Sheffield Specific

Question 1

• If you are successful in your application, you may be spending 5 years living and studying in Sheffield. What can you tell me about the City of Sheffield and the University of Sheffield? What do you know about the Sheffield MBChB curriculum?

Answer 1

o	Peak district
o	60% green space
o	Vibrant arts scene (music and theatre)
o	Big sports scene
o	Rich industrial history
o	Northern, so friendly
o	Good transport links
o	Great location in terms of England
o	Very diverse
o	Affordable

o 93rd in world and 14th in UK (world renowned for research and teaching)
o Russell Group
o 1st SU in country
o 350 clubs and societys
o 6 nobel prize winners (including Krebs for the Citric Acid Cycle)
o Medical school in 1828, and university in 1905
o Great teaching and research
o Known for its friendly atmosphere
o Campus near the city centre
o Healthy competition with Hallam (varsity)
o Diverse uni, lots of international students
o Support
 Practical help
 Health and well being
 Students union

o Learning through clinical teaching, lectures, seminars, tutorials, small group work, dissection and personal development supported by experienced teachers and personal academic tutors
o Assessed by exams, coursework, and practical tasks
o Clinically led and develops clinical skills from the start
o Integrated (relates clinical medicine to the underlying medical science)
o Split into Phase 1, 2a, 2b, 3, and 4
o Phase 1 = normal structure and function of human body, taught by body system, 2 week Mutli Professional Experience and 10 GP placements
o Phase 2a = research project, 10 GP placements, presentation diagnosis and treatment of disease, procedural clinical skills
o Phase 2b = clinical heavy, 12 week longitudinal integrated clinical placement, SSC in medical ethics and law, if pass OSCE 1st time SSC in social accountability
o Phase 3 = Clinical, primary and secondary hands on, learn by investigation and team work, SSC’s
o Phase 4 = LICP2 and 3, 6 week student assistantship
Our Clinical Skills Centre is based at the Northern General Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in the country. The centre contains mock clinical wards, resuscitation suites, simulated theatres and teaching rooms – a perfect facility for training the healthcare professionals of tomorrow.

Question 2

• Tell me about a patient that you saw during your work experience or volunteering who inspired you to find out more about what was wrong with them. What did you find out? Where did you find the information?

Answer 2

o Had work experience at Sunderland Royal, COVID cancellation
o Volunteered at residential home
o Patient with Alzheimer’s, led back to her, read up for her
o Researched into Alzheimer’s and dementia
-Most important thing I found was that dementia isn’t actually a disease in itself but a syndrome which can be found in different diseases (including Alzheimers and Parkinsons)
o Inspired to include Alzheimer’s and dementia in EPQ
o Researched how music can effect Alzheimer’s and dementia
o Decrease in anxiety and depression, relaxation, improve cognition, reduced aggression, improved overall QoL, acts as a catalysis for socialising

o	NHS website
o	Alzheimer’s society
o	Frontier’s in Neuroscience
o	Musical Perception
o	Frontier’s in Neurology
o	British Medical Journal
o	For rest of EPQ
	Cochrane Database
	Nature
	British Journal of Surgery
	Etc.

Question 3

• What can you tell me about the General Medical Council’s code of conduct for doctors?

Answer 3

o From my understanding, the GMC’s code of conduct for doctors can be found within their document ‘Good Medical Practice’
o It describes what is expected of all doctors registered within the GMC
o You must use your judgement to apply these principles to the various situations faced as a doctor, but equally prepared to explain and justify your decisions and actions
o Serious or persistent failure to follow the guidance which poses a risk to patient safety and public trust in doctors puts your registration at risk
o Patients must be able to trust doctors with their lives and health
o Doctors must show respect for human life
o There are standards to meet in four domains
 Knowledge, skills, and performance
• Develop and maintain your professional performance
• Apply knowledge and experience to practice
• Record your work clearly, accurately, and legibly
 Safety and quality
• Contribute to and comply with systems to protect patients
• Respond to risks to safety
• Risks pose by your health
 Communication, partnership, and teamwork
• Communicate effectively
• Working collaboratively with colleagues
• Teaching, training, supporting, and assessing
• Continuity and coordination of care
• Establish and maintain partnerships with patients
 Maintaining Trust
• Show respect for patients
• Treat patients and colleagues fairly and without discrimination
• Act with honesty and integrity
• Communicating information
• Openness and legal or disciplinary proceedings
• Honest in financial dealings
o A large part of the guidance is respect, both for human life but also for the patient, the public, your colleagues, yourself, and your capabilities
 This is reflected in the NHS Constitution, where respect and dignity is one of the values
 Having respect in this sense means:
• You respect your competence and act within the limits
• You respect your capabilities and act to keep up to date
• You respect patient and public and so protect and promote the health of them
• You respect patients dignity and treat them as individuals
• You respect patients right to confidentiality, and so maintain it
• You respect patients concerns and so take them into account
• You respect patients competence and so provide information in a way they can understand
• You respect a patients right to reach decisions with you, and so they get a say in their treatment and care
• You respect other colleagues and your patient and so work with them (in the MDT) to best serve the patients interest
• You respect your job to act honest, open, and with integrity
• You respect your colleagues and patients and so never discriminate against them
• You respect your patients and the public and so never abuse their trust
• Respect consent, or lack thereof, of examination, investigation, treatment, and those involved in teaching/research
• Respect patients right to a second opinion
• Respect staffs right to raise concerns
• Respect the contributions and skills of colleagues
• Respect patients right to treatment, even if you have a conscientious objection to a particular treatment, by making sure they have the information to access another doctor
• Respect patients right to know when something has gone wrong
• Respect patients right to treatment, even if their medical condition may put you at risk
• Respect the needs of disabled patients and make reasonable adjustments

