Exams are finished, yay! The sense of relief is amazing. We had one exam on Medical Physics, a second about Cardiac Physiology and our two pieces of research coursework have just gone in, so we’ve only got two essays left to finish and submit. We’re very close now to our academic year finishing and then everyone’s out on placement. But studying and having so many assignments close together means that you really need to get out and do some new things, so here’s a rundown of what I’ve been up to over the past few weeks.
Learning experience
I mentioned in my last blog I was going out to do my Inter Professional Learning Unit (IPLU). It’s a big collaboration between all the healthcare professionals you can think of; nurses, doctors, physios, OTs, and even radiographers and pharmacists from the University of Portsmouth. I was based in Basingstoke Hospital and carried out an audit in one of the departments where we had to investigate different types of requesting. It was a good head start to understanding audits, which is what we have to do as third years for our dissertation, though there were some very long, busy days and it was a crazy learning curve in a department I’d never experienced before.
Thinking ahead
I’ve had lectures on thinking ahead about third year projects and it’s all getting very scary now. We have to submit our project proposal by the end of our 15 week placement, so I better get thinking about where to even start with a project idea! Some group revision sessions have stopped us all from going insane, so that was helpful… And it’s nice seeing everyone on my course as it’s a bit weird suddenly not seeing them when lectures end. I’ve helped out at a selection day for Healthcare Science and it was fab to meet some of the applicants for the course in September.
Giving blood
Something that I’ve wanted to do for a while now is give blood and, about a month and a half ago, me and one of my close friends from the course went for it. She’d done it a couple of times already but it was quite nerve-wracking for me. It was actually a great experience though; much more painless and quicker than I’d ever expected! I even got to find out my blood group and can’t wait for my next chance to go along and give blood.
Good films
One of my favourite things to do is go and see a good film and luckily here at Southampton we have an amazing little student cinema. It’s based in the student union nightclub which is somehow transformed into a proper cinema! Union Films play all the latest releases throughout the year and, without realising just how close together they all were, me and my friends booked to see three films there in one week. Safe to say we loved all three of them – Gravity, Saving Mr Banks and Frozen, for anyone who was wondering – and hopefully some more will catch our eye next semester. They’ve even been known to put on free outdoor screenings in the summer, so let’s hope the weather gets really good!
Good music
The end of Easter term also means all the music concerts pile up. In early March I took part in the Symphonic Wind Orchestra concert in one of the lovely churches in Southampton. It was a great concert, though some really tough music, and it seemed like I didn’t really get a break from playing the clarinet on the night! And then last week I had my final Jazzmanix concert for this year. Jazzmanix is a huge choir of about 100 students who sing pop and gospel music and I’ve loved being part of it this year. We sang a great mixture of songs this time, my favourite easily being ‘Happy’, by Pharrell Williams, complete with a mini dance routine which caused a bit of confusion amongst the boys trying to multitask – not a stereotype, their words!
Off to Oxford!
So really, these past months have been great fun, despite all the revision and coursework! And these were just the bigger things I’ve told you about; I’ve had great fun with everyone doing silly things like aerobics classes (my co-ordination is not great), pancakes for breakfast (yogurt and marshmallow was an interesting combination) and a few birthdays being celebrated, as well as the obligatory night out to celebrate surviving exams. I now have two weeks off for Easter, before packing up and moving over to Oxford to start my second year placement. Last time I blogged, it all seemed very distant, so it’s amazing it’s snuck up so quickly – wish me luck and I’ll keep you updated!
Susannah 🙂
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