“The thing I enjoy most about being part of the team is the diversity of ideas and backgrounds, and everyone’s enthusiasm.”
MBBS (Medicine) Course Director, Professor Hannah Cock, joined St George’s in 2003 when the Graduate Entry Medicine Programme was in its third year. She shared her reflections on how the programme has developed since she first joined the team, what she most enjoys about being part of its community and some of the benefits of studying Graduate Entry Medicine.
How has the Graduate Entry Medicine programme changed since you first started as a member of the team?
Graduate Entry Medicine was originally completely separate from MBBS5 (the five-year Medicine programme). Placement years in particular were a bit less structured, with students ‘fitting in’ around MBBS5. Since 2009, this changed and now only the first year of the programme is separate, with groups completely merging from T year onwards (T, P and F).
This has brought benefits for both cohorts as students are encouraged to mix with peers with different skills, experience and perspectives. Everyone needs to end up in same place - graduating together and taking the same assessments) - so it makes sense for everyone to share the journey sooner.
What are some of your earliest memories of the course?
During an early Expert Forum in the Life control Module I used to lead at the end of the week, I remember being asked questions about how a certain part of the nervous system worked. I hadn’t thought about it before and can’t remember all of the details, but do distinctly remember thinking ‘wow, that was “left field” – that hadn’t occurred to me.’ I remember going away to look it up so that I could answer the question. This happened (and I’m sure still does) all the time and was really stimulating and refreshing. It reflects the fact that audiences are not fresh from A-levels, or science degrees, and have really different perspectives and ideas.
What is the best thing about being part of the Graduate Entry Medicine programme team?
The thing I enjoy most about being part of the team is the diversity of ideas and backgrounds, and everyone’s enthusiasm.
Why would you recommend studying Graduate Entry Medicine?
Clearly coming straight from A-levels works for many (it did for me). Having said this, I often reflect on how loving my job now has more to do with luck than judgement. I really didn’t have a clue at the age of 18 or 19 what being a doctor was really about, nor did I know myself well enough to know whether I was really going to be suited to it.
Graduate applicants have often made what seems to me to be a much more informed decision. You know yourself a bit better when you’re a few years older. We know that our prefrontal cortex – home to things like impulse control, planning and judgement – keeps developing until around the age of 25. I’m lucky that my impulse and judgement at 18 turned out to be consistent with reality but it isn’t always that way!
Graduates are also sometimes more personally invested (this is often by necessity - financially, and in terms of giving up their day job, or committing to spending even longer studying). If you know you want to be a doctor earlier in life, that’s great... But you might not have known what you wanted to do at the age of 18 or 19, or you didn’t get the grades. Perhaps you have since matured and clearly have the skills, aptitude and motivation, or you just realised later on in your personal journey that Medicine did have all the things you are looking for in a career. For these people, doing Graduate Entry Medicine is a great way to achieve that.