What do you do outside of medical school?
I was asked this the other day and was pretty stumped for an answer. Turns out most of my course mates are too. So what do you do outside of medical school?
Scroll to see replies
It can be quite easy to let your hobbies/external activities going whilst at med school, especially if all of your friends are working very hard to. I managed to keep up a part time job at uni as well as sports and it was really tough at times when things clashed or all 3 became hectic at the same time for short periods.I also did volunteering, but it can be hard to find organisations/charities that accept your need to be flexible. This too can be worthwhile, I volunteered at samaritans and got loads of listening/communications skills training for free, so "other stuff" can help you become a better doctor too.
It is worth the hard work though, my sport keeps me physically fit and my body functioning well, helps me sleep, my job helped alleviate my money worries and gave me additional skills which helped me compete for foundation jobs. The social aspect of mixing with non medics is also a big plus!
It is worth the hard work though, my sport keeps me physically fit and my body functioning well, helps me sleep, my job helped alleviate my money worries and gave me additional skills which helped me compete for foundation jobs. The social aspect of mixing with non medics is also a big plus!
Nothing particularly exciting or unique. Working my way through the back catalogue and bootlegs of my favourite musicians, or the works of my favourite film directors.
Walks are also really great for stress relief/distraction. Going out is fun too, but seems to be occurring less and less frequently as I make my way through medical school, which is a shame tbh.
I should make more of an effort to read tbh, I've become practically illiterate as of late.
But like you, I don't really have anything particularly unique - which is why I hate it when you're in those group scenarios and the facilitator asks everyone to "say something interesting about yourself" by way of introduction, and I'm just like "erm...I really like my music"
Walks are also really great for stress relief/distraction. Going out is fun too, but seems to be occurring less and less frequently as I make my way through medical school, which is a shame tbh.
I should make more of an effort to read tbh, I've become practically illiterate as of late.
But like you, I don't really have anything particularly unique - which is why I hate it when you're in those group scenarios and the facilitator asks everyone to "say something interesting about yourself" by way of introduction, and I'm just like "erm...I really like my music"
I did a Russian evening class for a couple of years, a beginner one. This was during preclinical / intercalation - it got too hard to juggle once I was commuting for clinical. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoy languages, and I loved it. Other than that, nothing particularly exotic - walking, reading, watching rubbish on Youtube...
I always said that I was going to join the local canoe club, I'd tried it once pre-uni and thought it would be fun. 1st year I said I'd do it, never got round to it. 2nd year, 3rd yr......... etc. FY1, I thought, "I need some new hobbies, I never got round to the canoeing thing, I'll do it". Now I'm ST1 and still saying "one day I'll do it". Maybe this year when the weather gets a bit warmer...
I always said that I was going to join the local canoe club, I'd tried it once pre-uni and thought it would be fun. 1st year I said I'd do it, never got round to it. 2nd year, 3rd yr......... etc. FY1, I thought, "I need some new hobbies, I never got round to the canoeing thing, I'll do it". Now I'm ST1 and still saying "one day I'll do it". Maybe this year when the weather gets a bit warmer...
Hmm let's see. Today I got home from hospital, had an hour nap that was desperately needed, wrote up portfolio cases for this week... Played about an hour of Skyrim then remembered that a particularly enthusiastic consultant wants to quiz me on half of our acute medical syllabus tomorrow morning while I'm at the same time on an A&E shift, so I'm now sat flicking between the cheese and onion, Kumar and Clark's and the patient.co.uk's professional reference section to make sure I'm on the ball in dealing with:
This is all fairly run-of-the-mill, common acute medicine/surgery but this guy grabbed me at 1430 this afternoon and asked me to prepare specifically on them for tomorrow morning, so there has to be something up.
tl;dr: outside of medical school I do medicine, napping and Skyrim
•
Acute abdomina (pretty standard but this guy will pull something funny)
•
Sepsis (again, simple but this guy...)
•
Acutely ischaemic limbs...
