My path into intercalation was an unusual one. I originally applied for Liverpool’s new Acute Critical and Emergency (ACE) MSc, but when the course was postponed due to the pandemic, I was offered a place on the MRes in Translational Medicine, onto which a new Emergency Care research strand had been added.
I had to think long and hard about this prospect. On the one hand it wasn’t the clinical experience I’d been hoping for, and academic writing and research was as far outside my comfort zone as I could imagine. There was also the financial hit of another year or university to consider. But I knew that research is an integral part of medicine; points are given for publications and presentations in most speciality applications and auditing is one of the best ways to drive improvement in hospitals. With all this in mind I decided to jump out of my comfort zone and sign up for the course.
The MRes consisted of three research projects and a handful of smaller essays throughout the year. I was really nervous going into this with near zero research experience, but my convenor was extremely supportive and went out of his way to put us in contact with researchers who could answer me and my course mates’ many questions. My research consisted of a systematic review and a series of audits which taught me a lot about how to understand and think critically about research then translate my thoughts into concise reports.
On a whim with little hope of success I submitted my first abstract to a few conferences and found that this part of the research world is far more attainable than I had previously assumed. I presented my work as a poster, won a student oral presentation competition and later this month will be going to Lisbon to talk about it at the European Society for Emergency Medicine (EUSEM) annual congress.
Despite this, the highlight of the year for me was helping with an audit on pulmonary embolism management across Aintree and the Royal’s acute medicine departments. My supervisor was fantastic acute med consultant who really got me involved and made me feel part of the team. When I eventually presented my data, the doctors I’d been working with and their colleagues were all extremely enthusiastic and receptive to what I had to say. We worked on a set of recommendations, and it was the first time in my short career that I felt I had made a real impact on patient care.
Surprisingly, given the COVID restrictions, intercalation was also a fantastic experience socially. I made really good friends within my strand and the lack of 9-5 placement gave me plenty of time to try out new societies and sports. It also gave me and a great deal other intercalating student doctors time to support the local COVID vaccination roll out which turned out to be a terrifically happy and friendly work environment that gave us the opportunity to feel we were really doing something to help the community come out the other side of the pandemic.
An extra year to your studies isn’t a decision to be taken lightly and it’s one that requires time and research so you are clear on why you wish to intercalate and what you want to get out of it. The learning opportunities are there to be had and, remember, if you’ve worked hard enough to get this far into medicine, you’ll be able to do anything else you put your mind to.