Northwing 2007

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Spring 2007 Spring 2007

- MTAS Diaries - Doctor of the Moment - Medicine in Hollywood; Movies on Placement - Where is the best Sunday Lunch in Sheffield?

Editorial Welcome to the Spring 2007 edition of Northwing-your medical school magazine! In bringing you this edition, the Northwing Team has crashed computers, had editing sessions until the early hours of the morning and relied upon copious amounts of tea and coffee. But we did it and hope you thoroughly enjoy the results! We have tried to include a wide variety of articles; chronicling achievements of members of the Medical School in academic, sporting and extra-curricular activities, discussing topics that are currently pertinent to the Medical School and including the usual light-hearted pieces and puzzles.

We would like to thank the Northwing team, who have worked so hard to put this edition together.

Well Done!

Katie Brodie & Fawaz Issam Al-Hassani

Committee Editors- Katie Brodie & Fawaz Al-Hassani Features Editor and Treasurer- Lena Jawad Advertising Editor- Samar Mahmood Book Review Editor- Kate Clarke Publicity Coordinator- Elspeth Twiss Website Coordinator-Tom Mace Design, graphics and layout- Puneet Tailor Contributors Simon Matthews Rachel Mercer Rachna Malani Craig Lawton Becky Johnson Terence McLoughlin Alice Baldwin Zora Castling Rebecca Haworth Philippa Grant Catherine Gray Amy Clifford Niamh Carey Tom Bircher Jo Vlies Catherine Ciaputa Beth Morgan

Northwing is the magazine of Sheffield University Medical School, produced with the support of the Sheffield University Medical Society. It is distributed free of charge to Medical students and Doctors (circulation 1200). For information about any advertising rates or to reserve a copy, please contact us at the address below.

The views expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the Northwing team of the Sheffield University Medical Society. Likewise, companies advertising in this magazine are not endorsed by Northwing and we accept no liability.

We would like to thank those who have offered encouragement and help, especially the porters and Susan in the MedSoc Office.

Special thanks to Evolution Print and the Medical Society for their continued support.

Northwing The Medical Society Office, Sheffield Medical School, Beech Hill Road Sheffield www.medsoc.net/northwing S10 2RX

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Contents Pg04 -MedSoc reports Pg07 -MTAS; what you should know Pg10 -MSF Pg11 -Northwing’s Doctor of the Moment Pg15 - Party at the Library; the truth about what libraries today have become Pg17 Pg17 -‘Inspirational’ Doctors Pg18 - Medicine in Hollywood; Movies on Placement Placement Pg20 -The not so elective electives Pg21 - Elective Photo Competition Pg23 - Essay Prizes Pg24 - Project Panorama Pg25 -Getting a Hand in the Door Pg27 Pg27 -Phase 3a Option SSC; Going abroad Pg28 -Medics Revue; The Highlights Pg29 -MedSex MedSex -Marrow Pg30 -Reviews Films and Books Pg33 -Sunday Lunches Pg37 -Things to do at the Weekend Pg39 -Medics’ Sport Team Profile: Hockey Pg41 -Medics’ Sport Report Pg43 -PDAs: Personal Doctor Advisors?

Pg44 –Northwing Crossword

MedSoc MedSoc reports NOTE FROM THE PRESIDENT : When I was first asked to put something together for this edition of Northwing, I was initially a little daunted as to where I was going to begin. 2006-07 has been a busy year for us all and for the MedSoc committee especially.

We have had one of our most successful years in terms of recruiting and also in terms of attendance at MedSoc events, with last year’s pub-crawl attracting 1,381 registered participants, and the Annual Medical Ball seeing over 500 people crammed in Cutlers Hall. The evident enthusiasm for MedSoc, mainly coming from the new phase 1a, was seen again in the recent elections where a staggering 578 students voted for the new committee.

Sports-wise, Sheffield Medics have yet again proved that we have a wide range of talent in our Medical School.

Unfortunately the Hockey team were beaten in the NAMS final, once again, but proved that they can still be relied upon to make an impression within the Medical Schools’ league. Both Men’s rugby and Ladies’ football have had several successes over the last year. 2006 also saw the start of several new sports movements within the med school with squash, self defence, swimming and golf all now attracting regular takers.

The non-sporting societies affiliated to MedSoc have also remained immensely active and again new societies continue to appear proving that Sheffield is able to cater for, and offer, whatever our students feel they need. Sheffield MedSex has also been doing its bit to promote our student doctors in the local community, providing sex education and awareness to high school students around the area.

The academic involvement of MedSoc has been relentless this year, thanks to Tom Bircher who has certainly been giving the School a run for their money, representing our students on several committees. Changes to the delivery of ILAs to the senior years have been introduced and, after initial resistance from the students, seem to be working well.

With the GMC now making regular appearances throughout all phases, I hope that Sheffield Medical School is soon to be recognised for what it is, one of the best Schools in the country.

My time with MedSoc has now sadly come to end, and after 3 years of being on the committee, I have been lucky enough to have been far more involved with the Medical School than I ever thought I would have been. MedSoc, despite the inevitable banter that comes our way, works throughout the year to make your time at University as enjoyable as it should be. We are the envy of many other faculties at Sheffield, with the Dentists and Nurses regularly trying to persuade us that our events should be promoted as joint ventures, and the union trying to pass them off as their own. Whilst our students are prepared to get involved and sit on the committee, this will never happen and Sheffield Medics can be guaranteed that our events will be continue to be the best on offer at Sheffield University.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish Alice and her new committee all the best for the next year and I look forward to supporting future MedSoc events, and am sure that Sheffield Medics will continue to build on our, already great, reputation.

Becky Johnson Medical Society President 2006-2007

President’s speech during Ball… The Pubcrawl; always a success!

New Societies introduced Another great year for sport…

ACADEMIC REPORT : 2006/07 Hello! My name’s Tom Bircher and for the past year I’ve been your academic representative to Faculty. This year I’ve been working hard to represent your views and do my best to help improve the course. By the time you read this I’ll have stood down, and my replacement Ruth Davies is more than capable of keeping Faculty on the straight and narrow!

Med students never have an easy time, and this year has been particularly bad due to changes to our career structure, and the way in which we are graded!

In October the Department of Health imposed a retrospective grading scheme for all final year medical students that would affect your ability to get a job when you graduate. We can, however, be grateful that we aren’t being ranked numerically (1st place student to last place student) which is actually what the DoH wanted.

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The Med School continues to grow, with the largest number of first year students EVER enrolled into the course. Faculty may have a problem in two years time when they have to find space on placement for that year, as it’s already very crowded! They are hoping to address this problem by suggesting that students take a year out to do a BMedSci and relieve pressure on the clinical years.

The school is also currently undergoing its GMC inspection. This is the first time the new ‘hybrid’ curriculum is being checked over by the General Medical Council, and though faculty don’t anticipate any problems, be ready to chat to the inspectors about your feelings towards course (positive and negative). I haven’t met them yet, but I’m told they are friendly people!

The final year students this year had the unrivalled ‘joy’ of applying for their jobs through the MTAS application scheme.

For those of you who don’t know what it is yet, it’s a similar system to UCAS that allows graduates to rank their jobs and get matched to them. The system has its problems but it is new. A proportion of applicants found the application form section less than ideal. It is, however, a nationally standardised form which contains such questions as – “Describe an example from your clinical experience where your behaviour enhanced the experience of the patient as the central focus of care. What did you do and what was the outcome?”

And “Describe an example (not necessarily clinical) of a time when you had to deal with pressure OR overcome a setback/challenge. What did you do and what was the outcome?”

The answers are marked by the deanery you applied to and, together with your academic quartile score, give you a total score that is used to allocate you to a job. Time will tell how MTAS and MMC will evolve. By Tom Bircher

Another year, another ball, another record breaking four-legged fancy dress pubcrawl and all in an attempt to maintain the delicate work: play balance of Sheffield medical school life.

2006 socials kicked off with panache last March with the epic ‘Drink MedSoc Dry’ the first of its kind here in Sheffield. Hosted by the ever Australian Walkabout (£2 to enter then 50p a cocktail) we sampled everything from Geoff Cope’s ‘Salty Dog’ to Julian Burton’s ‘Woo Woo’ not to mention ‘Sex on the Beach’ with Professor Bax and Patsy Stark’s Cosmopolitan. The aim of the game was to drink the bar dry in as quick a time as possible. To be precise 2 hours, 4 minutes and 39 seconds. We achieved the impossible – the bar was dry (..... transiently before the Walkabout reinforcements arrived!).

Next on the agenda was the more serene affair of the Summer social. Largely attended by phase 2’s and 3a’s, who were confined to Sheffield for the majority of the summer, we had quite possibly the best weather Rotherham has ever achieved, with record numbers experiencing the scorching temperatures. Many were tempted to venture into the cool water despite the large volumes of goose excrement. The most notable vessel was a rubber dinghy containing three human passengers which after much amusement, was eventually arrested by the water police and returned safely to the paddlers at the shore. BBQ’s ruled the roost and some very impressive cuisine was available not to mention the freely flowing Pimms and lemonade.

As autumn beckoned, the arrival of Freshers was imminent. Holidays were well and truly over, so what better way to welcome the newbies than with ‘Fresher’s Fever’. Everyone was infected, with attendees ranging from first to final year, whether it was reminiscing or initiation, a great time was had by all.

With medicine in full flow, October came cold and rainy. Despite the damp weather no one could wait for THE month in the medic calendar. Held in the greatest esteem by all Sheffield Medics past and present, the infamous Fancy dress four-legged pubcrawl crept up on everyone. Costume preparations were immense with some of the grandest ideas ever seen at the event. Pirates with mobility scooter ships, Gods with chariots and even a two-tonne chicken complete with six tiny chicks!!! We had it all Mr. Men, sperm, beer bottles, colouring crayons, the rainbow and even Vikings!!! The night came to a suitable climax in Kingdom with record breaking numbers at registration all complete with souvenir wrist bands.

The most civilised event of the year was hosted by Cutlers hall in November. A chance to celebrate the achievements and successes of our peers and enjoy an evening of sophistication and fun. The Annual Ball was the final big event in the MedSoc social calendar before everyone dissipated into the stress of exam mode. Salsa dancing and chocolate fountains were on the menu with a jazz piano and string quartet musical accompaniment playing throughout the night. A memorable evening to be remembered with fondness by everyone who attended.

A year on, we are revelling in the delights of what has been a delectably sociable year. Fun has been had by all at the keystone events, not to mention the numerous socials that have been held continuously throughout the year groups, with spectacular organisation by year reps and social committees. My warmest thanks go to all for making 2006 such a fantastic year of fun. I hope everyone has enjoyed it as much as I have and keep living by the motto work hard, play harder!!!

Alice Baldwin Social Secretary 2006-2007

Fresher’s fever; preceded by Drink MedSoc Dry. Who could ever forget the Pubcrawl…or that chocolate fountain….and that beautiful summer weather!

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Modernising Medical Careers

By Elspeth Twiss

The new foundation programme for medical graduates has been launched this year. Focusing on streamlining training and improving clinical skills, assessment and careers advice, it looks to be a great improvement.

The programme starts with foundation years one and two (F1 and F2) where you will spend two years gaining clinical experience and developing skills. These replace PRHO and the initial SHO year. You then enter into speciality or GP training for several years, after which you receive a Certificate of Completion of Training and are eligible to apply for an appropriate senior appointment.

The programme has the potential to build medical careers more quickly, but is it too fast? Are two years as a foundation doctor enough to make important career choices?

If the system is successful then exposure to lots of specialities will be given over the foundation years, along with careers advice to ensure doctors are ready to make decisions about their future. The previous SHO years allowed some people to take their time before deciding on a career path, but others complained of being stuck in poorly planned training with no clear end-point. The new programme may push doctors into deciding before they are even ready, but for those who are sure of their chosen speciality, it will allow them to progress quickly to where ever they want to be.

It is the government’s aim to have a consultant led workforce with doctors reaching that level younger, but some question if they will be trained to the same level of expertise if done so in a shorter time. This should be accounted for if the aims of a more structured training and workplace assessment are achieved in the speciality posts. But the question lingers, will this produce better doctors than the old system?

The application process is fairly straightforward, although daunting I’m sure when faced with several pages of questions regarding your personal and academic achievements. First you apply to a foundation school, anywhere in the country via the online Medical Training Application Service (MTAS). This places you in the area you will be working in. Then they go on to allocate foundation jobs. Academic results are extremely important as you will receive a ranked position in your year. The hard part is making yourself stand out to the foundation schools, so personal achievements are just as important when applying.

Not all foundation schools or F1 jobs will require an interview, which some feel will disadvantage applicants.

So completing an impressive form is vital in ensuring your personality and professional behaviour comes across well.

This year sees our medical schools’ final year students going through the application process, so it will be interesting to hear their views on the foundation programme as they progress through the early years of their careers. Overall I think the reforms look good, but only time will tell.

For more information on the new foundation programme visit: • www.mmc.nhs.uk • www.bmjlearning.com/foundation

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Northwing has tried to be as accurate as possible when gathering information about the MTAS scheme and MMC. The system is subject to change. This article is only intended as a representation of what Northwing understands by the new system.

An MTAS Retrospective…

Retrospective by Simon Matthews Fifth years are sick of it; fourth years are probably worried about it. It’s the Medical Training Application Service! Made to distribute F1 posts as fairly as possible and provide a streamlined nationwide application service, this website is one that is possibly more important to your future life than facebook!

This is a little retrospective based on the fun times I had with MTAS over the last few months and some (hopefully) useful information.

Sometime at the end of September 2006…

There’s a talk from the local organisers of MTAS, as well as some medical school dignitaries. I’m more confused now than before and much more worried. Frantically look things up on the Internet, but no help.

Can’t even find the foundation school boundaries. Decide to forget about the whole thing.

Mid-October Still forgotten…

25 October 2006 S@%t MTAS has opened. Gingerly look at the website, but not brave enough to log on in case something goes wrong.

27 October 2006 Manage to log onto website. Takes an hour as I don’t realise my email address ends in sheffield.ac.uk, not shef.ac.uk, as far as they are concerned. Should have listened to those lectures more.

The website is very good. It has a friendly, clear layout and a lot of information. I find out where the foundation school boundaries are easily and feel silly about my earlier panic. The actual form bit is easy to use, allowing easy drafting of your final answers and a good system for ranking your foundation school choices. It has an efficient system to answer any queries, but most things are explained on the site somewhere. Feel much more confident about the whole thing.

29 October 2006 Start to try and answer my key statements. There are seven of these on the form covering aspects of the new medical career system and the qualities we are all meant to show, for instance “Professionalism” and “Working Effectively with others”. There is only one statement on academic achievements and this is given just four marks as opposed to six for all the other statements. The maximum mark is 40 and this adds to your mark out of 45 for your academic ranking giving a total score out of 85.

Draw some spider charts of my achievements, examples of teamwork, and the like. Have a small crisis about the sad state of my life, but duly carry on.