•
... Chronically ischaemic limbs
•
Headaches NOS
•
Upper GI Bleeds
This is all fairly run-of-the-mill, common acute medicine/surgery but this guy grabbed me at 1430 this afternoon and asked me to prepare specifically on them for tomorrow morning, so there has to be something up.
tl;dr: outside of medical school I do medicine, napping and Skyrim
'i play golf, see friends, spend time with my son...
Original post by Friar Chris
Hmm let's see. Today I got home from hospital, had an hour nap that was desperately needed, wrote up portfolio cases for this week... Played about an hour of Skyrim then remembered that a particularly enthusiastic consultant wants to quiz me on half of our acute medical syllabus tomorrow morning while I'm at the same time on an A&E shift, so I'm now sat flicking between the cheese and onion, Kumar and Clark's and the patient.co.uk's professional reference section to make sure I'm on the ball in dealing with:
This is all fairly run-of-the-mill, common acute medicine/surgery but this guy grabbed me at 1430 this afternoon and asked me to prepare specifically on them for tomorrow morning, so there has to be something up.
tl;dr: outside of medical school I do medicine, napping and Skyrim
•
Acute abdomina (pretty standard but this guy will pull something funny)
•
Sepsis (again, simple but this guy...)
•
Acutely ischaemic limbs...
•
... Chronically ischaemic limbs
•
Headaches NOS
•
Upper GI Bleeds
This is all fairly run-of-the-mill, common acute medicine/surgery but this guy grabbed me at 1430 this afternoon and asked me to prepare specifically on them for tomorrow morning, so there has to be something up.
tl;dr: outside of medical school I do medicine, napping and Skyrim
This would be me if I could still run Skyrim without fearing that my motherboard will melt for the second time. Until I procure a new computer (at which point your life will essentially be my life), TSR, Mumsnet and chain-watching Dance Moms episodes has replaced the computer game part.
People say that it's easy to forget about your hobbies and just work all the time at medical school. But I must be one of the few people who dedicated more time to my hobbies than my revision, which resulted in me failing a year of medical school (now resitting). I performed in 2 dance routines, a play and a fashion show all on the same night and spent weeks rehearsing all of those, but I left my revision too late to get through everything for the exams. It was heartbreaking and a very traumatic time for me, but in the grand scheme of things I'm actually glad I'm resitting this year. Last year I had an offer to intercalate externally, which would have meant leaving Leeds for 1 year (which I'm now hoping to do this September). But during this resit year, my all-time dream of appearing in a Bollywood film came true as I had the chance to star as a background dancer and extra in the first Bollywood film ever made in Leeds. If I wasn't resitting this year, I would have missed the opportunity of a lifetime - resitting was meant to happen to me, and all because I kept up my hobbies last year (in fact, I really overdid it). Hobbies are so important to anyone at medical school because this course is so consuming of all your time and effort. Having something else to focus on and dream about is exactly what keeps me sane and motivates me to get through all the exam revision, essays, late nights and long days on placement. If you're like me and you have bigger dreams than being a doctor, your hobbies are what will make your time at medical school the best years of your life. 
Nowadays I've really toned it down on my hobbies because the work has to come first in all respects. The reason I'm here in the first place is to become a doctor and I'm terrified of failing again so I've really kicked it up a gear with the work, practising OSCE skills and written exam revision until 11pm or 12am every night. This year (apart from working on a Bollywood film) I've been in 1 fashion show and had a small role in a play (all in the same show that I overdid last year). This year I'm happy just keeping up with good films once or twice a week as I have no girlfriend and I don't go clubbing much (the events I like only happen 2 or 3 times a year). But my hobbies have helped me discover a new direction to take in the future, once I've graduated medical school and finished FY1/FY2.
Nowadays I've really toned it down on my hobbies because the work has to come first in all respects. The reason I'm here in the first place is to become a doctor and I'm terrified of failing again so I've really kicked it up a gear with the work, practising OSCE skills and written exam revision until 11pm or 12am every night. This year (apart from working on a Bollywood film) I've been in 1 fashion show and had a small role in a play (all in the same show that I overdid last year). This year I'm happy just keeping up with good films once or twice a week as I have no girlfriend and I don't go clubbing much (the events I like only happen 2 or 3 times a year). But my hobbies have helped me discover a new direction to take in the future, once I've graduated medical school and finished FY1/FY2.
