Student BMJ Review: November 2007 issue
I read the November issue of the studentBMJ with some interest. The debate over overseas-trained doctors and graduates is not endemic to the UK. The medical student ‘tsunami’ is a phenomenon resulting from an increase in medical school places, and is the particular headache of our Australian counterparts. I can see that the problem in the UK is further compounded by the issues of medical immigration. Graham Winyard’s piece entitled ‘Medical Immigration: the ignored problem’, was particularly to the point and informative regarding this matter. sBMJ chose well in including this article in the issue and I also enjoyed the head-to-head format of ‘Should postgraduate training places be reserved for UK graduates?’ Perhaps it would be worthwhile including a follow-up piece on the overseas approach to selection for postgraduate training and recommendations for resolving the UK situation from the appropriate authority, if the issue remains pertinent.
I think that the News section is well-done and would like to see an expansion of this segment. Local newspaper articles on healthcare and medicine are targeted towards the healthcare consumer, so a source that focuses on the specific interests of the medical student is great.
I would very much recommend keeping the focus on both the local and the international as it is widely acknowledged that students’ interests are all-embracing and that the medical workforce enjoys overseas experience.
The first person accounts of new experiences such as in the article ‘Carrying the crash bleep’ are always very entertaining and certainly of a particular interest to medical students who more often than not are faced with the reality of being in the author’s shoes at some point. These are a must for any future issue. I like the idea of presenting the Education section articles as medical cases.
Overall, there is a good mix of topics and a good ratio of features to more academic articles.
Dasha Nelidova, Medical Student, University of Auckland, New Zealand