5 November 2006 Forget about the whole thing because of finals revision.

23 November 2006 Go home and spend a day reading the Foundation Curriculum and the official MMC information on the Internet.

There’s loads of information on the whole process on the Internet and in leaflets you’re given. I then spend several days actually writing my key statements.

Forget about revision, revision can’t stop me spending two years in East Anglia, and apparently this form can (apologies to those from Norwich!).

27 November 2006 Finished! Thoroughly sick of the sight of the thing - as are my parents who have spent several hours checking it for mistakes. I then spend three days working up the courage to press the send button.

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1 December 2006 Send the form, then immediately re-check it for mistakes.

5 December 2006 The MTAS deadline passes. I get to feel smug for being organised when some people have some Internetrelated problems sending their form the night before. It does seem to pay to be a bit early!

Start the wait… Luckily there are some exams to fill the time.

1 February 2007 Get the results. Along with the huge majority of people, I get my first choice region. Just got to start again now with applying for an actual job there!

And finally…

My advice on MTAS would be don’t panic, but do give yourself plenty of time to fill in the form. Almost everyone got his or her first choice Foundation School this year and I don’t know of anyone who was really disappointed. I think MTAS worked well this year, and it should get better as it becomes more familiar.

What will happen with the second stage - applying for a specific rotation within your Foundation School remains to be seen and this will be different for each School.

Ever considered that there’s more to medicine than exams, SSCs, endless ward-rounds ? Ever thought about using your future skills to help victims of conflict, disaster, famine and epidemics?

Médecins Sans Frontières/MSF (or Doctors without Borders) is an independent international humanitarian aid agency that provides emergency medical assistance wherever it is needed, regardless of race, religion or politics. MSF is currently active in over 70 countries across Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe.

Sheffield Friends of MSF aim to raise funds and awareness to support MSF’s activities and to encourage students to consider working for MSF or likeminded NGOs in the future. Our fundraising activities include street collections, Quoi De Neuf (World Hip-Hop night) and the Sheffield Half Marathon, which have raised over £1000. We also organise speaker events where returned MSF

doctors come to Sheffield especially to talk to students about their experiences in the field.

Whether you’re thinking of working for an organisation like MSF in the future, or simply want to widen your medical horizons, you might want to consider doing your elective in the developing world. To help with this, we’re in the process of organising a series of presentations, where final year students share their elective experiences and hopefully provide those who are interested with some useful contacts.

Visit our website (www.msf.union.shef.ac.uk), and you could even join us in this year’s Sheffield Half Marathon!!

By Zora Castling and Fawaz Issam Al-Hassani

MEDSOC Who are we?

A committee serving the 1300 medical students at Sheffield. Any Medical student may go for a non-exec position at the annual elections. After one year on the committee you can go for an executive position-this is to provide the following year’s committee with enough experience.

We volunteer our time to help organise, finance or promote a range of events and support for Sheffield medical students with various degrees of involvement in: Annual ball Charity events Prospective info Halfway Ball Academic support Freshwing Mag Elective support

Buddy scheme 12 sports teams Guest lectures Ski trip Website Clinical Fayre 9 societies

Year socials Themed socials Year Reps 4 leg Pub Crawl Interview tours Summer BBQ Fresher’s Fayre

SOAMS Medics Revue Revision lectures Graduation Ball Northwing Mag BMA liaison Welfare

Why? Medicine is an intense and lengthy vocational course and so MedSoc tries to provide information, activities and support for medics, should they wish during the 5 or more years at University.

Contact

MedSoc Office next to MLT1 in the Medical School

Website www.medsoc.net

Email medsoc@shef.ac.uk

Request to join the NEW MedSoc Facebook group 10

Northwing’s Doctor Of The Moment: NEUROLOGY JUST GOT INTERESTING

L; So what brought you to Sheffield in the end?

C; I was doing a PhD with Professor Pam Shaw (who’s head of our academic department) in Newcastle and I was half way through my PhD when Pam was offered the chair here and so I opted to continue my studies with Pam and continue my PhD down here.

L; Would you ever want to go back to Leeds?

C; I am fond of Leeds and I live sort of half way between Leeds and Sheffield so I get to enjoy both cities and what they have to offer. But without a doubt, Neurology is fantastic here in Sheffield. We have a brilliant department and I think the way neurology is practised here is the best model compared to other centres in the country.

L; They say there are twelve types of medical students. Which one were you?

C; I’d imagine the sane one. There’s perhaps a bit of me in the others.

L; Like?

C; Well I can be a little bit enthusiastic but hopefully not too painfully.

I am an academic. I’m also a pragmatic clinician. I’m not an Arsenal fan I presumed that’s what a Gunner was? What’s a gunner?

L; The type who wouldn’t let anyone stand in their way.

C; Well no I’m not that kind of person. I’m a team player. The missing? What does that mean?

For those who have not yet had the pleasure of his acquaintance, Dr. Chris McDermott is a Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant Neurologist at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital. A fairly new commodity to the medical school, he took up his first teaching post just last year. With his arrival he has brought a breath of fresh air to the teaching of neurology at Sheffield and has certainly stirred up excitement-particularly amongst the female population of the student body. A dynamic lecturer, an excellent teacher, an enthusiast. I willingly put myself forward to find out more about the much talked -about man himself. Well it was either that first thing on a Wednesday morning or a case conference I had subconsciously planned to attend-it wasn’t exactly the hardest choice in the world was it?

L; Hello Dr. McDermott. Congratulations on receiving the prestigious accolade of ‘Northwing’s Doctor of the Moment’. How do you feel?

C; (Laughs) I didn’t realise I had received an accolade. Doctor of the moment? Flattered.

L; Well the first question seems a bit pointless considering your accent is such a give-away but for those who have not yet been taught by you, where are you from?

C; I’m from Birkenhead which is on the Wirral Peninsula. Just over from Liverpool.

L; When and why did you decide to study medicine?

C; It was never a life-long vocation for me. I was from quite a working-class background. No one from my family had ever gone to university before and I was doing well at school. I enjoyed the sciences. I did quite well in my Olevels so decided to stay on. And when I did the science A-levels, I went to the careers teacher who said ‘well you’re good at science so you could be a pharmacist’ and then we looked at my predicted results and I was going to do better than that. Then they said you could be a dentist and then I thought about that but my Nan said she didn’t like the idea of me poking around people’s mouths all day so we went against that and I ended up being a doctor.

L; It means you never turn up.

C; No, I turn up (laughs). A crier? I don’t really cry. A prankster? I do enjoy a laugh. I’m not perpetually enraged but I can have a bit of a temper. I’m from Liverpool after all. The questionable admission? I’ll let other people be the judge of that. I can be quite sensitive. I don’t have a one-track mind. I’m not twelve years old anymore…I wouldn’t mind being twelve years younger though.

L; What would you say was your proudest moment of medical school?

C; Proudest moment was graduating. Having the family up, my Nan and Grandad there, as well as my Mum and Dad was quite an emotional moment for me and for them.

L; And how about the worst moment, if any?

C; The worst moment? They used to teach us first aid in the first week at medical school and I failed! Maybe because it was my first week away from home and my mind was on other things. I wasn’t concentrating on the bandages and things so that was an embarrassing moment I suppose.

L; Were you part of any teams or clubs?

C; I wasn’t really. I used to be part of medsoc and the revue. We used to have an annual revue. One of our acts one year was called ‘Fake That’ and we sang ‘It only takes a medic girl’. The worst thing I ever went to was Scottish Country Dancing which I only went to once.

L; (Containing my laughter at the latter statement). So a Take That fan are you?

C: A bit (laughs). Any cheesy pop.

L; Will you be coming to our Sheffield Medics Revue?

C; I’ve not given it any thought. I’ve not seen the adverts but I perhaps might pop along. Is it worth it? Are you in it?

L; I could be? Did you have any influential medical role models in your life?

C; Not growing up really as there were no doctors in the family.

(Perhaps) with people I have worked with since. I did admire some of L; Which university did you study at? And why did you choose that medical the physicians I worked with in Leeds when I was training. They inspired me to want to do hospital medicine. Working with Pam Shaw school?

C; Leeds. It was the right distance from home. Not too near, not too far. And inspired me to want to continue research. then I went and had a look at the city. I came to Sheffield first then went to Leeds and I liked the look of Leeds city as a place more than I did Sheffield. L; And what’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?

C; (Long thought). I suppose the ‘get your work-life balance correct’ This was back in 1988 when I was looking around universities and I don’t think it was a particularly good time for Sheffield back then. Whereas Leeds was probably the best advice. was beginning to get its act together I suppose.

L; Which you do?

C; I’d like to think I do?

L; Did you have any childhood ambitions or dreams?

C; I had silly childhood dreams. I wouldn’t have minded being a timetraveller or a pop-star.

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L: That’s cool. What’s your speciality and why did you pick it?

C; Well I’m a neurologist. I knew from an early stage in medical school that I was interested in being a hospital physician. I wasn’t particularly drawn towards general practice. It just didn’t fire me up. I enjoyed acute medicine so I wanted to be an acute hospital physician. But one of the biggest deficiencies in my training through medical school was neurology.

Neurology at Leeds, at the time I was there…it wasn’t so much that it wasn’t taught well. What we got was very interesting. There was just very little of it. I think we had one or two days in the whole curriculum. So at the end of my training as a student doctor I was aware that neurology was deficient. I used to try and get neurology teaching from house officers, SHO’s, SpR’s when they were on the general wards and we used to ask them to teach us a neurology case and they would never want to teach us. I think they were in a similar position in that they didn’t know enough neurology to be confident enough to teach it. It was really very difficult so I decided that I needed to do a neurology job. I sorted out a medical rotation and deliberately chose one which had six-months of neurology on it. When I did it, I learnt a lot about neurology and I really enjoyed it. I knew immediately that it was what I wanted to do. There’s such a diverse range of illnesses that you come across with all different manners of treatments and multidisciplinary approach. There’s so much that we didn’t know and still don’t know and opportunities for research. And neurologists seemed to have the work-life balance right…nice bunch of people.

L; So you didn’t really consider anything else then?

C; I knew I didn’t want to get involved in doing shifts and being up in the middle of the night and so I looked at and considered other specialities. I did GU for three-months and whereas the tales of life were fascinating, after a while it all became quite dull and it didn’t really inspire me. Three months was enough. Dermatology didn’t appeal. I did consider them both from a work-life balance point of view but didn’t find them interesting enough.

L; Would you recommend our Sheffield students to do one?

C; There’s no rush to qualify so I would encourage people to take the time out to get a little taster of research. You can do the SSC’s now to get a little feel earlier on without too much risk and then take a BMedSci if you want. At Leeds, when I was there, no one had really gone out to sell the merits of doing such a degree. I guess that’s the good thing about now, we do go out and sell academia and attract you in at an earlier stage. But I do worry that people who would come to it late may miss out under the new system.

L; So what is your opinion on the MMC? C; I have my concerns that it is too prescriptive. I think it may have been a little rushed. I think it will probably settle down but I feel very concerned for the people who are going through the transition at the moment. What I would say is that there are always changes in medicine and you would only enjoy being a doctor if you accept the constant change that is going on. In my time, Calman was the big change to the specialist training and everyone thought that was going to be the end of the world but it wasn’t and things bedded down. I wonder if MMC will eventually ‘bed down’ in a similar way but I don’t think the transition has been handled very well. That is my main criticism. I know that there are a lot of anxious people out there and I do feel for them. I feel that giving a structure to academic training and encouraging people to think about academia at an early age is good. There are specially funded posts for academics that there never used to be. But I do worry about the person who develops the desire to do research later on in the training.

How do they get back into it if they didn’t start when they were in medical school? It may be very difficult to switch across later on.

L; What are the best things about your job?

C; It’s quite varied. I teach, I lecture. I do small group teaching with student doctors, speech therapy students, nurses etc. I go and talk to lay audiences. I have a varied clinical practice with a general neurology clinic in Barnsley and a speciality clinic here in Sheffield. I look after L; Did you ever strongly rule anything out?

Surgery. I didn’t want to do surgery. I think your first experience of surgery acute neurology patients and neurological emergencies. I also participate in research. I think the best thing about my job is that it’s so different. as a student doctor is going into that theatre feeling completely lost, Different days doing different things. It’s never dull. bewildered, slightly terrified. You then have to go through it all… first of all you have to go into the changing room to change into these blues and L; Are there any bad points about your job? nick someone’s shoes and you worry that you’re nicking the professor of surgery’s shoes. You don’t know whose name that is on the shoe and what C; The bureaucracy is the worse thing- the paper work. I’m currently attempting to employ clinical research fellows and the hoops I’m having it means but it’s blazoned on the front. And you’re walking around the theatre hoping that you don’t bump into that person. And then you go into to jump through are astounding. We’re also doing a few clinical trials the scrub, watched by a theatre sister who waits for you to get the slightest and although I can understand the need for proper process and regulation, it can be frustrating. thing wrong and make you start again. And then you stand and have no role. If you’re lucky you get to hold a retractor.

L; What’s your area of interest within your speciality and what drew you towards that?

C; I run a neuromuscular disease clinic and in that I’ll see patients with motor neurone disease (MND) and hereditary spastic paraparesis (HSP), a particular research interest of mine. HSP was the subject of my PhD. It’s a type of motor system disorder, sort of related to MND. But I also see other musculoskeletal problems; inflammatory neuropathies, myopathies, myasthenia gravis. So they’re my clinical sub-speciality interests and my research interests are motor system disorders, MND and HSP particularly.

What drew me to them? When you first do neurology it’s quite striking.

When I started doing neurology, patients used to be admitted for investigations and possible MND. A diagnosis was made and they would often be told the diagnosis in perhaps not so ideal circumstances and then be jettisoned off back into primary care to a G.P who may have never looked after a patient with MND. There used to be the thought that the MND was a diagnosis and that was it, it was all about the dying. But the dying of MND is only the end process, only the last few weeks. Before you get up to those last few weeks, there is a lot of living to be done. So when I started neurology I thought, well there must be something we can do to help these people live with MND, to manage their symptoms, both medical symptoms and the physical disabilities that come with it. I was drawn to MND research because of that- to improve things. Research has been going on for many, many years. It’s a terrible disease and when you see and follow people over the years who succumb to this illness, it’s a very strong motivating force to want to do something to help them.

L; Did you ever do any BSc/BMedSci-type degree at medical school?

C; No I didn’t. I came to research relatively late. So it was once I started my clinical interest in neurology, I began to see that there were huge gaps in the knowledge. I saw patients with MND. That’s what motivated me into research and to go and work with Pam Shaw in Newcastle.

L; Has your job taken you to any interesting places in the world?

C; With researching and lecturing I’ve been to places such as San Diego, San Francisco, European cities. So that was fun. I’ve been to quite a few places with work. I suppose work allows me to go on nice holidays (laughs). I’ve stayed in the Ice Hotel in the Swedish Lapland. I’ve ridden elephants in Thailand. So we do well financially from our jobs to allow us to enjoy the times when we’re not working.

