GCSE options for medicine

53 replies

JessicaBrassica · 27/01/2023 07:30

Dd currently plans to be a surgeon. (Obvs this may change).
Her school offer health and social care as a gcse equivalent. She's keen to do this but I have concerns that it may not be academic enough and may not be well recieved by universities.

She's also doing 2x English, maths, 3x sciences, Spanish, drama and dance.

With both drama and dance I feel that her other option should be more academic - maybe history.

Anyone got any advice?

OP posts:

mumsneedwine · 29/01/2023 10:21

They don't care. Do t even look.

SB1971 · 02/02/2023 18:24

My DD took Health and Social Care at this level. I wasn’t keen at all and even one of the teachers suggested when she was choosing that this course wasn’t aimed at her and she doesn’t sound as academic as your DD.
What did work was that it was largely coursework and was not that difficult and she ended up with a distinction that I think was the same a 7. It felt a bit more chilled than the other subjects.

sashh · 03/02/2023 05:07

MarchingFrogs · 29/01/2023 09:00

@NellyBarney your post reminded me of this from 2018:

www.bbc.com/news/education-46019429

Surgery students 'losing dexterity to stitch patients

...Prof Kneebone says he has seen a decline in the manual dexterity of students over the past decade - which he says is a problem for surgeons, who need craftsmanship as well as academic knowledge.

"A lot of things are reduced to swiping on a two-dimensional flat screen," he says, which he argues takes away the experience of handling materials and developing physical skills.

Such skills might once have been gained at school or at home, whether in cutting textiles, measuring ingredients, repairing something that's broken, learning woodwork or holding an instrument.

Students have become "less competent and less confident" in using their hands, he says.

"We have students who have very high exam grades but lack tactile general knowledge," says the professor...

Having been on the receiving end of the poorly executed closure of a wound with staples myself (admittedly never used staples myself, but did plenty of suturing back in the day as a Sister in A&E and the principles of wound edge approximation are the same) that did rather resonate with me🙁

Not sure whether it is specifically the OCR Level 1 / 2 qualification which is under discussion here , but
have just had a look at the resource guide for teachers for that one and there is a lot in it which is important for anyone dealing with patients / social care clients to have an understanding of (barriers to communication, rights and responsibilities etc) - even doctors.

That's interesting, I think I'm a frustrated are teacher in some ways but I've done quite a few crafts as part of teaching H & SC one group made puppets and then used them to make a film about going into hospital for a small child.

If I ever go back to teaching (would need a miracle to change my health) I might incorporate some sewing, or practice suturing. This would be great to have a nurse come in and teach the skill - obviously on an aubergine not each other.

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