Students of the Medical Careers Academy at Richard Huish College recently explored the intricacies of medical ethics in a workshop run by Dr Sarah Campbell from the NHS Somerset Foundation Trust.
The Medical Careers Academy is open to students of all courses who have aspirations of pursuing a career in medicine, veterinary science, or dentistry.
The session served as great preparation for questions the students may receive in future interviews and got them to consider ethical questions presented in current news events.
Also this term, Alumni Erin Evans (Class of 2015) spoke to the academy about her experiences since leaving Huish, and Julie Monk from the Peninsula Medical School visited the students.
Erin discussed her gap year volunteering, graduating from Sheffield University with a First Class Honours degree and MSc in Molecular Biology, and the 2.5 years research post she held with IONTAS. Her next steps see her headed to Canada to begin a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology with the University of British Columbia.
The first-year students had just finished learning about autoimmune diseases, so were fascinated to hear of her future research into the potential role of endogenous retroviruses in the development of multiple sclerosis.
Julie spoke about the application process to study Medicine, Dentistry, and related courses at Plymouth University and introduced them to the Brightside E-mentoring scheme, Peninsula Pathways workshops, and their Work Experience Programme. Consequently, several students have been accepted onto this scheme.