L; So which is your favourite place that you’ve been to?

C;I think it was in the golden triangle in Northern Thailand which was last year. I went to an elephant sanctuary and learnt how to be a Mahout for three days. I learnt how to command an elephant and live with mahouts in their village. We used to ride them into the river and wash

12

the elephants and feed them and at the end of that we had to take a driving test C; Yes I do. I think the English ones are awful. I don’t like Holby City or Casualty. The Green Wing was not really a medical drama. It was a on the elephants. comedy but I thought that was hilarious. I liked Bodies, I thought that was very good. Cardiac Arrest was also fantastic. It was on around the L; This wasn’t an academic trip right? time I was doing those sort of jobs. It really struck a cord. I quite like C; (Laughs). No it wasn’t an academic trip… but it’s important to take a break from things and come back all recharged. I’ve not put my mahout skills the american E.R and the new one, Grey’s Anatomy I’ve seen…quite entertaining. to practise in Sheffield yet. But you never know, with the way the traffic situation is, just get an elephant and stomp over it.

L; Absolutely. Do you get nervous when giving lectures?

C;I used to but not now, locally. I still have some nerves if I’m presenting my scientific work at a national or international meeting in front of other neurologists. I can find that quite daunting mainly because you’re worried about the difficult questions they’re going to ask you but I don’t get nervous in front of, say, your good selves.

L; Why thank you. So what do you do to calm your nerves if you do get nervous?

C; Practice. Just practice, practice, practice. I’ll try and write the lectures months in advance for big international meetings. I’ll practice it driving to and from work until I know it all, until I can do it without the slides. That’s the only way to deal with the nerves really.

L; What’s the best thing about giving a lecture?

C; The best thing about giving a lecture is when you bump into someone a few weeks/months later and it’s clear that they’ve remembered something you’ve taught them and that they’ve learnt something from it.

L; Is there a bad thing about giving them?

C; Coming across someone a few weeks later, asking them a question about something that came up in the lecture and them looking at you blankly.

L; If you saw someone sleeping in your lecture would you publicly humiliate them?

C; If someone was sleeping? Well, in a big lecture theatre, I wouldn’t notice them. If they were being quiet, it’s fine. I did once have someone reading a big broadsheet newspaper and it was just so distracting that it was there! I didn’t know if they were doing anything behind the newspaper or anything.

And I just couldn’t concentrate so I had to make some comment about it. I wouldn’t like to think I humiliate people but I try and make my lectures fun and interactive so I may pass comment on it in a light-hearted way. But I would hope I wouldn’t humiliate them.

L; Ok well that’s the end of the academic-type questions. Now onto the fun questions.

C; Oh dear.

L; Medical students tend to become a bit freaked-out when they start their clinical placements mostly because of the long-hours which they fear may serve as a hindrance to any social life they’ll have in the future. So here’s your opportunity to reassure us all that this will not be the case. Could you tell us some of your favourite (non-medical) past times? What do you do to wind down after a long day’s work?

C; Favourite non-medical past-times? Well, travelling. I dine out. I enjoy good food, wine. I go to the gym a lot now as I’m fighting the upcoming middle-age…so I’m trying to become a little pro-active about that. I’m not accepting that I am in middle-age yet (laughs). I like going to the theatre. I like walking. I live in quite a nice countryside so it’s quite easy just to go out for walks. I don’t have any dazzling hobbies. Every now and again I try to improve my piano and keyboard playing skills. You never know when the Xfactor might come knocking for me.

L; They’re not really accurate though are they?

C; Well I’ve never practised in the American system but it might be full of all beautiful people (laughs). Is that what you thought the whole inaccuracy was about? (Laughs) L; Yeah absolutely!

C; And I suppose the E.R being blown up at the end of every series was not that accurate (laughs). But who wants to watch accurate descriptions of these things. It’s escapism, don’t take it too seriously.

L; What’s your favourite film?

C; Edward Scissorhands.

L; That’s a good one. The music’s great to that film.

C; The music is good. Tim Burton is my favourite director. I like a lot of his films but Edward Scissorhands is good.

L: What was the last CD you listened to?

C; I don’t tend to listen to any CD’s. I have my iPod, only it bust in my car this morning so I’m quite sad about that.

L; Well what was the last piece of music you listened to on it?

C; The last piece of music I listened to was the new Kaiser Chiefs song on the way in and then the iPod broke (laughs). I like pop music.

I quite like cheesy pop so I do quite like Kylie, Pet Shop Boys. But I also like Franz Ferdinand, the Kaiser Chiefs, the Coral. I quite like a variety.

L; You should come to Poptarts on a Saturday night then?

C; To where sorry?

L; Poptarts!

C; Well…Poptastic was a place I’ve been to quite a few times. There’s a few similar indie-pop nights around the country but I can’t remember what they’re all called.

L; Do you play sport?

C; No, I’m not a particularly sporty person. I go to the gym now but I’m not very good at football.

L; Do you support any teams?

I support Liverpool. I lived near, well my folks live near Trammere Rovers but I was never drawn that way thankfully.

L; Do you speak another language?

C; No, unless you count Scouse as another language?

L; Oh yeah definitely. Who was your hero as a child?

C; Dr Who. L; The next question is one of preference. Galaxy or Dairy Milk?

C; Dairy Milk…Is that it? (Laughs).

L; Yeah. You see it tells us what kind of person you are really.

C; Oh right. And what type of person does that make me?

L; Well I’m sure you’d have the whole medical school to back you up on that should it happen. So you play an instrument then?

C; Not really. I’ve always wanted to. I have one in the house but I’ve never been able to persevere with it. So no, I’m not very good.

L; Well one who prefers Galaxy is a rather serious person…

C; Right.

L; What’s your favourite book…do you like to read?

C; I do read but I don’t like high-brow novels. I’ll read trashy popular fiction but I wouldn’t say I had a particular favourite.

L; but Dairy Milk is for happy and fun-loving people.

C; Right. Well I find Galaxy too sickly. But I don’t know what that’s got to do with the price of eggs?

L; What’s your favourite TV show?

C;I have many favourite TV shows. I like the West Wing but that’s now finished. I like Dr. Who. I quite like Desperate Housewives.

L; They say laughter is the best medicine…what makes you laugh.

C; Anything. I’m really easy to make laugh. I would agree with that sentiment so my friends make me laugh. I laugh at things on the TV. I was in a comedy club in Leeds on Saturday night-the Hi-Fi club.

There are some funny comedians on in there. So I do enjoy a good laugh.

L; Do you watch any medical dramas?

13

L; Who’s your favourite famous comedian?

C; I liked Eddie Izzard a few years ago. He’s the best person I’ve seen live.

Though I think he’s gone off the boil a bit now. I don’t think he’s as good as he was. I’m just trying to think who’s on the circuit now that’s made me laugh? No I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head.

L; Could you tell us things that you dislike/can’t tolerate?

C; What, my grumpy old man list (laughs). Right, I hate it when you call up on your phone and you don’t get to speak to anybody. You’ve got to press buttons and get put on hold and you get disconnected. I hate all these sort of telephone service centres and trying to get through. That annoys me.

I hate waiting in for service people who say they’ll come and don’t come. I don’t know…do you want more?

And I want to develop a successful research team around me to help people with diseases such as MND. So they’re my goals of the next, well for the rest of my career. So I have a lot to do.

L; And what about life goals?

C; Life goals? I don’t have any particular life goals other than to make sure I enjoy my life. That’s my life goal, to enjoy it and to live it.

L; Well I had better leave you to it then. Dr. McDermott, thank you very much for your time. It’s been a great pleasure. Would you like any final words?

C; How long is my moment?

L; Oh I don’t know. I guess until the next issue really.

L; No, no. That’s a good enough list there. The next section is called ‘Are C; If you could let me know when it’s passed (laughs). you down with it?’ It’s a test to see how connected you are with the youth L; Haha, I will do.

Interview by Lena Jawad of today. Question One; Do you own an iPod? C; Yes. L; Question Two. How many members are there in the Pussycat Dolls?

C;(Long thought) I do know who they are. I’m not a great fan. I think, are there three, or four…or possibly five (laughs). I don’t know. I know there’s more than two. Anyway I’m not sure. I’d go with three.

L; It’s six but never mind. Question Three. What does Jimmy Choo do?

C; Jimmy Choo? Now that does ring a bell. Jimmy Choo? Is he a director?

L; No, he’s a shoe maker. Question four. What does WAG stand for?

C; Oh this is the footballer’s wives isn’t it? WAG? Wife? Something in glamour? I don’t know. It’s something to do with the footballer’s wives.

L; It’s wives and girlfriends but I’ll give you that one. And finally, which actor is currently playing James Bond?

C; Daniel Craig.

L; Did you ever have boyhood dreams of becoming James Bond?

C; Yes I wouldn’t have minded being James Bond. I used to like to go and see the James Bond movies. I still like seeing them.

L;Which is your favourite?

C; I suppose I quite liked, only because it was the first one I went to go and see by myself at the cinema, the Living Daylights. A Timothy Dalton one.

Which probably wasn’t the best one but I remember it because I went to go and see it by myself.

L; Well the bad news is you only scored…actually you scored 3/5 on the test which is not bad. Moving on…now what hasn’t gone without notice amongst my fellow colleagues is the great condition of your hair. For those of us interested in the aesthetics, we were wondering whether you could possibly reveal the secret or secrets behind this physical attribute?

Perhaps slipping us the name of the products you use on it?

C;(Laughs) Right. Well, I’m a product of Toni&Guy. I get bored of my hair very easily. It was really curly recently. I don’t know if you’ll be able to see but that was me (show’s staff u-card picture) about eighteen months ago.

L; Wow, that’s pretty radical.

C; Prior to that it would have been very short, shaved and now I’m going for this sort of, slightly more, straighter look.

L; Well it’s very popular amongst our students.

C; (Laughs) I’m flattered.

L; What is your advice to our Sheffield Medical Students?

C; Hold your nerve around the MMC process, I’m sure it will settle down.

Accept change. If you can accept change then you’ll be fine. Change will go on all around you but don’t lose your head…that sounds quite naff doesn’t it? Learn to be comfortable with change …

L; And pick neurology?

C; Yes, neurology is a fantastic career choice. And consider research!

Come and do a BMedSci with me! That would be the biggest advice (laughs).

L; And finally, being a Consultant., you’ve pretty much reached the top of your game, though you may disagree. Do you have any further wishes or ambitions that you would still like to achieve in life?

C; Well I think I would take issue about being at the top of my game, I’ve only been a consultant for a year. My medical training began at medical school in 1989. I qualified as a consultant in 2006 so that’s 17 years. It is a long time but you can’t ever know everything so there’s still a lot for me to learn particularly in my sub-speciality clinic. I’ll continue to develop so I (http://theunderweardrawer.homestead.com/twelvemedstudents.html With many kind thanks to Rupert ‘Tele Jedi’ Hurry (Phase 3a) for can become better as a clinical neurologist. pointing me in the direction of this quirky website).

14

PARTY AT THE LIBRARY!

The answer to this seemingly rhetorical question is, of course, no. In my opinion the library has become a place of social functioning and no longer serves as a sanctuary for those who wish to work.

The Library.

An established place of study where one can escape the irrepressible noises of the outside world. A place where you can read in peace and tranquillity…or is it?

So the question now is, are libraries becoming more lenient in terms of what noise levels they allow?

Northwing investigates.

I remember my school days when I got sent out of the library for merely whispering two words to a friend. I even remember the day Larry Liptrot got sent out for sneezing. How times have changed. These days, as well as talking in the library, it seems you can get away with most things; continuous laughter, eating, answering a call on your mobile, making a call on your mobile(!) etc, etc. Libraries have indeed become the venues of social gatherings.

The Royal Hallamshire Health Science Library is one known to you all. On the whole a good resource but it is not without its bad points. During the examination period I like to take refuge in this library only because my flatmate insists on playing tasteless Eurovisionesque pop melodies at all hours of the day. So I escape to HSL to revise. Now when I was a first year not so long ago, I remember this particular library being a place of absolute stillness and it was during these days I thought that if I ever needed to come to a quiet place, this would be it…not so. Revision season 2006.

On revising for my Phase 2 examinations, I was horrified to 15

discover that the place I had known and come to love for being so quiet was no longer the same. I distinctly remember one incident. It happened on a cold December night…

I arrived at the library in the hope of reading up and possibly understanding something about Infectious diseases. So I sat down and opened up my copy of Microbiology at a Glance (great book).

I was content. It was half past eight and I was the only person in the aisle with the wooden study desks. I began to read the first paragraph entitled ‘Toxoplasma gondii’ and was only a few words into it when the adversity occurred. Another medical student took refuge in my aisle. As if that wasn’t bad enough she proceeded to make the most noise possible in sitting herself down.

For five long and agonising minutes, she shuffled about, blew her nose, sniffed, coughed, burped, sighed and most annoyingly kept remembering things she had forgotten to take out of her bag and so entered the painfully repetitive cycle of opening and closing the zip of her rucksack. Now I am a person of relatively high tolerance so I just battled on, got my iPod out in the hope that music would block out the

clamour she was creating. It did work…for a while. But then things got worse. Some guy came along and tapped her on the back. I don’t know who he was but she did. To my disappointment they were friends and so began their friendly banter. It wouldn’t have been so bad had it not gone on for twenty minutes!

My tolerance levels had lowered and I became annoyed. I turned my chair around and bestowed The Evils® upon them. This did help but not greatly for they resumed their conversation in whispers so for the following ten minutes all I heard was ‘pss pss pss’ and not even the one Metallica song I had on my mp3 player could distract my ears from hearing it. To cut a long story short I was forced to appear rude and do, what librarians in my day did, the ‘Shhhhhh’ silencing. Of course they looked at me as though I had some psychiatric illness before emerging from the library to continue their conversation outside.

I was fairly stressed out from this episode. I don’t know who you are but I would like to congratulate you both on being perhaps the most annoying people in my life at that moment.

The Good

And it’s not just students getting in on the act. It’s the staff as well. Another thing which gets me about the Hallamshire library is the individual member of staff who is in charge of going around and collecting books that students have carelessly left on the tables at the end of the day. Now I understand she may be a little bit p*$$%d off about having to carry out this task because let’s face it, we should all really replace books on the shelves we took them from. But that does not give her the right to make such a bloody racket. Seriously, she comes round at about twenty to nine and picks up a dozen Kumar and Clarks and slams them on to her little trolley with such aggression it would give Jade Goody a run for her money. Disgraceful.

Okay maybe I should stop complaining about the HSL. I should use the out-of the-way ‘Quiet Study’ room? It’s not that bad right? You’re probably thinking that I should b*##%r off and use another library. Can I just assure you that I did actually try this…to disastrous consequences.

Following my lack of success in reading at the Hallamshire, I tried St. Georges. For those of you who don’t know St. George’s library, it’s near Blackwell’s. I chose this library as it is the closest to my flat – convenient?

