Medschool course questions...

From a quick glance it seems that the two main talking points are patient contact and dissections.

At Oxford, we do have patient contact. However, in keeping with the general theme of the course, it's kept very much to a minimum (~2 GP sessions a term in your first year). I have no problem with this - if I was thrown onto the wards now I wouldn't have a clue fundamentally about half the stuff I was dealing with, so it wouldn't be a whole lot of use to me. However, with the occasional sessions I did pick up on one or two things we'd already studied, which gave it a nice summary to those aspects.

We do prosections at Oxford (although we have been told that it's very much a possibility to dissect if you are so inclined, you just have to get in touch with a tutor who will fit you in out of hours. I keep meaning to do this but always seem to have something else on my plate). Prosections are great - we get them once a week, and involve standing around various specimens in groups of ~5 with a junior doctor talking us through what we're seeing (and poking) and compounding our knowledge by asking us questions. They fit in well because we'll generally have had lectures on the area (muscles of the limbs, nerves etc.) in the session before to let us learn the theory, and then straight on we go on to applying it.

does it vary from college to college? Incidentally which college are you at? one of my best friends is an oriel medic

No, patient-doctor attachments and prosections are both handled centrally by the medical department, as opposed to collegiately.

As for college I'd rather not say, to protect whatever small amount of anonymity (and social reputation ) I have.

No, patient-doctor attachments ... are handled centrally by the medical department, as opposed to collegiately.

huh? they may be organised centrally i don't know but i was under the impression that the attachment for each college stays the same each year and there is great variation between what we experienced and, say, brasenose/pembroke (3 patients between 5 in a gp compared to 1 between 12 in a hospital (at least on 1 occasion)).

I know that people from an unnamed college had great complaints about their GP attachment too.

Sorry, I meant that in terms of frequency every college should have the same amount (for the GP attachment 2 a term I think).

yeah that's true, but things like the amount of time they may last are not (having been in some epic 4 hour sessions i should know!).

I always get asked about the patient contact at open days and whether it varies at all so it is an important difference, i'd say (not that you were disputing that). Especially given the huge variation that there seem to be.

so would you say your attachment is down to pot-luck depending on which college you're at?