 What is up guys Karma medic here and welcome back to another dose. If you're new to the channel then hi my name is Nasser and I'm now a final year medical student studying at Kings College London and it's that time of the year again. I'm sitting here making a video about what my life is like as a fifth year medical student. I've done this every single year for a second, third, fourth and now fifth. If you're interested in seeing what life is like as a medical student across all of those years I'll leave links to those videos somewhere over here on screen in the description down below. Alright so let's talk about our clinical rotations. So we've got two eight-week long blocks, long-term care and acute conditions and then we have GP, career development program, elective and transition to F1. So last block on long-term conditions we had a mix of different specialties that we rotated through and then included everything from resp, dermatology, room, orthopedics, care for the elderly and surgery. I'm reading them off of my screen because I just couldn't remember them all. So we spent one week in each of these specialties except for surgery where we had two. So Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday were expected to be in hospital pretty much from nine to five although I'll admit and be honest that most students including myself don't stay nine to five every single day. It depends on what's happening throughout the day, how much teaching we have, etc. We have a mixture of activities depending on the week but most of our time I'd say spent on the wards, taking part in the wargrounds, taking notes, completing histories, doing jobs after the warground like bloods, etc. And then we also have some schedule teaching throughout the blocks which at my current hospital right now I'm not gonna lie is really not that great. It's been very infrequent and disorganized but we'll take what we can that's from the lecture side and then once a week we had bedside teaching with an F1 doctor or junior doctor which I found extremely helpful because this doctor would go and handpick specific patients that they thought would have good signs for us to listen to or examine and observe and patients that would be willing to talk to us and let them examine them. That doctor also explained things really well I found those sessions incredibly helpful and that sort of small group teaching is something that I wish we had more of. Then once in a blue moon we would have a clinical skills session where we were taught some sort of practical skill for example cannulation, catheterization, whatever but honestly I don't think we've had enough of these I wish there was more time in the clinical skills lab and more bedside teaching. Whilst we're on these rotations we have Wednesdays off, Wednesdays are supposed to be dedicated towards our global health project and our elective. Basically the global health project culminates in a single 1500 word essay and so since I'm probably going to write that essay in one sitting in one day I don't really need to spend time working on it every single Wednesday throughout these blocks. So for myself and for a lot of other students Wednesday is a day off from clinical placement and you can spend it however you want. I've spent most of that time working on things outside of medical schools for example this YouTube channel also doing my exercise, seeing friends, relaxing so I can be energized and motivated and ready to go to clinical placement on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. These Wednesdays are also going to be incredibly useful starting very soon when we need to prepare for our upcoming exams which I'll talk about later on in the video. Then the rotation that I'm currently on right now is called acute care. It's very similar to what I just described before but we rotate through different specialties. Once again I'm going to read these off screen. We're currently rotating through ambulatory care, the acute medical unit, surgery, gastroenterology, endocrinology and cardiology. So I've already done gastroenterology and ambulatory care and I'm now on cardio. Ambulatory care was easily my favorite because you actually get to Clark patients from beginning to end and then examine them and present that back to your senior or the consultant. And sort of going through this process of seeing a patient from as soon as they walk in until they get sent home is extremely valuable for me and useful for me because I get to see the whole process from start to finish. On top of that I find that when I'm in ambulatory care or in A&E I'm much more involved and I can have a lot more responsibility with each patient whereas when I'm on the ward round and I'm following around the clinical team I'm not making any decisions there I'm mostly just listening asking questions and trying to learn whereas in ambulatory care and A&E I'm physically doing the actual thing so I'm getting in a lot more practice and improving my skills. So in 50 year we get to do something pretty amazing which is that we go to a GP or a general practice and you basically have the opportunity to sit in the position of the doctor and Clark patients, examine them and sort of do the entire GP consultation. I haven't done it yet but I'm really excited because I think it'll be such a great opportunity to follow a patient from the very beginning when you're taking the history then doing the examination coming up with a management and treatment plan all by yourself. Of course after you've done that you'll be reporting everything that you've done to your seniors and you as a medical student won't be making any of the decisions regarding treatment and management but being by yourself with the patient sort of requires you to be a lot more professional a lot more knowledgeable and to actually you know do everything very well. It sounds like a lot of responsibility it sounds a little bit scary I'm not going to lie but it also seems like it's going to be quite fun and an incredible learning experience as well. I've heard great things from my friends who have already done this block and they say you know it's a time of great growth and learning it's also something that I haven't done since my GP block back in second year which I can't remember if it was one or two days a week you know so this will be a lot more than that it'll be a welcome change from being in the hospital and yeah I'm just really excited for it. Okay so kind of during my GP placement in the next couple of months and then afterwards we're going to be having some pretty big and important exams. First things first we've got an upcoming progress test in mid-october this is one of the usually three written exams that we have throughout the year and usually the first two don't count towards anything and then the final one does count and is important. This year the one that I have next month doesn't count for anything towards where I'm going to be as a doctor once I graduate but it's a very good opportunity to get that practice in you know do some extra studying do some extra reading so that you are preparing yourself for finals which actually do count. After that progress test we have easily the most important single exam that I will ever write in medical school and honestly probably in my life it's called the situational judgment test. Now this is a bit of a tricky one so bear with me. Before we move on to the rest of the video it's time for an ad from today's sponsor Squarespace. 