What I thought would be a pleasurable reading experience in fact turned out to be one of the most irritating moments of my life. Where do I start?

If there was an antonym for library, it would be ‘St. George’s.’ It is officially the worst library I have ever been too in my life. I revised there only once and have never gone back. But on my one visit there, let me tell you, every single library regulation had been thrown out of the window leaving it with a somewhat post-anarchism state of chaos.

Students were bringing in food and not the silent foods we are accustomed with. They were bringing in crisps, fizzy drinks, peanuts…the crème de la crème of noisy foods. These people were chewing loudly with their mouths open, like animals, food dripping out and falling on to their text books. Some left crisp packets and crumbs on the desks.

And as if the food situation wasn’t bad enough there were people talking, laughing like hyenas and singing continuously in the upstairs area. An area which has ‘QUIET’ posted around its perimeter! I mean these people weren’t even whispering, they were talking out loud! It was horrendous! I probably would have got more work done had I headed down to Gatecrasher that night with my books! Despite my harsh glares, people just carried on talking. There was however a moment, as people left for home to watch Neighbours, when the

The Bad

noise settled and silence had at last returned.

But surprise, surprise, this was shortlived and broken by some fool’s monophonic ring tone. I turned around and to my horror the owner of the phone was answering the call smack bang in the middle of the quiet zone, showing no attempt to take the call outside. After ten minutes of hearing her tell her husband that she was going to have to work late in the library to complete her essay on Economic Reform and that there was a chicken tikka meal in the freezer he could have which he would have to cook for 5 minutes in the microwave, I had had enough. I picked up my books and departed, disappointed in the legislations of today’s libraries, thinking to myself, ‘are there no principles left in this world?’ Have libraries become the new social playground?

Have I just woken up from a coma

during which Tony Blair gave a speech entitled ‘Socialise Socialise Socialise?’

Now I am by no means ‘a party pooper’ but I do appreciate the significance of a place such as a library. People go there for a reason being that they have no other place to study. I know I hadn’t at the time. I had to walk back home.

Back to the noise of the flatmate with the ghetto-blaster where I felt compelled to revise in the toilet that night because it was the only place I could escape from the excessive decibels of modern day society. It wasn’t the most pleasant experience let me tell you. Aside from this what I can not comprehend is why librarians, the one-time rulers of their territory, stand back and watch the mayhem unfold right before their very own eyes? Have they become too afraid to confront us, generation X? Are we really that intimidating? I do hope not.

So what do I hope to achieve from writing this lengthy article. I would like to think I have highlighted the importance of having a quiet place of study and how much it means to those, who like my self, have no other place to go but their own toilet. I also hope I have made the loud whisperers amongst you realise how highly irritating what you’re doing is and that maybe you could p#$$ off somewhere else.

We must put an end to all this madness before it gets worse. I’d like to end with a nod to the librarians at the libraries of the peripheral teaching hospitals. Some enforce library rules stricter than Victorian classroom etiquette, with stern glares and nostrilflaring and some allow the playground chit-chat to continue. Where I am currently on a psychiatric placement, a particular woman is the perfect example of staff playing their part in the disordered library system, having a nice gossip herself. Speak up love, my friend in China can’t quite hear you!

And for the record, I never did fully finish reading that paragraph about Toxoplasma Gondii. Lena Jawad

And the Ugly!

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‘INSPIRATIONAL’ DOCTORS OF OUR TIME Who inspired you to come to train as a doctor…? All rounder Karl Kennedy? Or was it the hard nosed Dr. House?? Have a look at some of these fine physicians profiles…

Dr. Julius M. Hibbert M.D. A local doctor of Springfield, Dr. Hibbert mixes his sense of humour and bedside manner. A prime example of this being the “Do not resuscitate” t-shirt he once sported at the hospital. He struggled for money as a student so worked as ‘Malcolm Sex- the male stripper’ to pay his way through med school. He has always been a bit of a trend setter, famous for his past afro, dreads and Mr T style Mohawk. He is also very apt at getting himself out of sticky situations, such as when Bart lost his hearing through the wrong meds, Hibbert suggested Homer “test out” his signature… and he just happened to do so on a malpractice waiver. He drives a Mercedes and has a Porsche, an inspiration to us all, but if patients can’t afford him, there’s always Dr. Nick Riviera!

Dr. Karl Kennedy Surely the ultimate ambassador for the medical profession, Dr. Kennedy is trained in every field of medicine from psychiatry to gynaecology and was recently seen treating Lou with hypnotherapy. Karl is prepared for any situation, like when his son Mal was in a construction accident; Karl was on hand to perform a tracheotomy using a straw…amazing! A man of the community, Karl was footy trainer for the Erinsborough Dingoes, and is also a children’s entertainer. He enjoys playing guitar and singing, in his youth leading a band “The Right Prescription”. He is a busy man, working at the hospital and running his own GP practice, but he still has time for his family and beloved wife Susan, proving that you can have it all!

Dr. Luka Kovac.

Surely the hottest doctor around….Dr Kovac is from Croatia where he lost his family in the war out there. He is a brooding man, who has worked his way through most of the nurses at the hospital where he is chief of emergency medicine. He has an interest in world health and has worked for Médecins Sans Frontières. Wow, he is a gorgeous, caring and a talented doctor… someone for all medical students to look up to…and someone for all us girls to lust after!

Dr. Gregory House The classic ‘old school’ doctor. Arrogant, heartless and preferring the diagnostic part of medicine to any sort of patient contact. He thrives on the challenges of medicine, seeing the problem before the patient. I’m sure we’ve all come across doctors like him before…maybe some of us will become doctors like him… However, for all his faults he has an excellent mind, acting more like a detective than a doctor to ‘solve’ cases CSI style!

J.D, Dr. John Michael Dorian The loveable and quirky JD is an enthusiastic and determined doctor. His affable personality and gentle bedside manner make him endearing to most, and a target to others (e.g. the hospital janitor). He craves praise from his senior Dr. Cox, even fantasising about it on a regular basis…like I say, he’s quirky. He’s a bit crazy, having complex visual hallucinations every now and again, but everyone loves him!

By Elspeth Twiss 17

Can Hollywood Films Ever be Relevant to your Placement?

Samar Mahmood, Phase 3b, finds out…

Like most medical students (at least I hope so anyway, otherwise I’m a loner on this one), I find that clinical placements – even the interesting ones – have a habit of becoming painstakingly tedious after a while. The dilemma, though, is that no matter how much the attachment might have taken its toll on you, you still have to learn about that specialty. So I decided that the only answer to this would be to look for other ‘Learning Resources’: a list of the essential specialty-related movies you should try and watch on each placement. They’ll help pass the time, and you might even learn a thing or two…* [* Please note – these resources are exclusive to ‘Northwing’ and cannot be found with the traditional learning resources on Minerva] GYNAECOLOGY Dead Ringers (1988) Jeremy Irons gives a memorable performance playing a set of identical twin gynaecologists in this horror/thriller from David Cronenberg (The Fly, A History of Violence). Without giving too much away, the pair use their identical looks to trap an unsuspecting woman into sleeping with both of them, attend each other’s clinics when the other one’s busy and basically abuse their uncanny resemblance on a daily basis. Sound comic? It actually isn’t.

As the film progresses it becomes darker and darker, as the brothers invent a series of increasingly bizarre surgical tools in order to separate themselves from each other. Exactly how they intend on doing that, given the fact that they’re in no way conjoined, is where the film really goes crosses into ‘psychological thriller’ territory.

You’ll never look at a surgical instrument in the same way again, or for that matter, a set of identical twins. This film is quite disturbing and should not be like any gynae placement. Ever.

For a lighter look at Gynaecology in film, try the infertility-themed ‘Maybe Baby’.

NEUROLOGY The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) ‘Epilepsy or devil possession?’ is the question you’ll be asking yourself every time a patient presents with a history of seizures. A perfect one for your Neurology module, this supernatural suspense focuses on the story of pleasant college student Emily Rose, who begins to exhibit strange forms of neurological pathology: seizures, hypertonia, posturing... you name it. Her close friend, a priest (the ever-reliable Tom Wilkinson), advises her to stop her anticonvulsant medication and look to God for help instead. The film deals with the ethical issue of religion versus science in a thoughtful manner. Thrown in amidst this are some pretty terrifying scenes of satanic possession and, as you probably guessed by the title, exorcism. Great stuff

.

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OBSTETRICS Raising Arizona (1987) This early outing for Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter sees them play a young couple devastated by the news that they can’t have kids. Adoption’s out of the equation because hubby has a criminal record. So what do they do? Kidnap someone else’s baby, of course! And it’s not so bad – they’re nicking just one of a set of quintuplets, so at least the biological parents are left with three more. As serious as its theme may be, this movie is a whacky and outrageous comedy, with solid performances from the two leads and the supporting cast. It’s a perfect one for the ‘Infertility ILA’ (phase 3a), but just make sure you impart the correct advice to couples unable to conceive: “You could always try kidna– I mean, adopting.”

As an alternative, try Junior (1994) starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. Here, they reprise their Twins (1988) partnership to play scientists who dabble with the concept of male pregnancy. For the sake of the storyline, this ludicrous idea is proven to work when Arnie gets knocked up (so to speak) and all manner of comedy ensues. I say ‘comedy’, but that’s a polite euphemism for ‘painfully unfunny’ (and that itself is an even politer euphemism for a word I can’t write on this page).

Reserve this film for a time where you happen to be hating your Obstetrics teaching so much, you’re considering quitting med school – it might just cheer you up a little, in terms of seeing how bad a movie can actually be. And although it goes without saying, don’t believe the ‘science’ you see depicted here, otherwise you’ll seriously jeopardise your chances of graduating. Truthfully, I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone. There are few films as terrible as this, and perhaps for that reason it deserves a special mention.

Honourable mentions to the ‘Look Whose Talking’ series and 9 Months.

ELECTIVE City of Joy (1992) If you’re going on your elective this summer then perhaps you’re looking for a bit of inspiration. In this lesser known drama, Patrick Swayze (who, for some of the girls – and perhaps even some of the guys! – might be inspiration enough) plays a surgeon who travels to Calcutta in India to practice medicine, after losing a child on the operating table back home in Texas. In his new surroundings, he finds himself neck-deep in a caseload of patients whose health problems include disease you’re unlikely to see in the NHS. Leprosy, anyone? He also gets involved with a local gangster (Art Malik) and proves that life as a doctor is never stress-free. After a promising start, sadly the film sells out by adopting the Americanhero-saves-everything-from-going-to-pot theme. Aside from that, though, this is a good movie to watch for the sake of seeing how rewarding it can be to work with patients living in extreme poverty.

On another note, if you decide to go against Faculty’s list of ‘Countries to Avoid At All Costs’ (see The Not So Elective Electives for more details on that frightful list) and visit Uganda, you might want to watch The Last King of Scotland (2006). James McAvoy plays a junior doctor who travels from Scotland to Uganda and becomes the personal physician of the Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin. The film is loosely based on fact and I suppose you have to be of a certain age, or a history enthusiast, to know of Amin’s atrocities; I hear he wasn’t a pleasant bloke. The story is good in a horrifying kind of a way, and the acting is even better; it’s no surprise that Forest Whitaker won the Oscar this year for his haunting portrayal of Amin.

This “essential” list of films won’t help you pass the module, but it will make the difference between a ‘Good’ and an ‘Excellent’ on that assessment proforma… okay, it won’t, but who cares? They’re movies – who needs an excuse to watch them?!

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THE NOT SO ‘ELECTIVE’ ELECTIVES The thought of planning my elective was really exciting: here was my one and only opportunity to have a holiday… ahem… medical placement in a country of my choice. Effectively, I could go anywhere in the world.

So it was with much enthusiasm that I attended ‘Elective Night’ at the med school, a talk for the 3b students from Jacqueline Hilton (“that’s Jacqueline, not Jacqui,” she said, well, perhaps not in those exact words) and some other elective staff.

My eagerness was soon deflated when we were presented with a list of ‘Countries To Avoid At All Costs’. A bloody long list, I might add. Now I’ll admit my geography ain’t hot, but a large proportion of all the places I’d never actually heard of. Fair enough, the list came from the Foreign Office, not Faculty – however, it’s interesting that Faculty entertain the paranoid notion that something terrible will happen to you if you go to an even slightly politically unstable country.

It might have saved the med school some ink if they would have just printed a list of ‘The Very Few Countries You Actually Are Allowed To Visit’.

Then again, ink and printing costs, for once, doesn’t seem to be an issue with them these days: glossy module handbooks sent to all Phase 3b students. Go figure!?

Sorry, I digress…

That night, Jacqueline also assured us that if we did end up going against her advice and visit some obscure, war-torn country, she would still be there to help: “If you get into trouble while you’re there, you must let us know – we’ll intervene and help you.” And I guarantee, I’m barely paraphrasing on that one. It was like a cheesy one-liner from an ‘80s movie, and it conjured up a rather interesting image in my mind; you somehow get caught up in the Darfur crisis in Sudan and phone up the med school.

They take immediate action, sending in the Faculty S.W.A.T. team – led by Prof Bax – to come and extract you from foreign lands and return you to the safety of Sheffield. Or not. I’m almost tempted to phone them up when I go on elective, just to see exactly what their ‘help methods’ consist of.

Anyway, if restricting us to a small selection of countries wasn’t bad enough, my heart truly sunk when I heard uttered the forbidden words: “SSC” and “reflective diary”. Uh oh! A groan from the students echoed throughout the lecture theatre, and I hoped against hope that Jacqueline might be

kidding… but then she mentioned the name “Patsy Stark” and everyone knew it was for real.

It’s almost as if Faculty envy us having a good time during the summer. They know exactly which buttons to push, and ‘Reflections’ are certainly one of those buttons.

This summer beckons with a hint of optimism that the actual placement/holiday might be good. As for making a reflective diary and writing up an SSC… well, maybe it is selfish of me to want all the fun in lands afar; it’s only fair to let the academic bunch at Faculty relive our holidays with us, albeit in the form of marking diary accounts about how we learned lots on the wards abroad and cared endlessly for patients.

Good luck everyone, wherever you end up going!

And remember, if you do encounter problems… J. Hilton et al will be watching your back at all times, so worry not!?

Samar Mahmood (Phase 3b)

NatWest has a service to

help you with your

medical studies If you are looking to finance the cost of your medical studies then look no further The NatWest Professional Trainee Loan scheme allows you to have up to £20,000 from year two of study onwards Please contact our locally based Graduate Managers Peter Eyre and Ginger Beniston at Sheffield University branch on 0114 2600527 For a personal banking service

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Elective Photo Competition

Winner: Best Elective Photo Charlotte Lewis ‘Sunrise’Kaikoura, New Zealand

Highly Commended Gemma Malpas ‘Underwater’, Barbados

Highly Commended Natalie Rowley Glove Recycling, Jamshedpur, India

Winner : Best elective T-shirt Gareth Pritchard ‘Dildo, Newfoundland, Canada’

Runner up: Best Elective Photo Maggie Warlow Vietnamese Market

Highly commended Maggie Warlow Vietnamese Children

Runner up: Best Elective Tshirt Wendy Li ‘Sheffield, New Zealand’

Essay Prizes As a medical student, writing essays is mostly something of the past. The last time most of us wrote an essay would have probably seen us analysing Macbeth’s death or critiquing a World War Two poem.

