The Student Room Group

What questions to ask infectious diseases medical team on shadowing placement

I have been lucky enough to secure another shadowing placement, this time with the medical team for the infectious diseases department at my local hospital. I will be working closely with a consultant, and their team of registrars and juniors, and so wondered what you would ask them if you had the chance?

I am of course going to give them the usual grilling of "why did you study medicine", "what is good and bad" etc etc when I get a chance, but wondered if you could think of anything interesting that I could ask concerning current opinions, possibly to do with HIV/AIDS, or the recent pandemics... something infectious! :smile:

Thanks
Could if "theoretically" engineer a disease that would turn everyone into a zombie?


Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by BD7391
I have been lucky enough to secure another shadowing placement, this time with the medical team for the infectious diseases department at my local hospital. I will be working closely with a consultant, and their team of registrars and juniors, and so wondered what you would ask them if you had the chance?

I am of course going to give them the usual grilling of "why did you study medicine", "what is good and bad" etc etc when I get a chance, but wondered if you could think of anything interesting that I could ask concerning current opinions, possibly to do with HIV/AIDS, or the recent pandemics... something infectious! :smile:

Thanks


Wow, lucky you, that's such an interesting placement to land!

Most ID docs will have all sorts of weird and wonderful tales about practising abroad in Africa, South America etc. They might well have seen many different tropical diseases and infections which you just wouldn't see in the UK, so it's always worth asking if they've done any work abroad and what they found particularly interesting etc.

And then you could ask them about what it's like being an ID physician in the UK...what they view as particularly worrying for the future (drug resistant TB in major cities would be my guess, amongst other things).

Basically, just go with your curiosity :smile:
Ask about vaccines and their use against virus based diseases, It's a good place to start as it shows knowledge in the area and the fact that you know that viruses are rapidly mutating. That's me going on a limb.
Reply 4
Could ask about engineered viruses that target HIV,

maybe ask about some physiology and immunology of the illnesses if they interest you?
Cellulitis is such an interesting disease, don't you agree?
The best question i've ever asked any doctor was when i half-jokingly asked an ID doctor who was telling me about his extensive travels if he had ever personally had any of the diseases he was talking about, and he said "Oh yes of course!" and proceeded to reel off about 10 bizarre tropical diseases that he'd experienced and how they all ranked in terms of unpleasantness.

I believe he said Leishmaniasis and a particularly painful bout of Dengue were tied as worst for him.
Reply 7
What would they do if they were clerking in a patient and mid-way they thought that the patient had ebola? The answer I got was "run, run as fast as you can".

Original post by nexttime
Cellulitis is such an interesting disease, don't you agree?


lol

Quick Reply

Latest