(edited 9 years ago)
I play a lot of sports, see friends a lot, go to the gym, go out to eat, play my guitar. It's all about balance. When it come to the 5 weeks before exams I tend to quit everything and focus on revision but that really impacts my health so I would recommend decreasing activities during revision but never completely stopping them apart from the 2 weeks before exams.
Original post by asif007
People say that it's easy to forget about your hobbies and just work all the time at medical school. But I must be one of the few people who dedicated more time to my hobbies than my revision, which resulted in me failing a year of medical school (now resitting). I performed in 2 dance routines, a play and a fashion show all on the same night and spent weeks rehearsing all of those, but I left my revision too late to get through everything for the exams. It was heartbreaking and a very traumatic time for me, but in the grand scheme of things I'm actually glad I'm resitting this year. Last year I had an offer to intercalate externally, which would have meant leaving Leeds for 1 year (which I'm now hoping to do this September). But during this resit year, my all-time dream of appearing in a Bollywood film came true as I had the chance to star as a background dancer and extra in the first Bollywood film ever made in Leeds. If I wasn't resitting this year, I would have missed the opportunity of a lifetime - resitting was meant to happen to me, and all because I kept up my hobbies last year (in fact, I really overdid it). Hobbies are so important to anyone at medical school because this course is so consuming of all your time and effort. Having something else to focus on and dream about is exactly what keeps me sane and motivates me to get through all the exam revision, essays, late nights and long days on placement. If you're like me and you have bigger dreams than being a doctor, your hobbies are what will make your time at medical school the best years of your life.
Nowadays I've really toned it down on my hobbies because the work has to come first in all respects. The reason I'm here in the first place is to become a doctor and I'm terrified of failing again so I've really kicked it up a gear with the work, practising OSCE skills and written exam revision until 11pm or 12am every night. This year (apart from working on a Bollywood film) I've been in 1 fashion show and had a small role in a play (all in the same show that I overdid last year). This year I'm happy just keeping up with good films once or twice a week as I have no girlfriend and I don't go clubbing much (the events I like only happen 2 or 3 times a year). But my hobbies have helped me discover a new direction to take in the future, once I've graduated medical school and finished FY1/FY2.
Nowadays I've really toned it down on my hobbies because the work has to come first in all respects. The reason I'm here in the first place is to become a doctor and I'm terrified of failing again so I've really kicked it up a gear with the work, practising OSCE skills and written exam revision until 11pm or 12am every night. This year (apart from working on a Bollywood film) I've been in 1 fashion show and had a small role in a play (all in the same show that I overdid last year). This year I'm happy just keeping up with good films once or twice a week as I have no girlfriend and I don't go clubbing much (the events I like only happen 2 or 3 times a year). But my hobbies have helped me discover a new direction to take in the future, once I've graduated medical school and finished FY1/FY2.
Which Bollywood film was that?
Original post by Sulfurious
Which Bollywood film was that?
It's called Shaandaar and it releases in September this year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaandaar
My sporting hobbies dried up pretty abruptly at university. Not precisely sure why, but the general atmosphere wasn't for me. Now I'm pretty in to cooking, obsessive reading of certain authors and normal (right?) things like generally wasting far too much life on the internet.
Question: "What do you do outside medical school?"
*posts response, the central feature of which is a list of clinical scenarios to learn*
Original post by Friar Chris
Hmm let's see. Today I got home from hospital, had an hour nap that was desperately needed, wrote up portfolio cases for this week... Played about an hour of Skyrim then remembered that a particularly enthusiastic consultant wants to quiz me on half of our acute medical syllabus tomorrow morning while I'm at the same time on an A&E shift, so I'm now sat flicking between the cheese and onion, Kumar and Clark's and the patient.co.uk's professional reference section to make sure I'm on the ball in dealing with:
This is all fairly run-of-the-mill, common acute medicine/surgery but this guy grabbed me at 1430 this afternoon and asked me to prepare specifically on them for tomorrow morning, so there has to be something up.
tl;dr: outside of medical school I do medicine, napping and Skyrim
•
Acute abdomina (pretty standard but this guy will pull something funny)
•
Sepsis (again, simple but this guy...)
