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ME4019 Reproductive & child health - Block 2, Aberdeen (2026 - 2027)
Schedule Comments Summary (optional)
What helped you to feel welcome?
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Members of staff made me feel welcome by providing support and guidance whenever I was unsure or lost. They were approachable and always willing to help, which made me feel comfortable and supported throughout the placement.
Staff were mostly welcoming and made sure we had time to gain clinical experience
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The intro lectures helped as well as every placement i went on the staff were exceptionally nice and made me feel like part of the team and let me help them where i could.
The introductory lecture on the first twi days of the block helped to set the scene and standard required for placement. Gynaecology team in the main were friendly and welcoming.
Most clinics for paeds were welcoming and gave plenty of support however the wards staff didn't know I would be there and often I felt I was in the way.
The induction sessions were very useful and clearly explained how the block would work and what was expected of us as students, as well as all the opportunities that would be available for us.
Comment on your interaction with patients on this block
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Although most of the time it was the clinicians communicating with the patients, I felt that I had good opportunities to interact with patients throughout the block, such as through history taking and examinations such as newborn examinations, antenatal examinations and speculum examinations.
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It was very good, i was able to see a variety of different patients and help clerk them in before a senior was able to see them. It helped build my confidence in history taking anf examinations while alsp helping my clinical reasoning so the patient interactions was one of the best parts of this block as my previous block i had very minimal interaction with them.
- Managed to take some histories at the prolapse and PMB clinic. - performed a large number of speculum examinations - Got to examine patients in triage based on their concerns, taking bloods and observations - Midwife shift was great, was with patient and partner all the way through delivery to baby being born and then doing post- birth checks on mum.
I was able to examine and see patients.
Overwhelmingly positive, everyone I met was lovely, and I was supported in clerking, reviewing and examining patients. This block really encourages patient exposure and I thoroughly appreciate the opportunities provided to me.
I found this block to be really poor when it came to patient interaction. I think I spoke to maybe 5 patients the whole block. A lot of the staff (specifically the midwives) were not at all interested in teaching me or helping me with what I needed to get out of placement. I was frequently left sitting for hours at a time, most notably on my midwife placement (granted I did get the start time of the placement wrong which was my own fault) but the charge midwife left me for 2.5 hours to wait for a midwife to teach me. I was also left on my PAU placement with nothing to do because I was never told when doctors were going to see patients as they just left. The majority of my placement had me sitting waiting for jobs to come up or just being ignored by the staff. I really did not feel supported on this block nor did I feel like anyone was taking an interest in my learning with a few exceptions. The tutorials done by Alistair Revolta and Lindsay Morrison were really good and I did feel like they really cared about my learning. The C-section theatre staff were generally excellent and they did get me really stuck into the surgeries, let me do catheters and talked me through everything they were doing. The FY1/2s in every ward are always excellent, they really really care about helping medical students and helping us to feel welcomed and part of the team in our short time on placements even when the other staff aren't taking notice of us. The paediatric clinics were very hit or miss, sometimes doctors were really good and keen to get to know me and teach me and other times they didn't really acknowledge me at all. The paediatric orthopaedic surgeons (Tim Gardiner in particular) were also excellent.
As this block contains different specialties, please make it clear in your comments which specialty you are referring to. Please note any particularly good educational experiences and state why:
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During the pessary clinic in the gynaecology week, I had a good educational experience with the specialist nurse. She explained and showed me the different types of pessaries and when each one is used, which I found really informative and helpful.
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The obstetrics half of reproductive had exceptional teaching, specifically my midwife shift, the midwife i was with would explain things as well as ask me questions and got me to do stuff alone so i felt trusted and was able to gain experience from it. The other parts pf obstetrics was also very valuable teaching as the staff were extremely nice and explained things to me offered me help when needed and answered all my questions without judgement. Childs health, specifically in the PAU, i had valuable teaching as they let me clerk multiple patients and then gave me feedback back on handover to seniors and gave me advice on what i should focus on next time and questions I should have asked.
