PACEMAKER - TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2014 Who IS my PBL tutor?


By Olivia George Each issue we will aim to give you


an insight into your tutors as well as their thoughts on how best to approach their subject. This time, Pacemaker talks to Halina Dobrzynski, PBL tu- tor and Senior Lecturer in Cardiac Biology/Physiology. Halina obtained a B.Sc. in Biological Sciences and a Ph.D in Cellular Cardiology from the University of Leeds before moving to Manchester to lecture in Cardiac Bi- ology and Physiology.


Can you tell us a little bit about your research?


My research is into the functional properties and cellular and molecular make-up of the cardiac conduction system of the heart, and use many techniques including electrophysiol- ogy, histology, and in situ hybridi- zation. My research is sponsored


By Anonymous We’ve all been there, the desperate


scramble to gain a moments experi- ence of


the ‘World of Medicine’, in


the hope that sitting awkwardly in the corner of a harassed GP’s office will qualify us to say that we ‘understand’ what being a doctor is really like. But now that you’ve been admitted to the hallowed halls of the Stopford build- ing is there any point keeping up the pretence?


If you ask the mysteriously named ‘Smokey’ on the BMJ Doc2Doc forum “Summer holidays are a great chance for building our medical skills... work experiences really makes the differ- ence… work experience / voluntary [sic] work significantly affects moti- vation, confidence and makes us fo- cus”. Smokey obviously didn’t see me shuttered away from the August sunshine taking 296 screenshots of patient notes and….ENLARGING them (an experience? you betcha!). I can add this to a prestigious list of ‘experiences’ that includes: shredding notes not used since the 80’s, watch- ing somebody else look through a microscope, watching somebody else watching somebody else watching an old video of an angiogram and spend- ing a significant proportion of the day baffled by the swipe-card entry sys- tem guarding every door.


primarily by the British Heart Foun- dation, and I have over 70 publica- tions on PubMed.


How do you approach PBL? I aim to be prepared and make


sure that the group covers the objec- tives. Although I try to be focused and efficient, I hope to be friendly and bring some fun to the session! I feel it is important to show genuine care about the group and their learning. I regularly evaluate the group’s inter- action, and encourage students to ex- plain concepts in detail. It is difficult for any PBL tutor with students who don’t participate much– it’s awkward for a tutor and the other members of the group.


I am proactive in making sure that the group can change aspects of our sessions that they are not happy with. If I’m asked a question by a student


You Call THAT Work Experience?


But before you start feeling too sorry for all the aimless students wan- dering hospital halls this summer, spare a thought for the kind people taking them on. Busy secretaries and entire human resources departments have processed reams of paperwork just to get you through the doors. And it doesn’t stop at getting you your coveted ID badge. Once you are there they have to find things for you to do, unwitting medical staff for you to follow, pointless tasks for you to complete and will likely spend hours a day checking you aren’t shoving your hand in the paper shredder just to keep yourself awake. This situation is of course, no-


body’s fault, in fact the path to this particular form of hell is paved with good intentions. The doctor/nurse/ family friend who has offered you their time probably remembers what its like to be in your shoes and is do- ing everything they can to make your time interesting. You (I) hoped that you might


learn something, add that extra flair to your portfolio or land upon your future specialty. But what neither of you can do anything about is that you are a student, a tadpole of the medical world, who doesn’t yet have the skills to do very much in an actual hospital. Filing in back rooms uncomfortably


MMS LIFE


11


which I cannot answer, I’m honest about this and then go away to find out more, ready to revisit this during another session.


And from one of her former stu- dents: What was it like to have Halina as a tutor?


With Halina in the lead, our group


quickly achieved a warm, positive atmosphere. A bit of laughter and a bit of chocolate made it a lot less daunting to explain complex things


By Craig Kirk Being a medical student repre-


sentative was a challenge, but also very rewarding. The role involves making yourself available to your year group, trying to tease out eve- ryone’s concerns and expectations about the course. You also want to hear why everybody loves the course! You take this information to meetings with the big-wigs of the medical school and ultimately try to improve its running.


The single best thing about the job was the people I worked with. MMS are very interested in what we have to say, and the structure they and the reps have put together for representation is absolutely fantas- tic. There are a small team of staff that will assist you in your role, both administratively and with friend- ly support for your efforts during meetings. This makes speaking at important meetings a pleasant expe- rience, not a daunting one as I ini- tially thought.


watching whatever is happening is all you are qualified to do. But even in the haze of thumb-


twiddling boredom there are glim- mers of the future: the time something makes sense, the time you actually did something useful, the time where you


to a group of strangers. Halina kept us on track, and wasn’t afraid to tell us when we were missing something. She also organised extra lectures for us on difficult topics on which she was an expert. A word of advice, if you, like me,


talk too much, try asking questions instead of answering them. If you’re shy, ask the group early on in the ses- sion if you can cover the bits you’re most confident in.


- Benedicte Sjøflot Life as a MMS Student Rep The role of year rep is flexible and


can be conducted however you like. If you don’t like bombarding people with surveys, then don’t. Instead, you can, for example, hold drop-in sessions and meetings with the PBL stewards, or simply chat to people. Working as a representative can also be a struggle at times. Although staff are keen to hear our views, drawing those views out from the student population is a challenge re- quiring considerable determination. It’s difficult to capture the feelings of 400 people, around half of whom you don’t know. I often worried that many were going unheard simply because they had not taken the time to have their say. Now moving into my third year as a medical student, I a moving on to other, different responsibilities. I hope to further develop skills I ob- tained as year rep, and continue to experience the satisfaction of mak- ing a difference. Why don’t you have a go? It’s worth a shot.


weren’t totally in the way. It might just be worth it for those moments. So next time an opportunity like


that comes my way, even knowing what I know, I will do it (and become really good at photocopying in the process).


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12