As you hand in forms at the medical school reception, it is easy to miss the mal-positioned, occasional poster telling you about an essay competition. Or as you keenly check Minerva, it is easy to miss a heading in the news announcements telling you about an essay competition. The Student BMJ lists essay prizes but not everyone reads this. Northwing endeavours to make you more informed about what essay competitions are out there. After all, they do have to be won by someone.

So what essay prizes are available? There are too many to mention in this article but if you go onto a well-known search engine and type in ‘medical student essay prizes’ the number of essays available are staggering. If you already have a particular interest in a specialty, there will most definitely be an essay competition that would suit you.

Here are just some of the scores of current essay prizes available……

From The Royal Society Medicine • Dermatology Section Hugh Wallace Essay and Publication Prize • Geriatrics & Gerontology Section A C Comfort Prize • History of Medicine Section Norah Schuster Essay Prize The British Geriatrics Society Lord Amulree Essay prize The Medical Council on Alcohol- The Michael Frowen Memorial Prize “Discuss the Role of Abstinence in Recovery from Alcohol Dependence and /Alcoholism” British Association of Dermatologists Undergraduate Essay Prize- “When is a Rash a Disease?”

Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Essay Prize Undergraduate Prize Essay –The Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland -The Wylie Medal Currently on Minerva: The Tom Kelly Essay Prize Jackie Deakin Dystonia Prize Essay competition.

Diverse topics!!

The benefits of winning an essay prize are numerous. Firstly, there’s the matter of money. The prize money can range from £50 to £1500.Not unpleasant for a student! Some essay prizes are presented at the college AGM or a large meetinga nice opportunity to meet lots of doctors in a specialty you have shown some aptitude for. Then there’s the matter of academic achievements when applying for an F1 job. A national essay prize would potentially score points on an F1 application (though Northwing cannot validate this as we do not have the MTAS mark scheme!).

It does seem that essay prizes are not “marketed” very well in Sheffield. The only time on a placement where an essay competition was promoted in our welcome pack was during ENT. Perhaps if more encouragement and support were given to students by individual specialties, about their college or society’s essay prizes, there would be more winners from Sheffield. This, in turn, would look good for that specialty and certainly for the Medical School.

The essays can have a set title or invite you to discuss an aspect of that specialty, of your choice. During medical school you may have already completed an essay that could be submitted. Giles Page, a Sheffield third year medical student, was awarded The Association of Clinical Pathologists Journalism Prize for his Phase 1a History of Medicine essay. Other Sheffield winners include 2nd years Rob Lewis and Chris Lowry, who both won essay prizes from The British Pharmacological Society.

Northwing’s advice is to choose a subject that genuinely interests you, discuss it with a consultant in that field, ask for their opinion and take your time in writing it. The length of essay required varies from 1000-5000 words-this could mean an essay written over a weekend or one that could take over a month to finish! There are previous winning essays on some of the college websites-read these.

Good luck and if you are interested in medical journalism, come and write for Northwing!

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The student BMJ even has an article entitled “How to Write an Essay Prize”.

Http://www.studentbmj.com/iss ues/02/11/education/408.php

Project Panorama

In a simple twist of fate, the journey that was my Phase 3B research project started and ended in the same place; watching an episode of Panorama on a Sunday evening.

Having enjoyed my Obs and Gynae attachment in 3A, and seeing and hearing Prof Ledger’s glowing reputation on the afore mentioned programme, I approached him months in advance of my start date.

We discussed areas of interest, mine being fertility, and decided to research the trend of postponement of pregnancy and the repercussions thereof, something increasingly close to women working in medicine’s hearts.

With his experience and foresight, I began working on my project, getting NHS ethics approval and literature searching, in the final months of phase 3a, enabling me to utilise the time allocated to me by the med school for the main body of the research. Knowing I had my work cut out, I put together my option, project and the Easter holiday into one block, giving me 4 months to get the vast majority of work done. So far, it was just like any other project. Then I had a phone call from Prof’s secretary. Could I meet him in a meeting relevant to my project that afternoon? Presuming I was being summonsed to an MDT, I trudged up to the academic department.

In actual fact, what greeted me couldn’t have been further from what I imagined. Two BBC producers researching the programme Panorama: Right Time to Have a Baby. After discussion, it emerged that their

objectives lay alongside ours, to investigate why women were delaying pregnancy and the implications for those who chose to. The producers were there, obviously, to capitalise on Prof Ledger’s leading knowledge but in order to make the programme, they would need to interview women going through the gruelling processes of IVF, having waited too long to conceive naturally. That was where I was to come in.

For my project, I spent my days in the Jessop Wing, interviewing women as they received good and bad news from the fertility clinics. With the chief executive’s permission, my interviews would henceforth finish with the question, “Would you be willing to take part in a BBC documentary?” In the most part, the answer was no and I spent weeks emailing the BBC head office with little to tell them until one day an actress walked through the door, only too willing to help out. All systems were go.

On the day of filming, thanks to Prof Ledger’s persistence with the crew, I was invited to sit and watch him being interviewed on the technicalities, European research and his personal views on the situation. The entire experience was quite surreal and to feel, in part, responsible was definitely something I’ll never forget.

Whilst the cameramen set up the mock studio in the corridor (complete with ultrasound machine to add

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effect!) I set about making coffees for cast and crew.

During this time, presenter Kate Silverton and I became engrossed in conversation about professional women and the challenges they now face in deciding when the right time to have a child was. I explained to her that whilst I was researching, I’d take home certain facts about fertility to my housemates, themselves all medics that we were entirely oblivious to. For example, we’d all presumed that if we couldn’t ever conceive naturally, we’d rely on IVF. I had no idea that the IVF success rate for 40 year olds is 5%. My summary was that if four twenty two year old medical students, all who had studied Obs and Gynae weren’t entirely educated, how could we expect the nation to not make the mistake of postponing pregnancy?

She agreed, herself a single non-mother aged 35, and she decided that perhaps that was an important point to make. The next thing I know, I was being miked up, had a camera twelve inches from my face and I was being quizzed to be part of the programme. All I could think was that I hadn’t straightened my hair properly!

For forty five minutes I stood in the doorway of the kitchen, knees shaking and trying not to sound unprofessional as Prof stood round the corner, supervising every word that came out of my mouth, ensuring the authenticity of my sometimes sensationalist statements!

The day came and went. I, of course, phoned everyone in my phonebook, insisting I now wanted to be a medical journalist but then it was just back to my project and everyday life. I kept in touch with the producers and Kate and still do to this day and weeks later I had one more surprise to come. Standing in the changing rooms of TopShop in Manchester, doing some last minute electives clothes shopping, my phone rang once again. Would I consent to the clip of me on

Panorama being used on the BBC Breakfast show the next morning? Er…..YES! For me it was a chance to see part of the programme, since I was in Boston on my elective when the main show aired. Hearing Dermot and Kate discussing me and showing clips was perhaps the most strange experience of the entire ordeal, but one which I’ll never forget.

All in all, I sometimes find it hard to believe that from a small research programme came appearances on the BBC, and I’m well aware that it’s something that I couldn’t have foreseen or will probably ever get the chance to do again. It did make me think that perhaps with the ever changing structure of careers in medicine, maybe a career marrying medicine and the media is something that we forget about but is worth considering.

Especially when the time comes to have a baby………….

By Rebecca Haworth

Getting a Hand in the Door: A National Presentation How do you go about presenting a project in front a group of esteemed specialists, considering you are a naïve

medical student? Well here is one example of how one of those projects was presented to the British Society for the Surgery of the Hand (BSSH) ,which is part of the Royal College of Surgeons:As part of my phase 3b rotation, I had to decide which project I could be involved with. This was difficult to choose at first, there were too many consultants offering projects!!! I chose one that I have an interest in; Surgery.

My experience started in the department of Plastic Surgery where Mr Hobson had a paper on the first day for me to read……

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‘Read it, and see what you get out of it,’ said Mr. Hobson.

I did this and realised that the paper had some limitations, which is where my project stemmed from.

I realised that to get a paper published, in these types of projects, I needed selfmotivation and further reading.

A handy (pardon the pun!-ed) PhD student friend pointed me towards several useful websites.

I started to download anything containing the words “Hand Surgery”!!! My project greatly improved my literaturesearching skills! A plan was

formulated and gradually, with the support of my consultant, the project started to come together.

“The Patient Outcome of Hand Surgery Questionnaire” (POS) is a newly developed tool to assess the physical and mental impact, on a patient, before and after hand and arm surgery. My task was to complete this new questionnaire alongside the existing SF-36 (a generic questionnaire that assesses the impact of any surgery on a patient). Questionnaires were put to patients before and after surgery. The scores on the POS were then compared with the scores on the existing

questionnaire, seeing whether they were similar.

The 7 weeks allocated to my project passed quickly but because of the scale of such project, it required at least a year’s work. And here is where my colleagues Annabel Scott and Olatokunbo Musa took over.

The data was analysed, using statistical methods like Cronbach Alpha (Yep I’d never heard of it either!) and others.

We also decided that our team should meet regularly to finish this project. The whole process took us over 8 months!! After putting all the data together the project was sent for consideration to be presented…

A crisp and elegant letter arrived, inviting the three of us, with our consultants, to the autumn meeting of the BSSH at 1, Great George Street, Westminster, London……Our hard work finally had paid off!!!

Annabel decided to deliver the presentation and Olatokunbo and I decided to take on any questions. It was our opportunity to meet many renowned specialists, and err.. let me tell you also that the lunch was delicious!!

Presenting was nerve-wracking and answering questions was terrifying but somehow we managed. This was a unique and amazing experience that we would recommend for any medical student.

By Fawaz Al-Hassani 26

Fancy a Non-Medical Option? How about Learning Spanish Abroad?

Standing outside Cusco airport after 48 hours of travelling with taxi drivers shouting in a language I could not understand and with no-one to meet us, I started to think wistfully of a placement in Sheffield. But after living in Peru for 2 months,I didn’t want to leave.

I Given the opportunity of going away, some medical students run for the hills. In my case Spain (Valencia) I had always wanted to learn another language and Spanish seemed the perfect choice.

300 days of cloudless skies Although I could probably attribute this to my strong desire to visit South America.

Lively university town Peru has a chequered history. Up until recently it was known for the guerrilla activity Strong regional dialect of the Shining Path but, having stood in the main square amidst street sellers, bar owners and numerous children selling finger puppets, it was clear that the guerrilla days were well and truly over.

Cuba Cusco has no end of choice of language schools. Ours was on a little street just off Extremely safe the main square. It had amazing views over the city and free coca tea which is a great cure Completely different world for altitude sickness! We had 4 hours of lessons a day and, although every teacher could Very difficult to obtain speak English, it was all predominately in Spanish. We had between 3 and 6 students in a money out there so bring lots class and lessons were always great fun; especially after mispronouncing words and realising they had an entirely different, usually embarrassing meaning.

Cusco is a thriving city, with stunning ruins over-looking it, museums and the unforgettable Inca trail a train ride away. At night you can follow the windy streets up the hill to find a cosy café with a live band, choose from the copious numbers of restaurants or head off to the centre and salsa the night away. Although, as our Spanish teacher aptly demonstrated on a night out, saying “no” to Latin men is just a game and they will not be dissuaded by a polite refusal!

Peru itself is an adventure; the early morning ritual of darting in and out of the trickle of cold water mistaken for a shower, rice and potatoes together with every meal and the stall owners following you down to road in the hope that, if they just shout loud enough, you will buy what they are offering. It is normal for couples to pull over to offer a lift when you have missed the bus, although the local bus is an experience. It’s a novelty to see “gringos” out of the city, like seeing animals out of their natural habitat.

The adventure does not end in Cusco. There are also a number of extreme sports to endanger yourself with, such as Costa Rica Rich South American country Metropolitain Cloud forests English widely understood

grade 5 rapids or in our case, mountain biking down precipitous slopes. By the end of one day, I had nice crisscross patterns of cuts on my legs and, by our medical diagnosis, my friend had a suspected concussion. This however, was not wholly due to our lack of skills at biking. It may have had something to do with the small boulders in the road and the ditch next to the tiny path in which we spent too much time. After the ditch disappeared, there was a sheer rock face instead. At this point, the idea of a scenic bike ride was just a distant memory. On getting back to the shop we were going to give the

owner a piece of our minds, but he found us and apologised profusely for his guide taking us down the ‘death trail’ and waived the fee. To this day I’m still not sure if the guide thought we were professional bikers or just thought it was just funny!

Peru is such an amazing place and it has so much to offer. The Inca trail is a stunning trek Argentina through mountains and valleys marking the path the Incas walked to get to the city of Machu World’s best steak Picchu, hidden for hundreds of years. Watching the sun come up over the ruins is The argentine tango breathtaking and waking up to a llama standing outside your tent is something you will never Mainly Brazilian forget! Peru has the Andes mountains that descend to the Pacific ocean, it has jungles, deserts, students who speak the rural villages without a single shop and the cities with clubs, bars and take-aways. You Portuguese can sandboard over endless dunes, visit the ice mummy preserved for thousands of years, watch the condors soar or just sit eating nachos on a balcony above the main square.

After 2 months I still hadn’t seen everything and I would definitely go back someday to see the rest! Rachel Mercer

Miss Congenital Abnormality!

“The Greatest Medics’ Revue ever!” Anon

Writing an article about the Medics’ Revue is a bit like trying to re-tell a really funny story, you can never really do it justice so you just end up saying “Oh you had to be there but it was dead good”, so you are going to have to trust me when I tell you it was really, really funny! Now, you may think as the director of this year’s extravaganza I’m a little biased, but in fact I’m just proud to say I had a hand in its success. 3 nights, 900 happy customers and a whole lot of money raised for charity.

As the Medical School stepped up its campaign this year to harass and persecute students, the Medics’ Revue was, as usual, on hand to make light of these advances. Parodies of Professor Bax, Dr Burton, Patsy Stark, Steve Peters, Geoff Cope and Sue Cowley were well received and topical changes in the Medical world, including MTAS and MMC, came under appropriate attack Sketches included, Pimp my Bride, Jism Break and special editions of Strictly Come Dancing and Planet Earth. Songs included Stuck in Dissection with You, Patients, as performed by reformed 90’s Man band “Take Smack”, Oh I wish I wasn’t a new doctor, and the Kanye West classic Goldigga as an ode to Harold Shipman.

