I have SO enjoyed this year! I chose Childhood Studies as my intercalated degree because I have always been interested in working with children in the future and find the childhood stage of development fascinating.

However, it is not only in paediatrics that learning about children is important; thinking about how children may be affected and knowing about services/information that could be useful is important for any GPs or doctor who may be looking after a patient whose family includes children.

I also thought that this course would not be too (medically) scientific but more of a social science, which is something that I enjoyed learning and reading about already. I think it has been brilliant and very appropriate for medical students.

The opportunity to study in a less prescribed manner, with flexibility to direct my reading into new areas of interest and build my discussion and essay-writing skills has been a great way of learning (quite different to medicine).

The research dissertation has been a very useful learning experience for me; the supervision from my dissertation advisor has been helpful in critiquing literature. Amongst my medical student peers I am not a strong writer so it was very nice having her guidance. Making a new bunch of student friends is a plus too! I was nicely welcomed into the year.

Where are they now?

 It is not definite that I want to become a paediatrician (I have plenty of time to decide and need to explore other possible specialties first), but am quite confident that it is an area of practice that I would enjoy.