Sharp Scratch

In this episode of Sharp Scratch, the panel made up of Inez and George get together with the band GULZ to chat about balancing a musical career alongside working as doctors. GULZ talk about their experiences as musicians and forming a band while at medical school, as well as how they are able to balance rehearsals and gigs alongside studying medicine and working as doctors. The episode touches on...

In this episode of Sharp Scratch, the panel talks about why misogyny and racism exists in medicine and how students and resident doctors can educate themselves to tackle bias in healthcare.  The panellists for the episode, made up of Sarah, Anna and George chat with expert guest Annabel Sowemimo a community sexual and reproductive health doctor, activist and author of Divided: Racism, Medicine and...

In this episode of Sharp Scratch, the panel gets together to talk about widening participation in medical school.  The panellists, made up of medical students Maira and George, chat with guest Clare Owen, director of policy at the Medical Schools Council.  Together they discuss what is meant by widening participation, the importance of schemes that have been implemented to widen participation in m...

In this episode of Sharp Scratch, the panel gets together to discuss the gaps in the medical curriculum when it comes to teaching on sexual health.  The panellists, made up of Will, Elisabeth and George chat with sexual health doctor Naomi Sutton.  Together, they highlight how teaching at medical school often has a focus on sexually transmitted infections and contraception, and the importance of c...

In this episode of Sharp Scratch, the panel, made up of George and Inez get together to talk about why people sometimes describe medicine as a cult. The episode discusses the perceived parallels between the medicine and cults, and explores the strong sense of identity and community that often develops from our time at medical school and into our working life as doctors. The panel is joined by Sam...

In this episode of Sharp Scratch, the panel get together to chat with TikTok sensation and A&E doctor Maddy Lucy Dann. The panel, made up of George and previous Editorial Scholar Nikki,  ask Maddy questions about why she became a doctor, her career in A&E, as well as her best advice for starting your foundation years. The panel also touch on other topics, including what drew them to a care...

We talk about professionalism from day one of medical school, but what actually is professionalism? In this episode, we take a slightly more philosophical approach to this important question.  George is joined by previous editorial scholar Laura, as well as expert guest Sabena Jameel. Together, they talk about what professionalism in medicine means, including the ambiguity and evolving nature of t...

Fears around making mistakes seem to be common amongst medical students and resident doctors, so why are many of us afraid to talk about these fears?  In this episode, the panel made up of Anna, Inez and George, get together with Dr Vicky Price, president-elect of the Society for Acute Medicine. Together, they discuss why we are afraid of making mistakes, what to do when we do make a mistake, and,...

When it comes to dating, does being a medical student or new doctor make it more complicated? When is the best time to tell your Hinge date that you're a doctor? Are break ups during medical school inevitable? And, are doctors more likely to cheat on their partners?  In this episode, the panel, made up of Nikki, Sarah, Judy and George, get together to talk all about the dating lives of medical stu...

Were you born to write "It's giving CAP", but forced to write "patchy lower lobe consolidation, suggestive of a community acquired pneumonia"? In this episode, the panel learn about the history of popular gen-z slang, how social media, including TikTok trends influence the language we use, and how it may have made it's way into medicine.    This week, George, Nikki, Stan and William are joined by...

Medical school is tough for students, with high workloads, exam pressure and uncertainty around placement rotations. So what is the impact on us when a family member or loved one becomes unwell? How do medics cope with this, and how do they find the balance between being both a medic and a loved one?  In this episode, the Sharp Scratch panel explore what it is like when a family member or loved on...

We are embracing spooky season here at Sharp Scratch! In this weeks special Halloween episode, the panel get together to hear listeners  embarrassing OSCE stories, and why these exams can sometimes feel so scary to medical students.  Find BMJ Student on social media   Twitter/ X  https://x.com/BMJStudent   Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bmj_student/

Have you ever considered taking time out of medical school?   Whether it is during medical school, or once we have began working as a doctor, there are times when many of us are faced with needing to take a break. This could be for a number of reasons, including health reasons, financial reasons, exploring different areas of our career or maybe when starting a family.   In this episode, George is...

