The Launch Of Watford General Hospital’s Medical Society
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As some of the first under-18 volunteers at Watford General’s A&E, we’ve spent a significant amount of time at the hospital and built some great connections there. Throughout our time there, we met like-minded people from all over the area who didn’t have the same opportunities that we were lucky enough to have through our WBGS medical society, which I ran throughout Year 12 and Year 13.
After one shift at the hospital, Shubber mentioned this to a volunteer lead, which led to a follow up interview for me, where I pitched the idea of the hospital medical society. This led to a lot of work in the following weeks and months, as it was set up as an official NHS project. We spent a lot of time between school and the hospital during lunch times and after school, discussing the specifics of the event, finding dates that work, and using the connections we’d built over the last few years of our lives to invite some fantastic guest speakers.
This was how we managed to found the first Medical Society for students at a hospital.
What is it and what have we done: -Shubber
The Youth Volunteering Medical Society is a student-led initiative based at Watford General Hospital, designed to support and inspire the volunteers interested in pursuing careers in medicine. We aim to provide experiences that help broaden the horizon for aspiring medicine students, through the organisation of events and competitions.
We’ve had a successful launch for the society. Our first event, the Journeys in Medicine Panel, went fantastically. We managed to completely book out the hospital’s lecture theatre, and had 3 amazing talks:
Jatheeshan started the event off with the aptly named “Journey of applying to medicine” talk, where he detailed what he’d gone out and achieved in the last year. The lessons he’d learnt from his shortcomings and successes throughout the process culminated in a reflective and insightful talk which was rich with advice for upcoming applicants. The talk saw overwhelmingly positive feedback and transitioned nicely into the second talk of the day.
The rich history of WBGS played a pivotal part in the establishment of the MedSoc, as one of our guest speakers for the day is an alum of the school. Dr Tom Pierce, a student of the school nearly 50 years ago, made the long trip from Southampton, to discuss the journey of his career which began in that very city. Providing a deep and introspective talk about his career, Dr Pierce gave some incredible advice into the ever changing world of anaesthesiology and work within the field of environmental sciences in relation to medicine and surgery.
Our third speaker was an A&E registrar who we met through a fantastic opportunity to shadow a simulation training for FY2 Doctors, which we were invited to by the volunteer’s department after a long commitment to volunteering. Dr Kengatharan delivered a speech which ran us through the last decade of his life, talking about the experience of gap years - something that worries most med students - training positions, strikes and his time in A&E departments.
The speakers complemented each other's presentations and their synergy allowed them to build off each other really well. At the same time, the excellent questions by the volunteers drew out the full potential of the event, with our speakers being able to work off each other’s ideas and experiences to deliver a collaborative Q&A that left no room for uncertainty.
But What’s Next? - Jatheeshan
The MedSoc hopes to expand even further and have more events scheduled for May and August in accordance with exam schedules for local students. We hope to run competitions and have more student involvement, with the WBGS year 12 Med Soc lead hoping to take on responsibilities in the near future, talking about key ethical topics involved in the medicine application.
If you’d like to get involved, sign up for volunteering at Watford General online, or speak to us
Find our more about volunteering at Watford General
