Student Selected Craponents

One of the features of all medical curricula in the UK are student selected components. They differ in designation from Uni to Uni, most call them Student Selected Modules or Special Study Modules. At my medical school they're called student selected components, or SSCs.

I haven't really enjoyed my final pre-clinical year at med-school. The whole routine thing we have going is getting kind-of boring and I feel that i'm ready to be thrust upon the general public. One of the long standing thorns in my side this year have been the student selected components. The GMC require that all students do a specific number of these modules (they recommend 33% of the entire course!) and that they are to 'broaden [our] horizons'. And they succeed in doing that. The problem that I have with them is that they just aren't relevant to what we came to university for. Take my last three SSCs. I did "Presenting yourself effectively with digital technologies", "Medical Databases" and "Digital Media: Technology for innovation". I enjoyed these SSCs. However, while each tried to gather together even the loosest connections to medicine and how they may be relevant in our up-and-coming careers - I think it's fair to say that i'll never use the skills I gained from them when i'm on the floor of the A&E at 4:00am giving a heart massage to a 67 year old with a heart attack.

We recently received an e-mail telling us that it is time to select our SSCs for year 3. Looking through them, it seems that they are much more clinically orientated and most of them look very exciting. Especially the A&E ones.

I think i've a good chance of being allocated to them too. Why who, after two years of learning about the sick role, would want to spend three weeks in one of the country's roughest and toughest A&E departments dealing with major trauma when you could be all wrapped up and warm learning about clinical audit from a Nurse Specialist?

I feel like a real medical student now. Or not.