretty darn shiny CV shizzle as well. I would also try and conduct the audit in a good unit, and try and get a lot of clinical time aswell so you can get the professional satisfaction and double triple check that O&G is your thing (one can never be too sure with these things).

Are you going to do your elective in the same area as your foundation school? If so, you could easily reaudit/further develop the work/ carry one benifiting from the contact you make through F1+2.

Got an offer for the Endocrinology iBSc at Kings, unsure whether to take it.

My heart is set on doing an SEM related iBSc. I wouldn't mind doing endocrinology (just wouldn't love it) and I've been told that I'd be silly to turn to it down when I haven't got another iBSc offer. I'm still waiting on Loughborough for Sports Science and I'll be able to apply for the iMSci at Barts next year.

Anyone have any advice? I'm just finishing my second year by the way.

Thanks! Unfortunately the placement has to be confirmed by Dec so I wouldn't know my foundation school at that point. I could do it in where I'm likely to go, but I haven't really made any decisions about where I want to work yet. I think option A probably is the best as well, so will now have to get hunting for possible places to do it in!

Wish I knew what I wanted to do. My list of 'OH HELL NO' specialties just keeps getting longer..!

Option A sounds good! Could bash out a significant audit in 6 weeks.

Remember that there are no longer FPAS application points (unless this has changed since update and I've missed it) but it will be useful at later points.

Wish I knew what I wanted to do. My list of 'OH HELL NO' specialties just keeps getting longer..!

I'd prefer to be in your position- my black list keeps getting smaller as I think ooo...that might not be so bad after all, could be quite good. I've thought with some *certainty* for quite a while that I won't do CMT, bit a recent rotation in ID has had me changing my mind (and before anyone points out I know you can technically currently do ID from ACCS, which is what I've been thinking of doing, but I think *technically* and *currently* are very important words in that sentence- CMT just seems a more appropriate). Atleast if you keep chopping you'll end up with something for you!

Okay I need some advice about which elective option would help my cv/further my career more.

We have a 6 week internal elective (so has to be within the UK) at the end of 5th year just before we graduate. I am 95% sure I want to specialise in obs and gynae, so want to build my CV for that. What would be better out of the following:

A) An audit within obs and gynae that I could potentially run all by myself, but probably be unable to re audit and unlikely to present anywhere
B) Get involved in somebody's research and hopefully get a paper published
C) Just do a placement in obs and gynae, although I am doing 4 weeks placement in that area for my external elective this year
D) Another option, please suggest

If I was to go with option C, are there any particular hospitals that are renowned for their obs and gynae department?

Thanks in advance

Could someone possible explain this question to me? Been trying to get my head around V/Q calculations and what they actually mean.

Question:
A patient has a PaO2 = 9.7KPa and an A-a = 2.4KPa where a=arterial and A=alveolar. Using a number of calculations I figured that PA02 = 12.1KPa and PAC02/PaC02= 5.92 KPa
Which of this is untrue?
1) Is the patient hypoxic (I said that this is true because PaO2 is less than 12KPa, the norm).
2) Increased V/Q mismatch (I said that this is true, given that if we calculate PaC02 you get a value of 5.92KPa, hence VQ ratio is less than 0.8 for the patient to be hypoxic and hypercapnic)
3) Pathological R/L shunt (I said that this is true because of the A-a is greater than 1KPa)
4) Anaemia (Which is untrue)

I can't seem to deduce why the results would suggest that the patient is anaemic. Could someone please explain this to me?

If anaemia is untrue why are you trying to figure out why it's true? Only thing I can think of as to why it could suggest that is because if thr patient is anaemic they would have less Hb, so less transport of gases could occur. I don't understand your explanation for V/Q mismatch though... surely if PACO2/PaCO2 = 5.92 then PaCO2 wouldn't also be 5.92?

Hey guys,

Was wondering if someone could help me.
I've come a cross a question that states that a patient with emphysema has a PO2 level that is below what is normal. The question asks to explain the reason behind this.
Is it just that ventilation is reduced due to destruction of the alveoli and at the same time perfusion is reduced due to a destruction of the capillaries. So although the V:Q ratio has been reduced (in equal proportions?), less blood is oxygenated which leads to the low PO2 levels?
Is my answer right? The questions for 2 marks by the way.

Thanks

Is this in reference to the alveolar or atrial partial pressure of oxygen? I don't know if you can say that ventilation would be reduced. Emphysema is a disease that causes an increase in the lung compliance. So therefore, a smaller change in pressure would be required to obtain a certain change in volume. If anything, there should be an increase in the alveolar ventilation and thus airflow, due to emphysema. In emphysema the alveoli (air sacs) are destroyed so there would be a decrease in surface area. I think that this would be the cause. A lower surface area would be lower rate of diffusion and thus a lower air flow.

Hey,
The question doesn't state explicitly but I think it's arterial.
I thought lung compliance was decreased in emphysema, and this decrease in compliance leads to an increase in the effort of breathing?
If the air sacs are destroyed does that not mean that ventilation is reduced though?

I hate respiratory medicine!