Elora Graham, Year 1
Hello all! I am a first-year medic at the University of Sheffield and have been commissioned to write about my average week as a student here. Hopefully it is of some interest to the lovely medics of Leeds to get a snapshot of how an MBChB runs at a nearby university. If not, you are indulging my delusion of being the main character—and for that I thank you.
Our first year consists of seven main modules, similar to those at Leeds. We start with IMS and finish the year with body systems: Cardiovascular, Respiratory, GI/liver, Neuro, Musculoskeletal and the awkwardly named ‘SUGER’ (Skin, UroGenital, Endocrine, Reproductive). Within each block we cover anatomy, physiology, histology and some pathology. Alongside the lectures we have cadaveric dissection, GP teaching, small group tutorials and research projects.
The standard format is 9:00am – 12:00pm lectures, but fortunately it’s quite easy to sneak in slightly later. All of our lectures happen in Medical Lecture Theatre 1 in the Royal Hallamshire Hospital. I daren’t count up the hours already spent there, or more concerningly their impact on my spine due to the seating’s notable lack of lumbar support.
The week kicked off with a glorious late start: a 10am lecture in MLT1. Then, we headed down to the dissection room on campus for our anatomy session. Typically, four hours per week is timetabled for dissection.
I admit I didn’t particularly consider anatomy teaching styles when applying for medicine, however dissection has become one of my favourite parts of the course here. Each group of around eight students gets one cadaver to work with throughout the year, dissecting everything while supervised by a demonstrator. It is such a great privilege to be able to see a whole human body in front of you and quite literally unpick the puzzle that makes up our anatomy.
I remember my first ever incision—it was a shallow, long cut along the S-shape of the left clavicle. The utter newness was startling to begin with and it can be nerve-wracking to pick up a scalpel week 1. Having spent a fair few hours in the DR now, the stench of formaldehyde is oddly familiar (although ladling out formaldehyde from the lung cavity today was particularly pungent).
I am endlessly grateful to those who have donated their bodies in support of our medical education. As much as it’s a cliché, I genuinely believe it’s an incredibly humbling experience. It is completely unique and truly valuable.
For anyone considering Sheffield as an option for application, I would say that the full body dissection is one of its biggest selling points and is part of the course that has been developed extremely well.
In the evening, I went with some friends to the Notty House pub quiz—the #1 go-to for students (free nachos). No victories to write of, unfortunately.
We start as usual in our favourite place, MLT1, from 9-12 with some cranial nerve anatomy and pathology lectures.
Afterwards, we commence our odyssey to GP Early Years. These fortnightly afternoon placements can be anywhere in the South
Yorkshire area: for me, this means trekking 35 miles to Retford. On the weeks without GP, there are group tutorials covering physiological topics relevant to the module currently being studied.
In GP this week we discussed a hypothetical stroke patient, exploring the condition and its treatment. Then, a real life patient came in to chat about their own patient journey; this particular patient had an ischemic stroke that left him with homonymous hemianopia. I find being able to relate content from lectures to real clinical scenarios is very helpful.
The same can’t be said for the 35 mile journey home.
Lectures again 9-12: a mix of public health and psychiatry. Though I am very grateful to have in-person teaching, one major drawback is the inability to pause or rewind real time. Some lectures could easily be understood in half the
time whereas others you are in a constant state of panic, getting further and further behind.
I then went to my French class, which forced me to venture onto the actual uni campus and interact with the (saner) humanities students.
That evening, I went to the Medics Revue – a comedy sketch show by students. It was a gloriously amateur performance; think gaudy lights, DIY costumes and lots of heckling. It mostly consisted of painfully accurate inside jokes and subtle digs. Some of my favourites were the musical parodies: Lizzo’s Good as Hell was adapted to “I’m feeling overwhelmed”…obviously could never be me. We finished the night at Roar, the student union’s Wednesday club night, which is the go-to for many uni sport societies and thus displays some of the absolute best/worst of student fancy dress.
I just had one lecture this morning and so had the opportunity to get on with some of the ever-growing pile of work I need to finish off.
Sheffield is riddled with hills and the walk home is no different. It would not surprise me at all if a cross-sectional study found Sheffield students to have glutes of steel.
Yet more lectures this morning, followed by our first neuro formative assessment. These assessments are an open-book, informal way of gauging your understanding. Talking of assessments, our end of year exams have 3 components: single best answer, multiple
choice and an anatomy spotter. As a baby medic who hasn’t done any of them yet, I reserve any comment.
Then onto my second French class of the week, before heading to the train station to meet up with my gorgeous boyfriend for the weekend.
Congratulations for reaching the end of my ramblings—I hope they were even slightly interesting! If you know anyone thinking of applying to Sheffield, I’m more than happy to answer any questions about applying or studying here. Just send me an email on egraham4@sheffield.ac.uk 🙂
THE WORSLEY TIMES 
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