Although the faculty of Medicine office will insist that it never goes out of its way to inconvenience students, I think the revue has a lot to thank them for. By employing legions of form-shredders, the faculty office provides the medics revue with a wealth of material, without which it would be purely smut. Fortunately for the Revue, there are other aspects of medicine which provide good satirical material, and curiously it is often the most serious situations which make the best ideas. Reading through Revue sketches can at times be highly enlightening when colleagues present ideas involving dead babies and serial killers which are often deeply disturbing and inappropriate. But at times like this I realise that I would prefer to be treated by someone who knows how to unwind, let off steam and ultimately enjoy their job by laughing at the bizarre situations they experience. Rather than by someone who takes the stresses and worries of dead babies home with them, and the legacy of serial killers to the bedside of me, their next patient!

There is no other student body in the University that puts on anything like it and its great to see so many medical students, doctors and allied health professionals (buzz word lingo!) turn up and have a great night. The Medics Revue provides the best form of communication skills teaching a medical student can get and gives the medical school more feedback than any number of evaluation forms filled in on Minerva.

This year’s proceeds will be donated to St Luke’s Hospice and although the final figure is not yet known it is expected to be in the region of £1500.

Please look out for a DVD of this years show available soon. Thank you to all those who came along and helped make this year the most successful yet. Until next year, keep laughing.

Craig Lawton- Director, Miss Congenital Abnormality. For more funny stuff and information about Sheffield Medics Revue visit www.sheffieldmedicsrevue.co.uk

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MedSex in the Steel City Sheffield MedSex is a medical student-led initiative aiming to teach sex and relationships education (SRE) to school-aged children in the South Yorkshire area. With rocketing rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unwanted teen pregnancies amongst young people, fun and interactive teaching programmes covering important topics such as positive relationships, STIs and contraception are a vital part of a young person’s education.

Since first approaching schools last summer, MedSex now has links with at least five local secondary schools, where facilitators lead small group sessions during timetabled Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE) lessons, or as part of an off-timetable day. All facilitators are given basic training prior to working in schools, with emphasis on how to plan and facilitate lessons on the various topics.

Following an introductory training weekend led by the MedSex Committee, student facilitators have the opportunity to take part in a sexual health training course run by the Centre for HIV and Sexual Health in Sheffield, who have given MedSex huge support from the start and continue to be involved in the training of all of our facilitators. Only 18 months following the idea for a Sheffield branch, we now have over 100 students involved with MedSex, working in schools and taking part in related projects, with our third training weekend having just taken place.

As a branch of Sexpression UK*, a nationwide organisation consisting of similar groups at medical schools across the UK, we meet annually with other Sexpression groups to share our work and learn more about current topics relevant to the sexual health of young people. When four Sheffield third years attended the 2005 National Conference in Newcastle, Sheffield MedSex was born, and now, less than two years after our launch, Sheffield will play host to the conference, entitled ‘Sex in the Steel City’ in October 2007 - watch out for more information of how to be involved in the coming months.

So why get involved with MedSex? You may wonder how teaching kids how to put a condom on a carrot will further your medical career, but the teaching and communication skills practiced during your training, and the work itself, are likely to be essential to your career as a doctor. Working with MedSex is not only great fun, but by leading sessions in schools, you could potentially be positively influencing the sexual health choices of a generation of young people, whilst improving your own sexual health knowledge and skills.

And, in the words of one Year 8 pupil – ‘MedSex rocks!’

If you would like to get involved with Sheffield MedSex, then please get in touch at sheffieldmedsex@gmail.com * Dosani S. Let’s Talk about Sex http://www.studentbmj.com/back_issues/0203/life/28.html

At any one moment in time 7,000 people require a bone marrow transplant. Every year 24,000 men, women and children are diagnosed with leukaemia and if their treatment fails, a transplant is the only option they have left. The Anthony Nolan trust is working towards every patient who is waiting for a match, but this is not possible without volunteers.

Shirley Nolan founded the trust in 1971 when her son needed a transplant. In 1971 bone marrow registers did not exist and tragically Anthony died in 1976. The trust maintains a database of tissue types from all of its volunteers. Currently it is the largest register in the U.K, but despite this, it is still lacking.

Due to genetic inheritance it is more likely to find a match within the same ethnic group and currently the ethnic minorities are severely underrepresented on the register. These minorities therefore only have a 32% chance of finding a match. This is something that needs to change.

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Marrow is a branch of the Anthony Nolan trust. It was founded in 1998 and is run by medical students.

It accounts for 25% of all new donors to the register and certainly the most eligible donors (since most are younger and physically fitter). Over 3 years 86 lives have been saved by recruitment of donors via Marrow. Turnout at clinics suggest that such trends are on the increase.

Sheffield Marrow is an expanding society. We regularly hold recruitment clinics around university halls and the student union. Fundraising socials and events are planned to raise both money and awareness. There are many ways you can get involved with Sheffield Marrow- either flyering, phlebotomy at clinics, counselling potential donors or just simply helping out at fundraisers. We always welcome new members so if you are interested in what we do then please contact us at; Sheffield@marrow-uk.org

NORTHWING REVIEWS! 2006 FILM REVIEW: Northwing is an annual edition so, instead of reviewing current films, I’ve decided to review the best and worst films of 2006 (in my opinion of course). I’ll start with the worst.

WORST FILM: HOODWINKED Hoodwinked, what poor graphics you have….and Hoodwinked, what a big waste of money you are…

Has Hollywood gone too far with animated features? It’s what one film critic asked not so long ago and my answer is a strong affirmative YES. You know Hollywood has gone too far when it starts churning out rubbish such as Hoodwinked.

This 2005 film (released only few months ago in the UK) is a 21st Century twist on the tale of Little Red Riding Hood.

The film starts at the end of the well-known tale. Police officers, played by a range of animals, are investigating several charges that have been made in relation to Red (Anne Hathaway), the Wolf (Patrick Warburton), Granny (Glenn Close) and the Woodsman (James Belushi) and whether any of them are to blame for the thefts of recipes from ‘goody shops’ within the town. Sound confusing? That’s because it is. This film is the biggest pile of turd I have watched since Flubber back in 1997. Not even the references to popular culture were enough to interest me in the slightest. My feelings are so strongly negative. I believe if Supernanny, Jo Frost, wanted to punish a three-year-old screaming toddler she needn’t put him on the naughty step, she should make the little terror watch this terrible animation along with its terribly confusing plot and even more terrible graphics. In fact, the CG was so bad I honestly believe I could have created a better animation myself using the free crayons they give you with a kid’s meal at Pizza Hut! With the remarkable Glenn Close voicing one of the main characters, you wouldn’t have thought this film could go wrong.

But it really does tick all the wrong boxes. I wouldn’t recommend watching this film.

Low budget was perhaps to blame for this monstrosity but I blame poor effort. An abysmal film with a deceiving trailer.

Verdict: Don’t waste your money renting it.

Other turkeys; Basic Instinct2, Wicker Man, Trust the Man, Little Man…any other film with the word ‘man’ in it…

BEST FILM: CASINO ROYALE

This is a vast improvement since the last Bond film back in 2002. Casino Royale tells the story of James Bond in the beginning and how he came to be the great 007. I guarantee there is something in it for everyone. For the ladies (or men) there is the stunning Daniel Craig. The scene where he emerges from the sea in his trunks... just fabulous! For the men there are the beautiful bond girls-Eva Green and Caterina Murino...and for those of you who are attracted to weird looking people there is the evil bond villain with the crazy eye. On top of that you've got amazing cars, Daniel Craig, mesmerizing cinematography, powerful sound effects, romance!, great music, Daniel Craig, vivid special effects, witty one-liners, edge of your seat action sequences, a genuinely excellent script and did I mention Daniel Craig? There is also a fair amount of reference to medicine, with a nod to the importance asthma inhalers and their use and a memorable cardiac arrest scene, to name but a few. So if you are contemplating whether or not to watch it, our verdict is that this film is spectacular!

Also enjoyable was; Borat, The Queen, The Devil Wears Prada, United 93

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BOOK REVIEWS

Edited by Kate Clarke

Roitt’s Essential Immunology (11th Edition) By Peter J. Delves, Seamus J. Martin, Dennis R. Burton and Ivan M. Roitt. Blackwell Publishing 2006. ISBN 1405136030. Price: £36.99 An entire book on immunology is not really necessary for the Sheffield curriculum. I was not very enthusiastic about reviewing one either. However, I have to say this one was very good. The subject matter is not easy, and it is not particularly clinical (none of the authors are clinicians). Despite this, it is clearly set out, has plenty of diagrams and explains complicated ideas well. There are also interesting historic asides and quotes from researchers. If immunology interests you and you are looking for a text on it then this is definitely worth a look. By Simon Matthews.

Essentials of Clinical Immunology (5th Edition) By Helen Chapel, Mansel Haeney, Siraj Misbah and Neil Snowden.

Blackwell publishing 2006. ISBN 1405127619. Price £34.99 From the outset, this book uses a simple, easy-to-follow structure. There are coherent explanations and good diagrams throughout. This book has a strong clinical emphasis. The chapters on immunity, allergies and infection would be useful for ILAs. It is not really necessary to possess a book on immunology since the lectures you get cover all you need to know. However, I would recommend having a flick through the first few chapters of this book, just to consolidate and clarify your lecture notes. This may be worth borrowing from the library but it is not one to invest in. By Samar Mahmood Psychiatry by Neel Burton and Bill Fulford. Blackwell Publishing 2006. ISBN: 1405136529. Price: £22.99 This book was a great help throughout the phase 3a Psychiatry module. It covered most of the leaning points and many of the chapters corresponded with the ILA objectives. The first section covers history taking, terminology and the mental health act. The second examines the epidemiology, aetiology, clinical features, investigations and management of psychiatric conditions. These are concise and easy to understand. There are short case studies and historical asides throughout. On the down side, it does not discuss treatments in great detail. Supplementary aids may be needed. In all, however, this is a great aid for the ILAs. I’d give it 4/5. By Tom Mace The Oxford Handbook of Medical Sciences. Edited by Robert Wilkins, Simon Cross, Ian Megson and David Meredith. Oxford University Press 2006. ISBN 0198528299 Price £22.95 The Oxford Handbook of Medical Sciences is a concise text that covers all the major systems. It includes relevant information on anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pathology and pharmacology. The text is well organized and it is easy to flick through to the required chapter. There are also frequent cross-references with The Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine in order to highlight the clinical relevance of the main points. This book would make a good revision tool. However, I found it is less useful as a learning aid. There is little explanation and a prior knowledge is assumed. By Amy Clifford.

Paediatrics and Child Health ( 2nd Edition) By Mary Rudolf and Malcolm Levene. Published March 2006 by Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 1405126612. Price £32.50 Paediatrics is a difficult module to get through, and having your own textbook is a must.

This book includes a summary mind-map, and a list of key-points that you should cover during the chapter. This helps to highlight the bits you need to know. However, be aware that this is a problem based book and therefore not entirely suitable for our hybrid course!

I did find the lack of pictures a bit off-putting. The authors use diagrams rather than photographs. This makes it harder to relate things to actual case presentations. On the plus side, it comes with a CD Rom which shows you how to examine a child. I probably would not buy this book, but it might come in useful for revision. By Tom Bircher

The Oxford Handbook of Clinical Diagnosis. By Huw Llewelyn, Hock Aun Ang, Keir E Lewis, and Annes Al-Abdullah.

Oxford University Press 2006. ISBN 100192632493. Price £24.99

This is another reliable guide from the Oxford Handbooks series. It takes a symptom or physical finding and lists the possible differential diagnoses. It includes a summary of the investigations needed. It also refers the reader to the relevant pages in The Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine. This book could be used as a revision aid. It would provide a comprehensive list of diagnoses when you are taking histories on the ward. This would be a useful book to have, but it is not essential. By Niamh Carey Lecture Notes: Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. (7th edition). By John L Reid, Peter Rubin and Matthew Walters.

Blackwell Publishing 2006. ISBN:1405135190. Price £18.99

Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics is a concise book about modern pharmacology.

It gives a good introduction to each subject and explains the relevant pathophysiology of each condition. The authors use a systematic approach to diseases. This helps to clarify underlying concepts before you are bombarded with drug classes and names. Overall, this is very clinically oriented book that I might use to revise for my finals.

By Fawaz I. Al-Hassani The Oxford Handbook of Clinical Specialties (7th edition). By Judith Collier and Murray Longmore. Oxford University Press 2006. ISBN 0198530854. Price £24.95 As part of the ever increasing series of Oxford Clinical Handbooks, this book inherits the familiar traits of its parent, the renowned Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine. However, I can’t help but feel that this book is trying to force too many topics into a single volume. Despite this, it is an extremely useful book which is more than a mere reference tool. It contains loads of information on the major specialties. There are sections on Obstetrics, Paediatrics, Gynaecology, Psychiatry, Ophthalmology, Primary Care, ENT, Dermatology, Anaesthetics, Orthopaedics and Trauma. This book is brilliant at condensing a lot of information into a pocket sized, easy-to-navigate book. It would make a useful addition to any library. However, as an undergraduate I would not use it as a replacement for good individual textbooks on Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Paediatrics and Psychiatry. However, I would say it’s pretty useful to have close at hand. By Craig Lawton.

Lecture Notes: Emergency Medicine (3rd Edition). By Chris Moulton and David Yates. Blackwell Publishing 2006.

ISBN:1405122730. Price £ 24.99 Emergency Medicine Lecture Notes is a comprehensive and clearly laid out text. It covers every aspect of emergency medicine from sprained 5th metatarsals to penetrating trauma.

Diagrams, though few and far between, are accurate and helpful. Tables are filled with applicable facts and figures and the index is easy to use. However if you’re looking for a quick guide to the acute medicine placements, this is not really the book for you. Passages are wordy and include physiology and pathology. It is almost like a mini Kumar and Clarke or an Oxford Handbook. Overall a useful and complete text for those interested in Acute Medicine but a bit dry for daily use. By Beth Morgan.

Infection: Microbiology and Management. Third Edition. By Barbara Bannister, Stephen Gillespie and Jane Jones.

Blackwell publishing 2006. ISBN 1405126655 Price £ 37.99 The title of the book seems rather dramatic on first appearance. However, it makes the daunting amount of microbiology seem quite friendly really. The book is broken down into useful sections of the body systems. It also examines infections affecting more than one system. This book explains the nature, diagnosis and management of infection in a more comprehensive manner than standard clinical textbooks. It makes good links between pathology and clinical features. The photos and diagrams are excellent with some quite “arty” ones. There was also good use of pound coins to compare size, for example, with some rashes.

If you are thinking about buying microbiology textbook, this is one of the better ones. It doesn’t skimp on detail but still keeps your attention. Considering the amount of microbiology in exams, I would recommend a thorough one, like this. By Katie Brodie

‘I’m not a Sundaylunchaholic!

No, I’m just a social Sunday luncher.’

and funny drinks measures – apparently you can only get squash in half pints? We gave it 6/10.