•
Acutely ischaemic limbs...
•
... Chronically ischaemic limbs
•
Headaches NOS
•
Upper GI Bleeds
This is all fairly run-of-the-mill, common acute medicine/surgery but this guy grabbed me at 1430 this afternoon and asked me to prepare specifically on them for tomorrow morning, so there has to be something up.
tl;dr: outside of medical school I do medicine, napping and Skyrim
Question: "What do you do outside medical school?"
*posts response, the central feature of which is a list of clinical scenarios to learn*
Original post by Sulfurious
I play a lot of sports, see friends a lot, go to the gym, go out to eat, play my guitar. It's all about balance. When it come to the 5 weeks before exams I tend to quit everything and focus on revision but that really impacts my health so I would recommend decreasing activities during revision but never completely stopping them apart from the 2 weeks before exams.
Though as both exercise and regular breaks aid memory in pretty much every study i've seen, I wouldn't even recommend that in most instances.
Original post by nexttime
If all you do is work you're taking it too seriously.
Get a hobby man.
Get a hobby man.
This.
I read, watch films, go for walks in the country, go to the gym, bake things, spend time with friends.. lots of fairly prosaic leisure stuff like that.
I also do quite a bit of graphic design work (paid stuff for my medical school; unpaid stuff for charitable/activist causes), and I tutor secondary school pupils in English and the sciences.
I think I'd become miserable pretty quickly if I didn't have other stuff going on outside of Medicine.
Original post by Kinkerz
My sporting hobbies dried up pretty abruptly at university. Not precisely sure why, but the general atmosphere wasn't for me. Now I'm pretty in to cooking, obsessive reading of certain authors and normal (right?) things like generally wasting far too much life on the internet.
Question: "What do you do outside medical school?"
*posts response, the central feature of which is a list of clinical scenarios to learn*
Question: "What do you do outside medical school?"
*posts response, the central feature of which is a list of clinical scenarios to learn*
Yes, that's the point, genius...
Original post by lekky
Also netflix counts as a hobby, right??
Also netflix counts as a hobby, right??
I hope so.
(president of any society is good, leadership and what not.)
Posted from TSR Mobile
Quick Reply
Related discussions
- Medical Science to Medicine
- medicine and theatre
- First year abroad medicine and then transfer back to uk for rest?
- Medicine or Law ?
- 1st Year Medical School Advice
- Is taking an alevel not irrelevant to my degree and career choice a bad idea?
- If I leave medical school, what are my future options? Anyone here a drop-out?
- Elective work/observing in a hospital as a medical student
- Liverpool widening participation for medicine and dentistry
- Instrument Grade Requirements for University
- Are these grades good enough for medicine
- What do to now - Is an E in A-Level Chemistry worth anything?
- Are these good gcse options (for medicine in future)
- GMC approved medical schools outside of the UK
- International student applying to medical school
- What should I do if I get a migraine in an exam
- is it easy to become a doctor
- eczema school accommodations
- volunteer work for medicine
- subjects
Latest
Trending
Last reply 2 hours ago
Public Health ST1 Programme 2024 Entry ThreadLast reply 6 days ago
Has anyone left medical school? What are you doing now?Last reply 2 weeks ago
Doing an observership in the US during F1?Last reply 3 weeks ago
University: Failed OSCE/Module. Thoughts on appeal?Last reply 2 months ago
FY1 & FY2 for international medics graduating in 2024Last reply 2 months ago
Question about training to be a Public Health Consultant.Trending
Last reply 2 hours ago
Public Health ST1 Programme 2024 Entry ThreadLast reply 6 days ago
Has anyone left medical school? What are you doing now?Last reply 2 weeks ago
Doing an observership in the US during F1?Last reply 3 weeks ago
University: Failed OSCE/Module. Thoughts on appeal?Last reply 2 months ago
FY1 & FY2 for international medics graduating in 2024Last reply 2 months ago
Question about training to be a Public Health Consultant.