Question 4

• I’d like to play a round of “20 Questions” to identify an object, creature, event or place that I have in mind. To determine the answer, you must ask me a series of questions. I will answer only YES or NO to your questions. You may ask up to 20 questions. All questions must be answerable by YES or NO. You are being scored on the logical approach to your questioning, and not on whether you identify the correct answer. It is expected that this section will last no more than 4 minutes – you will be penalised for long pauses.

Answer 4

IDK

Question 5

• Tell me about a time when you have made a positive impact on someone else’s life.

Answer 5

o Young carer for older sister Alexandra who has Down’s Syndrome
o Emotional support and wellbeing
 When she has had a miss understanding amongst her friends, I am there to talk her through it and help her
o Development of independent life skills (from travel, to cooking, to finances)
 This way she can learn to live more independently, travelling to the shops when she needs to, as opposed to relying on us
o Accompany her to activities where I aid her physically and emotionally
 This way she can enjoy her free time with her friends and not have to worry about her capabilities at doing the activities (as I’m there to help)
 Befriend many adults with down’s syndrome and aid them also
o Take her out for days to develop her life skills
 Planning days out to Newcastle aids in her planning, finance skills, and more
o During the initial lockdown (March)
 I was main carer for Alexandra, as parents were working and there was no education for her, so I did everything for her
o Example
 Cooking in lockdown
• Neither very good at start
• Started making simple things like pasta
• Ended up making breads, where she had been watching bake off and ended up telling me I was baking the dough wrong!

Question 6

• Studying medicine can be intense, so maintaining a work-life balance is important. How do you relax and unwind?

Answer 6

o Weakness of mine, but have developed this over lockdown
o Difficult to distinguish the boundary between work and life so had to develop
o Cycling and running
 Mentally and physically fit
 Allows socialising
o Music
 Play guitar and ukulele to a grade 5 standard
 Love learning new music and challenging myself
 Great chance to relax and unwind
o Adding one fun thing to my to do list
 No longer something I could do if I get everything done
 But instead an imperative part of the day
• Because taking time for yourself is just as important as the work

Question 7

• The use of social media websites such as Facebook is now widespread amongst the public, students and healthcare professionals. Is it appropriate for medical students and doctors to use such websites?

Answer 7

o Difficult question
o On the one hand
 Concerns over professionalism
• Stating a controversial opinion when associated with NHS might reflect negatively on NHS
 Maintaining professional boundaries
• Patient contact outside of a clinical setting is completely unprofessional
 Patient confidentiality
• Healthcare professionals should be extremely cautious when using social media, as it could breach patient privacy (dependent on content shared)
o On the other hand
 Makes healthcare professional more approachable
• This may mean certain individuals of the population who are unwilling to get an appointment may feel more comfortable discussing their problems with someone relatable
 Spreading of Health Education
• Helps dispel myths to do with modern medicine and science
• Particularly important in a time of such widespread fake news and misinformation
• Example
o COVID-19 Vaccines
o Misinformation spreading about the harm they cause
o Dr Karan Raj, an NHS Surgical Doctor, on social media made a video explaining why we don’t need to worry about the long term side effects of the COVID-19 vaccines
 Low chance, most occur within 2 months so would have seen in trials, think about the long term effects of COVID, which would you rather have?
o This helps to dispel the myths surrounding it, and increase watchers faith in the vaccine
o Helping the public health crisis
o But equally
 What if they get the information wrong?
• This would place distrust in the viewer towards the healthcare professional, and reflect negatively on their respective organisation
o Overall
 If done professionally and cautiously then I think it can be a powerful tool in terms of education to counter the misinformation which spreads so quickly in the present day