MedSoc

St Ambrose MedSoc (Medical Society)

A medical society aimed at inviting speakers and encouraging group discussion about work experience and ethical issues, MedSoc helps to prepare students for application to University. Applicants have to show an increased awareness to the life of a doctor, build upon team working skills and have good communication between peers. Schools that have an active medical society have been shown to have an increase in medical applications accepted for interview and offers given.

What is MedSoc?

A society within the school in which pupils:

1. Can listen to external speakers on subjects such as medical school life and jobs.

2. Have common goals in medicine or health care.

3. Create a community that maintains motivation for career paths in medicine.

Why does St. Ambrose have a medical society?

1. Helps to develop connections between students within the same year and different years that show an interest in medicine.

2. Information from students that have gone through / are going through the application process can be passed onto lower years. I am also in contact with St. Ambrose old boys that would be willing to speak about their experiences.

Includes:

1. The main focus is to have speakers from the medical field for career awareness. Junior doctors offer an invaluable insight into life as newly qualified doctors, as many can find these years very challenging. Established practitioners are invited to share their knowledge and wisdom. This gives the opportunity for students to make a more informed decision about their future career, and an edge in interviews as they are able to show an understanding of what medicine involves.

2. Lower Sixth students who are interested in becoming active members can pass on information about extracurricular courses, such as MedSim and MedLink at Nottingham University.

3. UKCAT and BMAT tutoring and revision groups for the current lower sixth and for subsequent years.

4. UCAS application support for when it is being written by L6, and help for year 10s and 11s who want to know what they can do know to make their UCAS stand out for when they write it.

5. A shared area file used to hold:

i. A central location for student announcements

ii. Word documents for recommended literature.

iii. Links to useful websites.

iv. Medical related podcasts.

In the future:

Although primarily it would be aimed at the higher years (10 – 13), it will be possible to expand it to lower years. Veterinary medicine will also be included as it is very close in terms of work experience and extracurricular work.