Gynaecology - day clinic and ward 309 Maternity triage
The OP clinics were often better than wards with more learning opportunities.
Obstetrics - Labour Ward Shift, excellent teaching from one of the O&G Registrars, especially with regards to triage presentations and reviewing the pregnant patient. Antenatal clinic - Dr Gunn and Dr Park, excellent teaching from both on management of diabetes during pregnancy, and also how to deal with challenging patients and their expectations. Woman’s Day Clinic - the pessary clinic and GOPD clinic were both really useful, and allowed me to practice both practical and communication skills.
Please suggest any improvements to this educational experience.
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It would have been helpful to have more opportunities during the clinic to explain the different types of pessaries and their uses to patients.
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The one improvement i would say is that the teaching for childs health could be improved, it was not thr content involved it was due to showing up and then no oke turning up to placement. This wasnt ideal as a lot of times this was in the only 1 hour that i was off placement so had to get lunch aswell but we all would be waiting for someone to show up and they never did.
12 hour Obstetric shift where you're to shadow one of the specialist trainees can be particularly boring when the clinician has zero interest in teaching you or engaging with you. Would be good if there was a list of clinicians who actually want to be involved with students and then students can be assigned to them. For some paediatric ward rounds, as students we weren't even acknowledged and at other points, there was no opportunity to learn.It was rather frustrating, especially when it's a specialty I enjoy.
Less ward placements especially the long PAU shift.
None.
The organisation of the course wasn't great, I was told to go to the wrong places a lot (on my timetable). Theatre staff often weren't expecting me (most of the time they weren't expecting me) or I didn't know who I was supposed to be with. Placements were missing from my timetable or added last minute and we didn't get the second half of our timetables until quite late. I think the 12 hour placements are really unnecessary and the amount of placements where I was scheduled to stay past 5pm was quite a lot and I also think that is totally unnecessary, considering how long I spent not doing anything and how little goes on in the wards in the afternoons it really did feel like a waste of time most of the time.
Would you like to tell us more about the concern related to discrimination, bullying and harassment?
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Please comment on the quality of tutorials across this block. Please identify any specific tutorials which you would like to highlight for positive feedback or for improvement.
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The tutorials were good. The STIs & Genital Symptoms tutorial was particularly engaging and informative.
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Tutorials were really helpful and good to consolidate knowledge e.g. prolapse/ surgical teaching/ febrile child The tutorial on medical ethics was helpful and interesting.
The tutorials during this block were overall useful, the surgical Paeds tutorials are unfortunately not as good as they could be as due to staffing they are pawned off onto the FY1s to do, who are brilliant but understandably do not have the experience in the specialty to provide more nuanced teaching.
The tutorials done by Alistair Revolta and Lindsay Morrison were really good but the Paeds surgical tutorials were pointless and it didn't really feel fair to drag the junior doctors away from their busy days to give us a teaching session they weren't prepared for and that we could have just read off of the slides.
We wish to recognise those who have excelled in your learning experience, e.g. quality of teaching, student support. Staff may be based in the University or the NHS. If you wish to nominate any member(s) of staff, please do so and state: 1. Who they are 2. Where they work 3. Why you have nominated them.
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Dr Sarah Howco, Gynaecology ST6 Dr Sarah Howco was exceptional. She made me feel welcome to the theatre and included me in the surgeries. She also delivered exceptional bedside teaching. Dr Jyoti Utkar, Obstetrics, ST5 For many of the same reasons, and for teaching us with a smile and engaging attitude.
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Dr Sarah Johnstone was really supportive, welcoming and a great doctor to learn from! Would also like to thank Dr Basil Mary Eldo for his teaching and support. In addition, the staff at the paediatrics PAU clinic were brilliant
Dr Abigail Wright - Obstetrics ST2 - really supportive, kept me so involved the whole day, letting me examine and review patients in triage, and she also let me assist in a cat 1 c-section.
