Hi, my name is Lemuela Ajuwon and I'm a first-year medical student and today I'll be asking students what is something that surprised them the most about studying medicine at the University of Dundee.
One thing that surprised me about medicine is the amount of patient contact we get.
How early we see patients and I think that was really beneficial because a lot of it is just getting over being in your own head and getting on with it. People are generally quite nice.
How nice everyone is to be honest. I think often medic culture can seem very toxic, no one supporting each other, things like that and It's very competitive. But I think here especially, everyone is just so kind, everyone wants to help you, there’s lots of sharing of resources between year groups.
How much support we have within the medical community. So, when you first come into medicine, I think a lot of people think they will get burned out and there’s a lot of things to study. But the amount of support I've received in Dundee has helped me to get through all of the challenges so far.
I was really surprised about the diversity, like there's people from like all over the world, all over the globe and many different cultures that are in the school.
How hands on everything is and how you always get constant opportunities to apply your knowledge in a practical sense.
How inclusive the community is and how friendly everyone is.
How willing people are to share their resources and their flash cards and their notes.
It was really easy to settle down like everyone was really friendly and so nice.
How varied the teaching is, it's not all just lectures, like just straight away you also do like clinical skills and things like that.
So, every couple of weeks we meet with the GP to discuss cases so we know how common clinical complaints present.
I really like how the medical school is located in the hospital itself. So, we really get to observe patients and doctors in their own setting.
The support of mental health and how they advocate for our mental well-being. One thing I've noticed about Ninewells is that they do a lot of sessions on yoga and like mindfulness and how to take care of yourself. There's even been like a puppy session, which I've been to, and I found it amazing. It was really fun.
We have access to cadavers for dissection.
How much free time that we have that we're not always studying. We have time to do other stuff we like, like hobbies and stuff like that.
These are just some of the things that make studying medicine at the University of Dundee such a unique experience.