Taster day at Lancaster Medical School
12/12/2012 00:00:00
The widening participation event was aimed at giving Year 12 students an insight into studying medicine plus the opportunity to speak to medical students, doctors and Medical School staff and the chance to find out what a medical admissions tutor is looking for in the UCAS application.
The schools involved included Central Lancaster High School, Our Ladies Catholic College, Heysham High School, Barrow Sixth Form College, St Christopher’s C of E High School in Accrington, Loreto College in Manchester, Ashton Sixth Form College and Settle College.
Matthew Fitzwilliam from Central Lancaster High School said: “I thought the medicine taster day was brilliant. It inspired me to want to do medicine and also gave a lot of information on how to apply.”
Jamie Lewis from Heysham High School said the whole experience was worthwhile.
“It allowed me to get a great insight into what is takes not only to become a doctor but to become an excellent and successful one too. Getting to speak to the medical students helped me greatly into what was on offer at the university academically and from a social aspect. "
The taster day included an opportunity to try problem-based learning (PBL), to learn a clinical skill and to experience anatomy teaching at Lancaster Medical School.
The event was organised by Dr Karen Grant, the Director of Admissions to the MBChB programme, who said: “Lancaster Medical School was pleased to welcome so many enthusiastic young people from local schools and colleges. The feedback from the year 12 students was overwhelmingly positive, with the “hands on” clinical skills teaching session being especially popular.”
The sessions were designed to complement each other: in PBL, the students drew on their prior knowledge about the heart and heart attacks to discuss the scenario; in the clinical skills session, they learned how to measure blood pressure; and in the anatomy session, they learned more about the detailed anatomy of the heart and the coronary blood vessels.
Noops Kirby, Deputy Headteacher at Heysham High said: “The day gave me an insight into what was expected of students regarding expectations, the entry criteria and also how to help students apply for medical school. From a school’s perspective it was a very useful day.”