Have you had a great mentor while at medical school? Mentors, both formal and informal, are an integral part of medical training, but what makes a good mentor? And how do we find one? Whether through official mentorship schemes, medic families, or someone you bonded over a book with, mentors have the ability to shape our time at medical school.    This week, Éabha is joined by Anna and George, wit...

Medical students do not live in a bubble, we bring with us our own culture, traditions, and often our religion. In this episode we discuss how being a religious medic can influence how you navigate your practice and how thinking about spirituality can be helpful in developing your holistic understanding of patients. This week, Éabha is joined by Judy and Elisabeth, and expert guest Charlie Bell, a...

Who’s off limits when it comes to dating, how renal physiology can ruin your chance of romance, and whether you should put that you’re a doctor on your tindr profile. Dating as a newly qualified doctor brings some challenges that we don’t face as med students: unpredictable hours, exhaustion from night shifts, and professional boundaries with colleagues. Are some lines we should not cross? How har...

Have you ever had a really bad day at placement? Perhaps something really awful has happened, or something has upset you, or another member of the team, or maybe you’ve made a mistake. This year, many episodes of sharp scratch have touched on the idea of debriefing after events like these, but in this episode, we talk a little more about debriefing. What is it? When is it useful? And who can we de...

Transitioning from school to university is challenging for everyone, but is perhaps even more so when that transition involves moving to a whole new country. International medical students are those of us in medical training who undertake their studies in a different country to the one they call home. Whether that’s a short hop across borders or moving to the other side of the world, studying in a...

Trans people experience disproportionately poor health outcomes, with a recent study funded from the NIHR finding that trans and non binary patients are more likely to experience long term health conditions, including dementia, learning disabilities, and mental health problems. In this episode, we talk about how current and future doctors can be equipped with some of the tools we need to support t...

Studying medicine can make us feel like we’re being shaped to become anonymous cogs in a health-delivering machine. To be effective, it can seem that we need to fit ourselves into a universal mold, unable to make decisions or express individuality. Many students have expressed outrage towards the recent changes made in the UKFPO allocation programme that removes the ability of graduating students...

Often, we think of medicine as a science. We think of doctors as scientists and scholars. We pride ourselves in being ‘in STEM,’ supporting evidence based medicine and learning the so-called ‘medical model.’ Our view of medicine, it’s teaching and its assessment is framed by medical science, and we may not think of ourselves as creatives. In this episode, the panel discuss whether there is room fo...

Medics, throughout our careers and lives, are surrounded by grief. We grieve in our own lives, we grieve for our patients, we grieve with our patients. In this week's episode, we talk a little about grief in all of its forms.   While an early episode of sharp scratch explored coping with death, I think it is fair to say that since the pandemic, the experiences of medical students with regards to l...

Maybe you've been following BMJ Student for a really long time, or maybe you're new to following us. Perhaps you only know about Sharp Scratch, or you've written and worked with us before. However much you know about BMJ Student, we hope this episode from our archives will be a look behind the scenes at what it means to work at The BMJ.    This episode from 2023 brings together four former editori...

With the rapid unfolding of recent events in medicine, from low pay to staffing crisis’ to the rapid changes to the face of our postgraduate training, it can be easy to lose all hope for the future - but is this really the case? A recent BMJ research paper found that cancer survival has doubled in the last fifty years, and that's one reason to be hopeful.   In this episode, the panel talk all abou...

Perfectionism is medicine’s favourite flaw. It seems that all too often, the very traits that we entered this profession for; wanting to be the best, wanting to do the best by our patients and colleagues, can often lead to burnout, to loneliness, to all those negative consequences we have discussed in previous episodes. In this episode we look a little more at perfectionism; what it is, why we med...