Merton medical students win essay prizes

Two Merton medical students have been awarded prizes in the Medical School's General Practice Essay Competition 2013. Joint winner Nicholas Black and Catrin Lloyd, who was joint runner-up, are currently in their first year of studying clinical medicine having completed three years of pre-clinical training.

As fourth-year medical students, they have a one-week placement in general practice before starting the pathophysiology course. Many students are placed outside of Oxford - Nicholas was based in Northampton. He explains:

"The idea is that we spend the week with the GPs, as well as all of the other staff involved in primary health care, such as practice nurses, district nurses, health care visitors and receptionists. At the end of the placement, we have to write an essay on an ‘extended patient contact’ that we experienced during the placement.

"My GP organised for me to go to the home of a patient with terminal lung cancer and discuss his disease with him and his family. I spent about 1½ hours taking a full medical history, with particular emphasis on the effect the cancer has had on his life and the role of the different primary care health workers in his diagnosis and management. With this patient, there was also an interesting discussion on palliative care and the challenges of pain management in incurable cancer; these were the issues I covered in my essay."

Catrin, who was based in Maidenhead, spent an afternoon in the home of a patient with multiple sclerosis, talking to her and her husband about the medical, social and psychological effects that the condition has had on her life. She also spoke to the health care professionals who have been involved in the treatment of the woman's condition and its complications.

Her essay vividly described the way that, whilst MS is often described as 'a devastating disease', it was not until she spoke to the patient that she fully understood what that means. She wrote:

"No part of her life had been left unaffected; her family, her career, her self-respect and her ambitions. The fact that it all began at the age of 28 is frightening."

Oxford University's Medical School awards essay prizes annually; Mertonians are awarded a further prize, in the form of book tokens, by the College.