Welcome to GEMP 2!

As I write this, we have completed 3 weeks (ALREADY!) of our GEMP 2 / 4th year of medicine at Wits! The year starts off with a Neurosciences block, which in itself is made up of neurology and psychiatry.

One of the questions I get frequently from people trying to get into GEMP is if missing out on dissection (a second year med school component) is a massive set-back for students. For GEMP 1, I’d definitely say there is no disadvantage that I could tell – the anatomy labs are relatively straight-forward, and there are cadavers and specimens for each of the relative systems that you can work with.

For the first 3 weeks of GEMP 2, however, I have strongly felt that absence of knowledge. Understandably, getting the brain to understand exactly how the brain understands is inherently confusing, but it has been the most difficult 3 weeks of medical school for me by a long stretch.

The Haematology block in GEMP 1 was the only other time I have felt so disconnected from some of the material and my level of understanding. The main reason for this has been the anatomy components (which is pretty much most of what we’ve done so far!), and the anatomy labs have unfailingly left me feeling overwhelmed after every session. The level of detail and intricacy has caught me by surprise! I am trying to learn from my experiences last year, and to not let the infamous “Imposter syndrome” take its residence in my mind.

Thankfully (for me, and for future GEMP 2 students) the doctor running the anatomy labs has organized extra sessions aimed at those students (like me) who have not done dissection or neuroanatomy before, and I think these sessions will fill in a lot of the gaps.

Besides, no one ever said med school would be easy! We still have 4 weeks to go before our exams, and in all honesty I’m somewhat motivated by the struggle and challenge of coming to grips with the material and finally understanding everything!

Another big change in GEMP 2 is that we have a component called “Clinical Methods”, where we have three rotations that we get to work and practice in the hospitals. The rotations are surgery, paediatrics, and internal medicine. My first rotation is surgery, and we spend 5/6 sessions in the hospitals practicing our different skills – doing exams, taking histories, presenting to doctors etc. This is something that I’m incredibly excited about and can’t wait to do more of (I’m simultaneously thrilled and terrified for the first time we get to scrub in for a surgery)!

The rest of GEMP 2 is made up of the Musculoskeletal, GIT and nutrition, Endocrine, and Reproduction blocks, and then we end the year by doing our electives. As things stand, I would love to do my electives in trauma and surgery, but I will leave an open mind for as long as possible to see if anything else catches my attention!

I’m hoping this will be another great year!

Good luck to everyone who made it into GEMP 1, and good luck to those of you who may be on your own journey of applying to med school!