Northwing reviews where (and where perhaps not) to go for a Sunday lunch in Sheffield.

By: Katie Brodie, Rachel Mercer, Lena Jawad and Puneet Tailor.

Edited by Puneet Tailor

Aunt Sally’s Known as Lynwood House, the property was owned for some time by a gentleman involved in the Sheffield Steel Industry, and the foundations and cellars were heavily fortified by massive steel constructions, (which can still be seen below ground level), to enable its occupants to survive a bomb attack during wartime. The name Aunt Sally goes hand in hand with our own Aunt Sally of Sheffield, who used to be a Tiller Girl many years ago. Aunt Sally herself has celebrated her 85th Birthday, and still does a lot of good work raising money for charity. She also assists budding actors and actresses to fulfil their dreams on stage. Her own life has also been portrayed on BBC Television's 'This Is Your Life'.

£9.35 for two is fairly average compared to the rest of the crop so no surprises there. The beef was ok – and that’s just it – it really wasn’t memorable. The chicken on the other hand was really tender and came as ½ a chicken – now that’s what I call a portion! We ordered at the bar and the waiters brought the food over to our table when it was ready. The lunches came on big oval plates and were filled with brilliant roasties stuffing and the works. The veggies were the big let-down here, really just a bit school dinners-ish – dumped and soggy.

There’s a real family atmosphere there masses of non-smoking area and lively Abba music in the background. Niggling points included slow service 33

Bar S1 It’s definitely where I go most often and as a seasoned Sunday luncher that has to mean a lot right from the start. S1 has decent range of bottled and on tap beers at reasonable prices. The Sunday lunch its self is £4.95 or £6.95 for two, and this is by far the best value of all the pubs/bars/inns that we’ve reviewed. There’s beef, turkey or chicken here and as with Aunt Sally’s it’s half a big chicken!

There’s a really lovely mash (to which I always add a dollop of mustard) and a few nice roasties and new potatoes. The veg is slightly better prepared than Aunt Sally’s and there’s a better range including broccoli and cauliflower.

There are 2 big highlights at S1 – first there’s big plasma screens generally showing channel 4 or E4 meaning I get my weekly dose of Friends etc. And finally the piece de resistance – the entire Sunday lunch is served inside a whopping great big Yorkshire pudding!! Oh I’m feeling ravenous just writing about it and it’s still only bloody Tuesday!!

S1 has to be my most frequented place and gets a deserving 7.5/10.

The Harley It’s a great place to drink and play pool, and an even better place for Sunday lunch. Huge comfy sofas excellent bar and pool table are the Harley’s big attractions. However these also attract equally big prices. The Sunday lunch here is two for £10, and I don’t remember what it is for one – if you’re disappointed in me for that then here are my reasons – you take someone to the Harley not go alone.

Anyway, on with the food. If you thought even S1 wasn’t enough for you then you’ve come to the right place. This is another bar which (for an additional 70p) serves everything in a giant Yorkie and it’s just oh so scrumptious! Even the contents it big – bit succulent roasties, big chunky carrots and big shredded cabbage, all of which I think were cooked in the oven with the roast potatoes – so none of that school/halls comparisons bollocks. And now we come to the meat – they never pretend to have everything in stock, they just simply tell you what’s available at the bar. Generally there’s always beef and most of the time pork and lamb.

The portions are brilliant – layers and layers and layers of carefully carved, quality meat. Not quite as ‘melt in your mouth’ as Strines, but close to it.

I’m sure there’s a vegetarian option as well, though I don’t actually ever remember trying it.

The Harley is my favourite place – it’s next door to the union (which means less than 3 minutes from my house) and makes you feel like an adult as opposed to some of these studenty places like S1.

A big 8.5/10 from me.

Yates In a word: rubbish and far away on Division Street (err…that’s more than one word, isn’t it, sorry).

Everything was small and the whole thing was bone dry (with possibly only a teaspoon of gravy). I go for Sunday lunch every Sunday and I haven’t been back to Yates since this experience. We had to wait about an hour before the food arrived and when it did finally get there we were greeted with the smallest Yorkshire pud I’ve ever seen (apart from back in school when I was 5) and halls food style veg, i.e. a mixture of over cooked and not at all. I couldn’t comment on the meat because all they had left was beef or veg and being a Hindu I couldn’t go for beef so vegetarian option it was – and wow what an option. It was this leek, something and cheese patty type thing which was absolutely awesome.

So all in all I gave it 2/10 (1/2 a point for the mere fact it’s better than going hungry and the rest for that marvellous vegetarian creation)

Wetherspoon’s – The Swim Inn It’s been a while since I’ve been to a Spoons – and as a place with a nationally standardised menu, you always know exactly what you’re getting. It was £5.49 for the Sunday lunch and includes a drink.

The range of drinks is average – glass of Fetzer wine (and of whatever colour takes your fancy, solong as it’s red, white or pink) which is palatable and goes well with the food but isn’t anything worth shouting about, there’s a range of beers –

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mostly cheap ones, or you can opt for a soft drink or J2O (I’ve looked long and hard and I still can’t find the element J in the periodic table). The food wasn’t anything more than bog standard and consisted of the fairly standard meat, veg, roasties, and Yorkshire pud with gravy. Not as good as some of Wetherspoon’s other main meals but still not too bad. Service in the Swim Inn is very good and, as with the rest of the bars I’ve written up, it’s order at the bar style.

There are no puddings on the menu but there are a number of cakes and a t’interval hot chocolate can easily suffice for dessert. For you vegetarians, the garlic and herb quorn steak was first-rate and, for all the lazy students, the Interval is close enough to stumble into, so at £4.50 it is definitely worth a visit, 7/10.

Strines Moor Inn Interestingly at Wetherspoon’s there’s the option of paying an extra pound and having a desert included.

The range of deserts is limited – a couple of fairly plain ice creams and the standard fudge cake and apple pie. But who am I if not a student!

After careful consideration I’ve awarded it 4.5/10 on the basis that it’s got variety with the drinks and desert options, pretty good service, but just not very memorable.

From the outside this may look like a walker’s pub but inside the food is some of the best I have tasted.

The inn has the charm of a rural pub; you can quite happily sit by a log fire all afternoon, sample any of the local ales on tap and possibly end up making friends with the people next to you if you are unlucky to get those couple of table that are separated by less than a foot.

Interval Interval is the home to hordes of students in the week but it is reasonably quiet on a Sunday. It serves from 12-4pm on a Sunday with a choice of beef, turkey or a vegetarian option. We ordered at the bar and were served our meals within 10 minutes, so full marks for speed. The food on the whole was good and the quiet atmosphere is perfect for recovering from a night at Pop Tarts: the sympathetic jugs of water on the side were a nice finishing touch to quench the hangover. The portions are huge with mountains of fresh vegetables. The roasties were definitely not crispy and the meat was slightly dry but, all smothered in gravy with cranberry sauce and a Yorkshire pudding, it was just what the doctor ordered.

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The drive takes about 15 minutes or so going up Manchester Road and then taking a quick turn off to the right, which has been missed on numerous occasions despite there being a signpost here. The grounds are beautiful with a collection of peacocks running round and views over the reservoirs

Then comes the Sunday roast; the meat will fall apart in your mouth, the potatoes will be crisp on the outside and perfect on the inside, there will be enough varieties of vegetables to satisfy even your grandparents and if you are sensible you will order all this inside a huge Yorkshire pudding. I have to say I have never actually finished a meal but that isn’t for want of trying. It is a little bit of a way out of Sheffield but along with a little walk to build up you appetite it’s the perfect Sunday outing! Sitting beside the fire I am very pleased with how far my £7.50 has gone here and I am awarding it a commendable 9/10. WINNER!!

The Old Grindstone, Crookes If you’re looking for a traditional pub that’s different to the bustling student bars of West Street, with a mix of both students and locals, then the Old Grindstone in Crookes is the place to be! It’s never too busy yet there are usually enough people to create a warm friendly atmosphere. I paid a visit one quiet Sunday afternoon and let’s just say I didn’t have any trouble finding a seat!

The Fulwood Inn This is at the top of the Sunday lunch range: three courses, waiter service, every type of meat there is, gravy in a gravy boat and a secluded dining room to eat it in. The after-dinner entertainment should also satisfy most people. There is always a range of papers, multiple beers on tap and a pool table without any regulars to monopolise it.

The carvery smelt great as I walked in, and I was served almost straight away. As we all (should) know, there is an art to filling up the plate as much as possible without making an embarrassment of yourself by dropping food all over the floor. This day in particular was no different, and I am confident I got my £5.95’s worth.

The Sunday roast is excellent, trimmings to go with whichever meat you choose, and lots of them, steamed vegetables on the side and crunchy roast potatoes. Finally, if you can fit one in, there is an extensive menu of mouth-watering desserts, all in the traditional English style. It is more expensive, at up to £10 per main course, but a relaxed atmosphere in the main bar, a quiet and comfortable dining area with fast waiter service and a huge range of choice makes it a great place spend a lazy Sunday afternoon, 8/10.

Having said this, I must say that I was a little disappointed with the overall quality of the meal.

The vegetables were nice and crunchy in texture but the beef was a little tough. The potatoes and Yorkshire puds were nothing out of the ordinary.

As it was a quiet day it appeared as though the food had been sitting out for quite some time and so was not exactly piping hot. Although a generous portion of hot gravy certainly made up for that. The service can be a bit grumpy at the Grindstone-though this wasn’t on a Sunday. I was somewhat disappointed with what the Sunday Carvery had to offer, so only 5/10. .

By Catherine Ciaputa

By Rachel Mercer

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Things to do at the Weekend in Sheffield Are you ever bored at weekends? Have you ever watched the “Bid-TV” channels, whilst lying on the sofa in a somnolent manner, wishing that you had something to do? Northwing endeavours to help you discover a bit of culture in Sheffield….

The Weston Park Museum This museum has just re-opened after 3 years of redevelopment at a cost of over £17 million. The company responsible for the fitting out of the gallery spaces also fitted out the Imperial War Museum in Manchester, Dubai's Islamic Art museum and parts of Disneyland!

The museum used to be called the Sheffield City Museum and Mappin Art Gallery until 2006. It originally opened in 1875, and housed Sheffield's archaeology, natural history, decorative art and social history collections. The museum has been updated to appeal to families and non-traditional museum visitors as well as the seasoned museum visitor. There are five galleries: Sheffield Life and Times, What on Earth!, Treasures, About Art and the Harold Cantor Gallery (changing exhibitions). The What on Earth! gallery has live beesstrangely pleasant to watch- and ants, with “ant and bee cameras” so you can see what’s happening in the nests.

You can test your strength against animals (I’m a gorilla!) and see the giant woolly rhinoceros. In the Arctic area, dressing up as an inuit was rather novel too (never too old-ed).

The museum foyer is airy and light with a weather station (there has been monitoring of weather at Weston Park since 1887 and it supplies the Met Office).The whole museum, infact, has a spacious feel and if you look up you can see the old wooden beams and ceilings have been restored beautifully. There are nice, cosy seats where you can sit and ponder. The exhibits in the museum include painting, models, videos and so many interactive items-it was a fun experience and we even learnt some new things. This reviewer took the opportunity to make a woolly mammoth mask and dress up as a Victorian maid!

The café is a fantastic place to come on its own merit. Its huge windows let the sun in and it serves baked potatoes, paninis, roast meat baguettes and sausage and bacon rolls. The shop is worth a visit-it actually sells rather nice greeting cards.

Considering its proximity to the union and hospitals, the Weston Park Museum really is a must!

Opening Times Mon-Sat 10am- 5pm Sun 11am- 5pm Admission FREE (by donation)

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GRAVES ART GALLERY When I was told we were going to run a feature on Sheffield Museums, I have to say I wasn’t overly enthusiastic. Nevertheless, I put my professional journalistic attitude first and was on my way to the Graves Art Museum smack bang in the centre of Sheffield.

The gallery opened in 1934 and shares a building with the Public Library. On arrival at my destination I was greeted by a bunch of wolf-whistling school-children (not the most appropriate welcome I could have received). Trying to escape from them as quickly as possible, I wasn’t able to enjoy the first room to its full potential.

However, I don’t think I missed out on much to be honest. But what I did notice from the first two rooms was the child-friendly atmosphere it deployed. There were several small stations; each containing pads of paper and crayons on small desks which allowed children to create their own masterpieces. However, it was through this system that I also learnt the hurtful truth of what today’s younger generation had become. Upon viewing one child’s artwork entitled ‘Neil is gay’ I felt that perhaps the kids weren’t using such opportunities within the hoped intentions that the museum staff had had in mind.

Moving on…the second room contained a variety of sculptures…now I wish I could appreciate art enough to say they were beautiful but in all honesty, I think I could have created something better with my feet. The third room stowed similar sculptures (some verging on pornographic territory but I suppose it’s art!) In addition, this room exhibited a variety of contempory landscape paintings, all of which I agree, were pretty to look at but not stunning enough to make me stop in my tracks. My attention began to wonder to other things, but that was before I entered…

The penultimate room. This room was without a doubt the best room in the gallery. It showcases the works of the late world -renowned Welsh photographer Angus McDean who has snapped up a huge variety of stars from the world of film (Audrey Hepburn, Luise Rainer, Marlene Dietrich, Vivien Leigh), music (The Beatles, Shirley Bassey, Cliff Richard, Maria Callas) and miscellaneous others (Jean Paul Gaultier, Vivienne Westwood, Spike Milligan, Agatha Christie) etc.

Perhaps the most exciting commodity in the room was McDean’s guest book which was signed by those who attended his famous London studio including the fabulous four themselves. These photos were awesome.

The last room was full of impressionist works and modern art and were relatively interesting then something had caught my eye. Enclosed in a glass case was the work of one of my favourite artists, Pablo Picasso. I could not believe that of all the places in the world, Sheffield stocked Picasso! These were an absolutely brilliant ending.

So all in all, a good gallery. I’m sure all art enthusiasts amongst you would love it and should certainly pay it a visit. For me the best part was the Picasso collection and the uber-glamorous McDean exhibition but that’s all down to personal taste really. If you do get hungry, there is a café located within the gallery but my advice is to keep expectations low. Apart from the obvious mishaps, it was a fun hour and I do feel a lot more cultural having visited this vicinity. If you feel like doing something completely different for a day and fancy escaping this world of science in which we are all bound, then by all means give it a go.

Katie Brodie & Lena Jawad

Crossword Puzzle Answers Across 5. Raynauds 6. Chorea 10. Vasopressin 11. Apoptosis 13. Giardia lamblia 16. Reticulocytes 20. Spider naevi 21. Paget 22. Capitate 23. Scorpion sting

Down 1. Ipsilateral 2. Bronchiectasis 3. KUB 4. Meckel’s 7. Rifampicin 8. Helicobacter 9. Goodpasture 12. Lyme 14. Courvoisier 15. Borborygmi

17. Ataxia 18. Copper 19. Soleus

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Northwing Profiles: Medics’ Hockey Ok, so the hockey team may have just lost out on the National Association of Medics’ Sports (NAMS) cup this year but they’re still champions in their own right. Being one of the biggest sporting clubs within the medical school with well over sixty members to its name, Sheffield University Medics’ Hockey are a definite success story. Success is not only marked by the number of trophies in the cabinet or how many goals are scored. It is measured by the benefits brought to each and every one of its members; happiness, team-play and social well-being to name but a few. Northwing investigates the reason why this eclectic team is such a great asset to the Medical School.