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Whether you want to start writing a blog sell things online or share your photography portfolio do it with Squarespace. Head to Squarespace.com for a free trial and then when you're ready to launch go to Squarespace.com slash KarmaMedic to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. All right let's get back to the video. The situational judgment test is not a medicine competency test. This is a test more based in ethics and situational understanding which is meant to test our personality and sort of our ability to react appropriately to different situations as an F1 doctor. Now the kicker is that this exam counts for 50% of the grade which we will get at the end of medical school which will decide where in the entire country of the United Kingdom we get placed as foundation ear doctors. So let me explain. All of the exams and assignments that I've written throughout my whole time at medical school count for 50% and then this one exam called the situational judgment test counts for the other 50% and together they form that one grade. Now the good news is that for this 50% over here the one to do with all my academic grades throughout medical school I've scored pretty much full marks and so I've mitigated as much as I can of the risk of this one exam that counts for 50% but since this is not a medicine competency test it like literally anything can happen and worse than that this test is specifically designed to be a randomizer and what I mean by that is that this test is supposed to equalize scores across the graduating doctors in the country. So if you've done very very well academically this test is supposed to help like bring you down back to average and if you haven't done so well academically then this test is an opportunity to bring your score up. Now the reason for this is that if you could do very very well academically and then score very very well on this test then you would go and apply for all the most highly sought after and the most competitive and popular positions for being a doctor in the United Kingdom. Now obviously just getting good grades is not what makes you a good doctor and they're not correlated in a one-to-one ratio but generally speaking those doctors who would score higher academically would be concentrated in these areas around the country which the NHS doesn't want they want those doctors spread throughout the entire country to deliver an equal and high standard of care across the entire country. Each individual medical student gets ranked across every single other medical student in the entire country and based on an algorithm and a series of preferences and rounds and things like that we get chosen to go to different places around the country. So a very very long story short this situational judgment test exam is very very important. After that exam in January of 2022 we have our medical school finals this is going to consist of one written exam and one oski exam the good news is we just have to pass these exams to show the medical school that we have the competency to do them and then finally we have the PSA or the prescribing safety assessment which is basically an exam just to check that we have the competency for prescribing as junior doctors. If you fail this exam then I think there's an opportunity to reset but if you failed that then you can't prescribe as a junior doctor which would be honestly a big big hassle because every time you needed to prescribe anything you would have to ask somebody else. People have said that it's a fairly simple exam and most students pass on their first time so you know touch wood if we study well if we do everything we need to do we'll pass. As part of our final year in medical school we get the opportunity to get extra training and extra time on placement in rotations or departments that we want this is what's called the CDP and elective. Now traditionally in medical school students do their elective abroad in a different country which honestly is just such an incredible opportunity to get to practice clinical medicine in a new healthcare system in a different country maybe even in an impoverished country that could really use you know more clinical help but unfortunately we can't go abroad so basically the medical school has made the decision that no students are going to go abroad for their elective unless they have a really really compelling reason to do so. For example if you want to go abroad to your home country Canada where you want to practice clinical medicine in the future me so I reached out to the admin team and they actually gave me approval to apply for an elective abroad and then I found out that Canada has cancelled all their electives until 2023. Honestly like I can't describe just how gutted I was when I found that out I have been looking forward to this for my entire time in medical school I've been so excited to go abroad I've been so excited to be in Canada back to see all my friends in Toronto and get to practice medicine and be on elective I was really looking forward to this we can all still plan an elective within the UK which is what I'm going to do and you know I'm going to make some plans I'm going to have fun I'm going to have a good time but I feel like I've just missed out on this incredible incredible opportunity that I could have had but maybe one day in the future. Besides the elective we also have the CDP or the career development program which I've already planned in pediatric surgery with two surgeons who I worked with when I was in my third year we got to know each other quite well and I really like them so I'm excited to go back to be spending more time with them and then I'm thinking of doing my elective in emergency medicine and maybe obstengyny so these are two specialties that I kind of want to spend more time in as a sort of full-time medical student to see what life is actually like doing those two jobs and you know get as much experience as I possibly can. Obviously when I do decide where I'm going I will be talking about it and vlogging about it on this channel so if you haven't already subscribed make sure you do and stay tuned for that. Very soon I think I'm going to have very little free time so September is kind of like my last chance to take things a bit easy focus on myself outside of medical school and you know take time to enjoy things that I want to do I'm taking full advantage I'm doing as much as I can. Motivation-wise to be completely honest and transparent with you guys I think I'm struggling a bit I think I've just been a student for too long this is now my ninth year of university and I've kind of fallen into this routine of every year you know going to classes doing my studying doing the essays and assignments doing these exams and like I'm just over it now like I need a big life change I need to take that next step I need something different and I mean to be honest if a big life change is what I need a big life change is what I'm going to get very soon and I am going to lose this identity of being a student I'm going to lose the ability to sleep in one day or not go to placement because I'm feeling a bit under the weather and you know before I know it I'm going to be just in the hospital every day like nine to five or nine six or nine seven or whatever and I'm going to be really really busy so I should also appreciate the time that I'm in now enjoy the moment and take full advantage of what I have as far as extracurriculars go you guys know me I'm playing lots of sports doing my running and going to the gym making these youtube videos every single week still having a blast doing it still really enjoying it these are priorities of mine and so I'll always make time for them no matter what as far as social life as well things are going great you know I'm still finding time to hang out with my friends I can still play video games I can still chill with my sister you know everything is good and alright guys I think that is it that is I wanted to tell you guys about my final year here in medical school I'll be making more vlogs and taking you guys along the way through this journey with me as a final year medical student so please do subscribe if you haven't already and stay tuned for those thank you so much for watching and thank you for being on this journey with me a lot of you have been watching since I was the end of my first year an early second year medical student and you know obviously a lot has changed all that's happened in that time and it's kind of wanted to say thank you so if you're still watching till the end of this video and if you've been with me for a while my heart goes out to you thank you very much I'll catch you in the next one peace