Last year I completed my intercalated degree in Surgical Sciences and I could not recommend it more to anyone interested in surgery! In this blog I hope to give you some insight into what the degree is like and how to make the most of it. What do you actually study?
The majority of your teaching will be completed in semester 1, whereas semester 2 is predominantly about your project. The courses you have to take are: 1. Surgical Science This is the main course, as the name suggests, and every week you learn about a different surgical specialty or topic. In my year we covered a wide range of topics from surgical oncology to global surgery to principles of emergency surgery and trauma. It’s very much about learning what new advances are happening in surgery and is quite an exciting course to revise (if you’re interested in this stuff, which I was!). It’s also a great chance for you to meet surgeons in different specialties and start to find out about all the research going on in Edinburgh and who is doing what – which may come in handy later on if you’re looking for projects! You are examined on a presentation about surgical technology and a written exam consisting of 2 essays on topics you were taught. This is all taught and examined in semester 1. 2. Academic Surgery This course is all about learning how to read and critique papers – a skill you need to develop whether you want to go into research or not. There is no exam for this course, your mark is based on one oral critical appraisal on a paper of your choice (semester 1) and 2 written critical appraisals on pre-selected papers (one in each semester). 3. Research Skills in Health Science Research skills is a course everyone on any of the Health Science streams (primary care, medical and surgical) must complete. It’s split broadly into statistics and study design; you learn about the process of undertaking research from ethics to scientific communication and types of journals. This course runs over both semesters and is the only formal teaching you will have in semester 2, with an exam at the end of the year. It’s worth mentioning that it’s worth the most credits out of any course (equal to your dissertation) so make sure you’re prepared for the exam because it can impact your degree classification! You then choose one elective to undertake in semester 1, I was very lucky to get my first choice of Emergency Medicine and it was definitely one of the highlights of my year. This is quite a hands on elective (pre-COVID) and you got to have a go at a lot of clinical skills like intubation, cannulas, inserting chest drains and plastering. But even without that aspect, the content taught was very interesting and covered topics disaster medicine, major trauma and time critical interventions. It’s examined via a poster presentation on a topic of your choice and an exam made up of 2 essays in December. Your Project This was the most important aspect of the year for me, it’s really your first chance to take the lead on your own research and get a feel for if you’re interested in academia. You have all of semester 2 to do this so be ambitious (but not unrealistic) and pick something you’re really interested in and that would teach you new skills. I learnt how to code for mine and contacted a supervisor who wasn’t on the list because I was really interested in global surgery. I would really recommend finding your own project if there’s something you’re particularly passionate about, just make sure you leave yourself enough time to submit a proposal and get it approved before the deadline. You have to complete a literature review in advance of your dissertation to be submitted in late January and then you submit your written dissertation towards the end of the semester (you usually also present it but for my year this is when the pandemic hit). Making the Most of out of Your Intercalation If you’re intentional about how you spend your intercalation you can end up ticking a lot of boxes that count toward your surgical portfolio. Here are a couple of things to bear in mind:
Finally, if you don’t get onto the degree you wanted it’s not the end of the world – your project doesn’t have to be related to your degree and that’s what matters most! And if this all sounded a bit intense and you were thinking you wanted to relax a bit during intercalation, that’s still possible, especially in semester 2. I submitted my literature review using my roaming hotspot from a café in Berlin, with some time management you can have the best of both worlds! I’m more than happy to be contacted with any questions! Email: [email protected] Twitter: @ayamriad ESSS thanks Aya Riad for writing this article.
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AuthorsArticles are written by Edinburgh-based students and doctors, for the benefit of those interested in surgery. Archives
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