On Monday, students completed their Routes into Medicine programme with a visit to Sunderland University. Whilst there, the group took part in a series of sessions exploring what it would mean to be a medicine student at Sunderland University whilst following “Joanne”, a fake patient with some abdominal pain. This mimicked the problem-based learning that the medicine course favours. In the clinical skills session, students were shown how to take basic observations of patients – with our medical students demonstrating on real patient volunteers how abdominal pain may be investigated.
Our students then practiced on each other, using stethoscopes, blood pressure monitors and pulse oximeters. The anatomy session highlighted where major organs sit, so students could decide which organs were likely to be involved in ‘Joanne’s’ case. In the end, she had gallstones! Alongside the practical sessions, our students learned about the financial support and wellbeing support offered for medical students, allowing them to have a clear vision of what university life could be like for them. We had a great day – a HUGE thanks to the whole team at Sunderland University!
