Medicine 2022 - The final furlong

[Monkey2001]

Support thread for aspiring medics.

We want all our DCs to succeed, whatever their school type. We share knowledge to help them to achieve their goals, celebrate success and support if things don't go well.

Offers are in for some, others on waiting lists, others doing their A levels and planning a gap year.

Best of luck everyone for great results on 18th August, we will be here to celebrate, commiserate, advise and generally support you for the last stage of the 2022 journey. 🍀

Previous thread - www.mumsnet.com/talk/higher_education/4464984-Medicine-2022-Decision-time

2023 applicant thread - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/4459778-Medicine-2023-Entry

Depends on medical school. St Andrews they just needed a Howie lab coat, no scrubs. DS1's GF (nurse) is provided with scrubs in right colour, as is DS2 in his hospital job.

Not the norm to get your own scrubs in our experiences unless the uni specifies. The hospitals usually supply in all sizes. Also don't get excited and start buying stethoscopes because the uni will say what sort is recommended and there's probably a discount if you get it through med soc when it's the right time.
Spend your money on student laptops and mattress toppers - plenty of time for the doctor stuff later 🙂

@notnowbernadette my DS is going to Newcastle- all prospective first years there have been sent a link to order specific scrubs, a lab coat and a name badge so I'm assuming it varies by uni? I'm sure you'd be told if it was needed. Uni seems quite organised as they have also been sent some dress code details (DS needs to go shopping as lives in jeans and hoody!) plus a set of revision materials/notes to get the non chemistry/biology students up to speed.

It's laptop buying day. DD has birthday money, donations from Grannys and a chunk of her earnings from the summer. I have comfortable shoes, a notebook and a determination not to lose my sense of humour.

Will feed back...

Oh, and DD also has a tranche of advice from 2nd year Med students. Not all of whom say the same things.

@KingscoteStaff - Buying a laptop in a shop is a horrible experience. They will put loads of pressure on you to buy insurance from them, as well as souped-up antivirus packages that you absolutely don't need. You need a very strong will and immunity to guilt to avoid getting out of the shop without wasting a lot of money. Much better to buy them online.

We are looking at a Surface Pro or some sort of 'Write on' tech, so she really wants to try it out. And I'm happy to play bad cop and say we're not buying today if nec.

All done and working. Now of the opinion that multi-step authentication is part of the medicine selection process - it seems more demanding than the UCAT questions.

My two both have Surface Pros, great laptops

DS2 got a reconditioned one as they are very expensive, but it felt new.

Please can anyone offer some advice?

DD has a place at medical school. It is now 3 weeks away from moving in date
and she is still waiting for clearance from occupational health.
She declared some health conditions she already had, and had a consultation with occ health several weeks ago.

The outcome of that was the need for a GP report. She has since been more provisionally diagnosed with a further condition but needs further tests, and we are also awaiting a report for this. The expectation is that both reports will go to occupational health for them to make their decision to give her clearance.

DD has chased everyone up this last week, and for various reasons out of our control, everything seems to have stalled, no reports have been done or sent to the uni as of yet, and will take at least another couple of weeks. My DD is understandably stressed as with only 3 weeks to go she still doesn’t know if she is even going.

The potential outcomes are: getting the clearance but at very short notice, a deferral by the uni themselves, for review of the situation next year , or an outright rejection.

However, DD is now considering requesting a deferral herself, in order to have the further medical tests and to put a firm management plan in for her conditions. Also, she wanted to be going to uni excited and not rushed or stressed, which she would be now, as we have not bought or prepared anything in case she did not get the clearance. And no plan in place for her conditions.

What would people advise? Should she just request a deferral herself?
she really needs the certainty at this point for her own peace of mind, and for work reasons, as her employers are willing to keep her job open but need to know asap. Does anyone think the uni are likely to defer at this point?

has anyone else been is this situation?
anyone able to offer advice or knowledge. Thanks.

@Nightowlpossibly - Sorry, I did type quite a long answer to that but realised what will be done will vary quite a bit among universities, so it's better not to give details that might turn out to be incorrect in your daughter's medical school's case.

Could you try to find out who the medical school's disability liaison/support officer is? If you can find out who it is for the university, they should be able to tell you who it is for the medical school. Otherwise, contact the admissions team and ask them. Although the medical school will need all the occupational health reports, they should be able to give a slightly clearer idea of likely outcomes/timescales and advise on the best approach if there's a risk of running out of time before the start of term. As so many medical schools have recruited from reserve lists and/or through Clearing this year, they are all quite likely to have students with disabling conditions that have been identified late.

Medical schools are required to support students and applicants with health conditions that might affect their ability to engage with the course, as long as they will be able to meet the GMC's outcomes for graduates: www.medschools.ac.uk/studying-medicine/outreach-and-support/applicants-with-disabilities.

@NoNotHimTheOtherOne

thanks for advice.
DD has already spoken to the disability support person. They have said
nothing they can do until occupational health have given her clearance, then they will be happy to put any required adjustments in place. She is also trying to speak to admissions but no luck so far today. And is still chasing up the medical reports and trying to contact occ health. It’s really stressful with only 2.5
weeks until moving day DD is thinking of just giving it and requesting a deferral.

Need help getting some anatomy Mugs without spending soo much, any websites will be appreciated.

anatomystuff.co.uk is pretty good for this type of thing.

The anatomy colouring book arrived yesterday! I had to physically prevent DD's Granny from making a start!

I am really late to the party on this but it only occurred to me this week how hard done by medics are when it comes to maintenance loans!

On the basis that many UK students today live on minimum maintenance loans of c£4500 pa (and parents pay accommodation costs), and most have 10 week terms, then that equates to c£150 a week.

Meanwhile many medics have 14 week terms, and just 2 weeks of holiday at Christmas and Easter (so less opportunity to work compared with other students), so a maintenance loan would result in just £107 a week to live on. Perhaps they're just not expected to drink and party as much! Discuss!....

Thank you @opoponax

@MidLifeCrisis007 as they get older they'll get 6 weeks holiday a year (so 46 weeks at Uni). On the same loan. It is ridiculous. Also not sure why after 21 their loan is based on parents income. Why are they not all assessed the same, as adults. It's a weird thing.

I find it quite sad. It's good that the med schools are trying their best with widening participation but the finance has to stack up or there is still a huge barrier if parents can't help.

Isn’t the maintenance loan in Year 4 and 5 even lower? Although I think they can apply for an NHS bursery?

In year 5 the maintenance loan is lower and the NHS bursary doesnt close the gap so it's even worse. I think the funding level really should reflect that it's hard for them to work, particularly in later years

Year 5 the minimum loan is £1,900 and the NHS bursary is £1,000. The rest has to come from savings or, if lucky, mum and dad.

How many students (and their parents) are aware of this drop in funding? I only found out about it halfway through the application process….having assumed that medical students get the same loan as other students for the full length of the course. We will be funding two going through uni at the same time anyway by year 4/5. I do think medical schools should be more upfront about the costs.

@notmedicmum my DD told me on results day 😂. We have been funding 2 kids for 3 years as both doing 5 year degrees. We'd budgeted for one ! We knew year 5 was going to be tough, so us and DD have been saving like mad, but it's not easy. Only good thing is she's working so hard she never goes out much so not spending lots of booze.
Anyway, who needs clothes or a holiday 🫣.