A Proto-Professional

I'm in situ at Warwick Medical School and have been told, along with my coursemates, that we are now proto-professions. So that means I've got to behave and act like a pillar of the community. That is hard seeings as I thought I had another few years of not acting like a pillar of the community.

I am quite concerned about the fact that I have so far completed only 3 days of med school and am already exhausted. I'm hoping it's due to the fact that I haven't stopped since moving in on Sunday. For a few days before I moved down here I wasn't sleeping well. I think this was due to nerves about such a huge impending change.

I arrived at the Halls of Residence at about 3pm on Sunday and started to unpack. There was stuff everywhere and I didn't really know what to do with any of it. It is kind of sorted now except for the wok which is room sharing with me due to a bit of a lack of space issue in the kitchen. I guess with a bit of lateral thinking it will join it's other cooking implement friends in due course.

After I'd strewn my belongings around the flat it was time to head to the welcome BBQ for this year's cohort. Only, as it wasn't BBQ weather, it was more of a case of some microwaved sausages in a sports pavillion. It was nice though, the atmosphere was great and everyone was quickly talking and laughing with each other. Not quickly talking, as talking quickly, but quickly getting on with each other I mean. Kind of thing. Later on we headed onto the pub on the campus to meet our second year 'Mums and Dads' who are going to be our mentors for a while and occasionally cook for us and buy us drinks. The important things like that. All in all it was a fun evening and great to meet new friends.

Monday and Tuesday were packed with the usual admin type lectures. You know, the IT services lecture conducted in obligatory monotone amongst other delights.

Last night there was a pub quiz and although we should have won we didn't. So that was the end of that really.

Our lectures today were more of the sort of thing we are going to expect over the next 18 months and included intros to anatomy, histo (supposedly my forte, having impressed the lecturing pathologist on my answer on why we do frozen sections) and communication skills.

Today was the first proper go we had at working in our study groups and it went pretty well. It was a bit daunting at first but it's nice to be able to mix lectures with active discussion and tasks.

The rest of the week is going to be in pretty much the same form. The pace really is hectic I think I'm really going to have to have my finger on the pulse (boom tish) to keep up,as is everyone. I'm pretty sure there's going to be some great laughs along the way though and the staff and facilities are excellent so I think we are all in for a great time here.

Tomorrow night's tomfoolery is a night out on the tiles called Dr and Nurses Night. This involves cross dressing (mainly lots of guys dressing as nurses) and hitting a nightclub in Coventry. It all sounds a little surreal. It always worries me also when an establishment has some deviant spelling going on in the name as it's never usually the sign of a prestigious establishment. Anyway, I'm sure it'll all be very funny.

Looking forward to popping back up north to spend some time at home. This week has been a bit full on but next week I should be able to get into some routine and get things a bit more sorted.

Over and out

NLO