Megan Johnston - Medical Student, Swansea University
I’m going into my fourth (and final!) year at Swansea University as a GEM student. Graduate Entry Medicine (GEM) is a pretty exclusive club, with only a few UK universities offering it as a course. Some universities keep the GEM course entirely separate from the undergraduate programme, and others integrate them, usually in the third year. Swansea is one of a small number of universities that only offer Medicine as a GEM programme, so the course is specifically tailored towards clinical experience and applied sciences, rather than essays or
literature reviews, as you’ve already proved you’re academically capable in your previous degrees. Lots of people find GEM more like a job than a degree, but that doesn’t mean there’s not lots of opportunity to enjoy yourself as well.
City and atmosphere
Swansea is a pretty small and very studenty city. It’s totally liveable without a car, but to really make the most of the surrounding area, it’s handy to be able to drive, (or to know someone who does). Nearby is the Gower, which has award-winning beaches, perfect for sea swimming, surfing or just soaking up the occasional bit of sun. There are lots of independent bars, cafes and restaurants across the city, as well as the famous Wind Street if you fancy a Spoons brekkie after a night in Popworld. Singleton Park next to the University campus hosts concerts throughout the summer, but if you need more action than that
you’re just down the M4 from Cardiff and Bristol for big city living in 60-90 minutes.
Course and teaching style
Swansea follows a spiral curriculum, with a case or presentation-based approach. For example, the theme of the week might be something like “Wheeze” so you’d cover some things like respiratory physiology, spirometry results, lung anatomy, and respiratory examinations. It definitely feels very overwhelming at first, but then in a few weeks, the theme might be “COPD” so you review a lot of the physiology and examinations and build on the basics to differentiate treatments or diagnoses. Because you cover all systems right from the beginning, you can be examined on basically anything at any point, which is pretty scary at first, but sets you up well to be ready for anything.
In the first year a week would roughly look like this:
Monday: Half-day anatomy teaching (with prosections) followed by a half day of lectures.
Tuesday: Half day of clinical skills - practical skills like cannulation, history taking, physical examinations
Wednesday: Half day lectures with afternoon free for sports
Thursday: Either a day placement in GP, or an SDL day (self-directed learning)
Friday: Full day of lectures, including student presentations and ethical sessions
In the second year, anatomy stays on Monday but takes place in the afternoon, and Tuesdays and Thursdays switch. You also get optional half-day clinical experiences called LOCS across the year - this might be joining a clinic or a theatre list - and a couple 5-week blocks of placement to get you used to being in clinical settings.
In the third year, you’re entirely placement-based, either on the Specialty Attachment (SA) pathway or the Primary Care Academy (PCA) pathway. The SA pathway is the traditional pathway, where you’re hospital-based and rotate through 5-week blocks of specialities. For example, the Surgical SA block is one week each with the Vascular, Urology, Colorectal, Breast and Upper Gastro/Hepatobiliary/Bariatric surgery teams.
An example week might look like:
Monday: Urology outpatient clinics
Tuesday: Follow urology FY1 on call
Wednesday: Urology theatre list
Thursday: Urology ward
Friday: Teaching day with radiology and prescribing
You also are expected to do out-of-hours shifts in some blocks, and some blocks include Emergency Simulation teaching which is quite stressful but a lot of fun.
The PCA pathway is relatively new, and means you’re based in one GP practice all year, and are responsible for organising your own secondary care learning opportunities. This requires a lot of self-motivation and organisation, as well as being prepared to move out of Swansea and be mostly on your own for the year.
And in the final year, you have three blocks of placement, plus elective and Senior Student Attachment. Your placement blocks are one surgical, one GP and one medical, with the aim being to get you working and thinking like an FY1! After your elective (usually April time) you have your SSA block. This is unique to Welsh medical schools and involves you shadowing the current FY1 who is doing the job you’ll start as an FY1. This means if you’re staying in Wales for foundation training, you get to know all the staff and get used to the ward with some extra support, so your first day as a fully qualified doctor doesn’t feel as intimidating. If you’re moving out of Wales for foundation training, you still have to complete this block but they try to place you in the speciality you’ll start working in, to give
you some extra confidence.
Swansea is a really clinically focused course, which all the students love as you’re so hands-on from day one!
Research opportunities
Most of the teaching staff have ongoing research projects and are always keen for student support - I know quite a few people who’ve had work published whilst at Swansea. Clinical staff nearly always have some sort of research or audits going on as well, so if you really enjoy a placement, feel free to ask if they have anything you can help out with! As one of only three medical schools in Wales, it’s not uncommon for university speciality societies to organise their own national conferences, so there are lots of opportunities to present any of your own research too!
Intercalating opportunities
Even though everybody at Swansea already has at least one degree, there is still the opportunity to intercalate if you want to, although as not many people do, the pathways to organise and fund it, aren’t well established.
Student life / clubs / societies
Swansea generally is a very social student body, but being a GEM student can feel a bit daunting as you’re older than most of the undergraduate students. There’s plenty of Med Sports Teams which are more relaxed than the formal uni teams but still play in NAMS (which our men’s rugby team won this year!) so are a great way to blow off some steam and talk about things other than medicine. The med sports clubs also run a lot of the socials, so even if you don’t play, you’re always more than welcome to join them for some 2-for-1 cocktails.
There are also academic societies for nearly every medical speciality, as well as SWIM (Swansea Women In Medicine), BAME and Green Medicine societies. It’s really easy to start a society, so if there’s something you feel is missing, go ahead and create it!
Support
The staff at Swansea are really supportive, with Personal Tutors, Year Leads and Student Reps all available to help you with any difficulties you might encounter during the course.
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