Work hard….

…Play harder!

The Snakes (club nickname) owe their remarkable skill and talent to the great effort they put into training. In deed, despite the large number of very able players, the club also welcomes people of all capabilities to play alongside themtrust me, they even let me play with them once! They come together twice a week to train at the Goodwin Sports Centre. On Tuesdays they have the 6-a-side intramural league where they play other departments within the University. For this particular league the Medics have four teams, one of which is in fact currently ranked at the top.

Furthermore, they play on Fridays for another intramural league, this time it’s an 11-a-side.

Manchester as close friends. They may need a few months to rekindle things with Nottingham though. And it’s not just touring. If you’re a Snake you’ll be given the opportunity to writhle your way through the sometimes vibrant Sheffield night-scene and who better to show you what the Steel City has to offer than the older Snakes themselves who know it inside out. They’ll take care of you and organise exciting socials that’ll put all socials to an end. Whether it’s the curry nights, fancy dress innuendos or just a few drinks at The Place…Who said hockey was all about hitting a ball with a stick?

Their ethic is simple; have fun. Anything else is a bonus.

It is perhaps this concept which they carry lightly on their shoulders that has led them down the road to success. As well as the success they have achieved internally, their victory can be extended to a national level. In 2004 and 2005 the Snakes won the NAMS trophy. In this extensive tournament, hockey teams from medical schools around the country compete to win the prestigious NAMS cup. So to have won it twice in the past four years…well, to say it was great is an understatement. Perhaps incredible would be more fitting considering how physically demanding and competitive hockey is, as well as the fact that several other medical schools are producing equally talented players. In 2006 they were NAMS finalists and just last week they became 2007 finalists after unfortunately being pipped to the post…bloody Nottingham!

Being a member of the hockey club means you will reap all the wonderful things it has to offer you. As well as playing with a delightful, welcoming and humorous group of people, you will also get to tour the country with them.

Past tours have included destinations as florid as Edinburgh, Manchester, Amsterdam and the delightful Dublin. They tour with other medical schools and it is through such activities that Sheffield Medical School forms strong alliances with them. They count Southampton and 39

The opposite page provides a chance to see who the current committee are as well as a few dedicated players who have been with the team since they first stepped foot into Sheffield. Go and meet them, they’re all lovely!

So what have we learnt from the hockey club? They’re a group of very friendly people who welcome anyone interested in hockey (from Freshers to complete hockey beginners) to come and play with them no matter what your level of ability is. The range of people playing on the field is so diverse yet somehow they all manage to mix very well with each other, resulting in what? A friendly atmosphere and friends for life. Several players stick with the club throughout their whole degree and some even come back after they’ve graduated. We have also learnt that despite their warm personalities, collectively, their musical preference is abysmal…only 2 out of the 11 preferring Madonna to Kylie…what the bloody hell is that about?! So come along if you’re interested or even if you just fancy any one of the members on the right? It’s what makes the Sheffield Medics Hockey club the true number ones, the true champions. Lena Jawad

Player Profiles

Name (nickname); Phase; Hometown; Position on team; Type of doctor you’d like to be; Favourite food; Favourite music; Favourite film; Childhood hero; Party trick; Kylie or Madonna; EX 1st Team and Club Captain

Joint Club Captain

1st Team Club Captain

Joint Club Captain

Nicola McLernan (Double Curry) 3b Aberdeen Midfield Tropical Medicine, Paediatrics?

Curry or Thai Rock, Dance, RnB, Cheese Indiana Jones, Lost In Translation Indiana Jones Animal Impressions Kylie

James Briscoe (Bully) 3a Kendal Defender A nice one Malteasers Jack Johnson High Fidelity My dad Moving little toe individually Kylie

Zoe Thurlwell (Zo) 3b St. Bees Defender A good one!

Chinese Poptarts-esque Three Men and a Little Lady Mary Poppins I wish I had one!

Kylie

Treasurer

EX 1st Team Club Captain

Kit Secretary

Andrew Chetwood (Chets) 4 (BMedSci) Camberley Centre forward A good one!

Argentinian fillet steak Faithless American history X Brian Lara Qualified dolphin trainer Madonna

Caroline Barclay (Carolina) 4 (BMedSci) Manchester Mid-field/Forward Part-time, extremely rich one Chocolate Hip-hop Old School!

David Beckham My tongue is extremely long Madonna

Social Secretary

Goal-Scoarer Extraordinaire

Friday Night Captain

Alice Robson (Robson) 3a Newcastle Forward A wicked one!

Soreen Loaf Nina Simone Pretty Woman Jonathan Edwards Reciting MSE(backwards+tipsy) Kylie

George Cooke 1b Liverpool Rater-for-Later/Bench Warmer Endocrinologist/Neurologist Sushi a-la-Geoffrey Tavener The Draytones Zoolander/Dodgeball/Anchorman Andrew Chetwood Russian Dance Kylie

Francesca Mortimer (Chez) 3b Congleton Midfield A good doctor.

Scones Girls Aloud Wedding Crashers Don’t really have one!

Probably being the most drunk Definitely Kylie!

Rich Waldock (Milky) 4 Cambridge Centre Mid Field Surgeon Milky Bars Kooks, Franz Ferdinand, Strokes Braveheart Ronald MacDonald I don’t have one!

Kylie

Anna Waylen 3b (BMedSci) Swindon Right Half Undecided Indian Red Hot Chilli Peppers Forrest Gump David Beckham Animal Facts Kylie Fresher’s Captain

Vivek Balachandar (Teabag) 1a Birmingham Left Midfield No idea yet! Anaesthetist?

Ranmoor chips&mushy peas!

Dance/R’nb Lion King My mum awww!

Well my nickname is teabag lol…

Kylie

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FORTITER FIDELITER FORSAN FELICITER

A review of the Medics sports season 06/07 by Terence McLoughlin

This year has seen the introduction of a new team, a Medics Dentists sports day charity event and a spark of success on the field for many of the 12 medical school teams. Here is a brief look at what’s been going down outside of lectures and placements and in the medics sporting arena that many of the 1300 medical students at Sheffield are involved in.

Badminton is a small club training down at Goodwin Sports Centre and developing in to a club for the future-they will be travelling over to local rivals Leeds Medical School soon for an inter-medical school derby to bring some silverware back to South Yorkshire!

Cricket is taking off over the next few months in what we hope will be a busy summer schedule for with local Medical schools interested in trying their luck against Sheffield Medics. Training will be down at the Goodwin nets so as with any other enquiries contact MEDSOC if you are interested.

Golf is being managed by Jay Watson with weekly trips down to the range and the prospect of a Medics Dentists competition as well as local medical school derbies in the pipeline.

Hockey has a very strong team with 80 plus members. They reached the final of NAMS this year and have an excellent pedigree turning out players of a great standard as well as an established programme of developing new players to the game.

They have inter-medical year league as well as several Intramural teams. Furthermore they are touring this year over the border to Edinburgh.

Men’s Football is 3rd in the Sheffield Sports and Athletic league and got to the semi-finals of the Sheffield cup this season. They are off to the NAMS tour to Dundee this year.

Netball has 60 members and the 1st team are 4th in the NAMS league currently. Of the 2 intramural teams, the 1st team is 3rd and the 2nd team 5th.

They are going on tour to Newcastle this season and are regular features in local tournaments around Sheffield.

Rugby is in Yorkshire 5 and currently top of the league having the best defensive record of anyone this season. On writing this article, the first team who are captained by Rob Ferguson are into the NAMS quarter final against old rivals Nottingham Medics.

They toured to Amsterdam (or Amsterdamage as it turned out!) in February with their 1st and 2nd teams winning all their games.

Tennis is being run by Ed Harris and Georgia Smith with regular training sessions down at Goodwin for all abilities. They are optimistic that there will be tournaments versus other medical schools which are being organised for the summer months.

R A E L H C O C O L U B I T S E V O E M

L M M Q S D W T F O E D N G V E W S N T

H A Z U H M M M C R Q D Q I M O A S D C

O S S J L J A U N B A F I Y J E Z Z T G

O L V S D T L M P D A M Z A S L Q A D B

R Y F Y O O I A S C G R S I E A H Z Z F

Y A Y A M L I P I D M X D S P N E Q H L

B F E O C T G A L Q R E P T I I T U C E

U T T L N T L O Y E N O C R L M N A U Q

W O J E H K O Z P O S Q W O E E I P C P

R M M Q N C H R R Y J C R K P G F V E D

P E C C U W O U Y E H L L E S I P J B A

D E I D U M E R L G I D X E Y R I H N U

O N T G R N A K T U N K O V R T V B O J

L G P D R E N I A R G I M A N O W X B M

Z D O O A B D U C E N S H G L F S A T H

Q Y T Y R O S S E C C A E U L X D I O H

S O P A R K I N S O N S X S K F M Z S D

M G L O S S O P H A R Y N G E A L Q I L

B I T E M P O R A L H E M I A N O P I A

Self defence is new this year and is run by Medical school Sportsman of the year Kyle Roys-a karate instructor himself who is developing the club so that in the near future, members will be not only be able to learn various martial arts techniques (Kyle was even able to organise a demo from the GB Karate team last semester) but also be able to go for martial art karate grades.

Basketball has been doing well in the Intramural this season being managed by Rach, Deekes and Ems and have also has been playing in the local NAMS league against other Medical schools.

Squash had their first tournament of the year in February against many medical schools including the likes of Kings and Birmingham Medical schools.

Although competing against serious competition (some had International players!), they held their own finishing mid-table and even came back with the “best drinkers” trophy at the end of the tournament!

Women's Football plays in the Intramural, and has 11a-side on Saturdays in the NAMS league. They have been enjoying a winning streak in the NAMS league, winning the last 3 games and are top of their Intramural league. Furthermore, club captain Kate Matthews won Medical school Sportswoman of the year for her contribution to medics’ sports.

Northwing’s PUZZLE! PUZZLE! NEURO WORDSEARCH In this issue’s wordsearch you’ll find hidden, the twelve cranial nerves and eight neurological conditions. Those eight are as follows; stroke, epilepsy, Parkinson’s, Motor Neurone Disease, migraine, Multiple Sclerosis, dementia and bitemporal hemianopia…enjoy!

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The PDA ; Portable Doctor Advisor?

As many educational institutes have integrated the use of PDAs into their teaching practice, Northwing looks at the growing trend of PDA use in medicine.

PDA stands for Personal Digital Assistant and is the abbreviation used to describe a handheld device capable of organising and managing your data on the move. They go back as far as the 1980s, where they were cumbersome creatures that were glorified address books and calendars. Nowadays the PDA is a powerful beast; being able to connect to the internet, take photos and videos, store music and large amounts of data.

Their use in medicine, at the moment, is limited in this country. However, across the Atlantic the personal digital assistant is extremely popular. Whereas in Sheffield, only a handful of students and doctors have PDAs, in North American hospitals they are common place. At Toronto Medical School, all the students have a PDA and use it to log different patient encounters in their version of the portfolio. In the USA, the use of PDAs by medical staff increased by 47 per cent between 2001 and 2002.A study published in October 2004 by Manhattan Research found that 40 per cent of all American doctors use a PDA, compared with 35 per cent in 2003.

So what’s the story here in the UK? Brighton and Sussex Medical School is the first medical school in the UK to integrate PDAs into undergraduate teaching. The students are given software from the medical school including anatomy study aids, the British National Formulary, medical calculators and databanks of reference values and medical dictionaries.

This pilot proved popular with the students.

When you are blessed with a pearl of wisdom on the ward, instead of jotting it down on a sheet of history paper that won’t make it out of your bag, a PDA allows you to tap it in and file it straight away. The British Medical Journal offers a free service to medical students that allows handheld device users download the weekly table of contents together with abstracts and full text, editor's choice articles, editorials, news, clinical reviews and letters.

Students can synchronise the PDA with their own computer and other PDAs-useful when sharing work in a group.

Then there is the extra-curricular stuff-music, phone, photos, organiser, games, and the internet. No need to elaborate.

What are the bad points?

The cost. A PDA can set you back from as little as £100 all the way up to £600. Some faculties in North America subsidise the cost but this is only a small discount.

Also, in some models, battery life is not long. Not all textbooks come in PDA format and the ones on these small screens, although handy, can’t substitute real sized pages in books.

Some PDAs don’t use Windows.

Using a PDA as a doctor PDAs can offer drug safety alerts to doctors and can assist in reminding doctors on ward rounds of information such as the treatment regimens of patients. PDAs have also been used by patients to record symptoms during follow-up.

Why are PDAs useful to medical students?

The American Medical Students Association states that “Possessing a PDA during the clinical years is now regarded to be nearly as essential as owning a stethoscope”.

Aside from making it remarkably easy to update a portfolio, PDAs allow many e-books to be carried at once, without stretching your pockets or risk leaving it behind somewhere.

They are useful to rapidly look up a topic or drug you don’t understand when in a lecture, clinic or on a ward round.

Placement staples such as The Oxford Clinical Handbook and Oxford Clinical Handbook of Acute Medicine are excellent in PDA format.

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References O. Smørdal, J. Gregory (2003) Personal Digital Assistants in medical education and practice Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 19 (3), 320–329. www.amsa.com

Northwing Crossword 1

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3 4 6

5

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9 10

11

12

13

14 15

16 17

18

19 20

21

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Across 5. Syndrome of episodic digital ischaemia (8) 6. Means dance (6) 10. Other name for ADH (11) 11. Genetically regulated form of cell death affecting individual cells (9) 13. Protozoa causing GI infection (7,7) 16. Immature red blood cells (13) 20. Arachnophobe won’t like this liver sign (6,5) 21. Two diseases named after him, one is of bone (5) 22. Henry VIII not partial to this carpal (8) 23. Unlikely cause of pancreatitis in UK (8,5)

Answers on Page 38

Down 1. On the same side (11) 2. A cause of clubbing (14) 3. Radiological test – more than a Beaver, less than a Scout (3, abbreviation) 4. A type of outpouching following the rule of 2’s (7) 7. Orange urine maker (10) 8. Sounds like a chopper, causes peptic ulcers (12) 9. ‘Pleasant field’ syndrome, glomerulonephritis and haemoptysis (11) 12. A disease that Bambi could potentiate (4) 14. Frenchman, liked gallbladders (11) 15. Some would say ‘rumbly tummy’ (10) 17. Cerebellar walk (6) 18. Too much of this in Wilson’s disease (6) 19. Muscle of the posterior leg, like sun (6)

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