TSR Med Students' Society Part VI

Anyone been on placement in Kingston hospital or worked there? Im Just doing the job rankings and its got some awesome jobs I like the look of...

Also after opinions on St Richards in Chichester and Tunbridge wells and Croydon if anyone has any!

St Richards isn't great hospital as far as reputation goes. It's a rabbit warren. Small DGH. But it might be great to work there I don't know.

Chichester is nice though!

Last day of my elective in North India, I asked the Head of the Psychiatry Department to sign me off using the form the medical school gave me, and he asked me to pay a donation of 7500 Indian Rupees (roughly £100) as a donation in return. He has refused to sign the form until I pay the money..

St Richards isn't great hospital as far as reputation goes. It's a rabbit warren. Small DGH. But it might be great to work there I don't know.

Chichester is nice though!

Had a wicked time there as a student, and the F1s there were a very happy bunch.

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Just got a letter from student finance saying they have overpaid me a grant by about £1400 and they're going to take it back by withdrawing all the other grant's I have... anyone else ever had this?

Bit annoyed they've managed to get it so wrong, espeically considering i've organised my finances in a way with a presumed figure coming in every term and now that's about to change suddenly. Any advice?

I'm afraid I'm going to ask the age-old question of whether it's better to apply to work at a tertiary hospital during F1 or F2. From people I've spoken to and having read posts here, the general consensus seems to be: F1 DGH and F2 at a tertiary. I'd be keen to hear from anyone who has experienced F1 at a tertiary and F2 at a DGH, either by choice or not, and your thoughts on this. What did you find to be the benefits and drawbacks of doing it in this order and do you wish you had had it any differently? Ultimately, I understand it doesn't really matter but I'd rather ask and make an informed decision. Thanks!

That's insane.

Can imagine the same happening if I went to Pakistan, maybe worse

My boyfriend had this in his final year. As far as I know, he was powerless to do anything about it, but SFE did allow him to add the repayments to his existing loan (from what I remember). If it tips you over into struggling, maybe look into university hardship funds?

I'm currently trying to figure out how the hell I'm going to survive next year on the reduced maintenance loan and £1000 NHS bursary thing. I normally only get the minimum loan, which is difficult enough, but next year I'll be over £1200 worse off. I'm already in the depths of my overdraft and ineligible for further help due to parental income.

Aforementioned boyfriend already pays all the rent and most of the bills, but his income will drop next year too (moving from a tax-free PGCE bursary plus student loan to very-much-taxed wage). Kind of regretting choosing London..

Had a wicked time there as a student, and the F1s there were a very happy bunch.

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Part of me thinks, sod it, i'll just have to drown in debt for a year and then pay it off when i'm earning...

It really is bizarre to see the amount of subordination in hospitals in India, and the amount of respect not only that doctors receive from the general public (I have spoken to several patients who say their doctor is a God), but that they expect from others. I mean, if you don't bow down in front of them they get really pissed off.

I don't understand the NHS bursary thing - do we have to take it? I can't believe i'm going to be even worse off financially in final year... how an earth do people do it? Part of me thinks, sod it, i'll just have to drown in debt for a year and then pay it off when i'm earning...

ALSO - any recommendations on statistics books or something that basically tells me how to do a systematic review well. I have done one before it was OK but now in my third year with no EBM teaching I am suddenly very disappointed in myself that I let all the EBM teaching last year very much wash over me...

I think it's compulsory as in, SFE won't fund past year 4. Lucky me gets two years of it, will definitely have to look into extending my overdraft.
Yeah, I have no idea. I'll be getting ~£4000, and that's with 'London weighting'. If I wasn't with my boyfriend I wouldn't be able to afford it, even with the biggest overdraft in the world. I've told him we should have a marriage of convenience but he didn't seem to like that suggestion, aha.

Rang my dad yesterday to beg for money explain the situation. He asked when I would start earning and I could hear his voice drop when I said not until 2019..

I worked a shift most weekends and holidays as a HCA on the local nursing bank to survive the last couple of years at med school. It pays pretty well for evenings/weekends/nights and can also give you more experience of how wards work which came in handy for final year and transition to F1.
My advice would be avoid commercial loans wherever possible!

Systematic reviews are blooming awful, and blooming awfully taught.

I used "Systematic Approaches to a Successful Lit Review" by Booth, Sutton and Papaioannou, which did the job. The best way to learn is to actually see someone elses and learn from that. Talk to your librarian as well about NEST searches, which are a real haemorrhoid on the ass of lit reviews.

Unofficial Guide also now sells a book for about £15 on that kind of stuff, its more colourful and simpler so it isn't bad.

Oh, my, god. I am so ashamed I hadn't even given it a thought past fourth year. What's the deal with intercalation? Would I still be funded from SFE from that?

I was under the impression that trying to continue to work during my fourth year would just be downright ridiculous...? What with the amount I'm expected to be in hospital etc. At the moment I have a part time job at Waitrose, where i work 12.5 hours a week (4 hours on a weds afternoon and all day sunday) - would you suggest I hold onto that?

You aren't likely to have to go in on Sundays often if at all, so if you felt up to it that would be fine; the weds would depend on your placement.

We weren't allowed jobs, so apart from a few quid doing research MRIs/experiments, student transplant rota (I know visesh did really well out of this) I survived off a small hand out from my parents, and a little inheritance from my grandpa who died in final year.

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