Sharp Scratch

Behind the scenes at The BMJ

Maybe you’ve been following BMJ Student for a really long time, or maybe you’re new to following us. Perhaps you only know about Sharp Scratch, or you’ve written and worked with us before. However much you know about BMJ Student, we hope today’s episode will be a look behind the scenes at what it means to work at The BMJ.
Today we’ve got four current/former Editorial Scholars ready to talk all about our experiences working at The BMJ, as well as how you can get involved via the Clegg Scholarship, the Editorial Scholarship, Sharp Scratch, and writing articles! We’ll dive into any worries we had before joining, and unpick our experiences to hopefully allow you to get a better insight into the inner workings of a medical journal!
With thanks to Marina Politis and Nicholas Phillips (Clegg Scholars, 2022).
Check us out on social media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BMJStudent
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bmj_student/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BMJStudent/
This podcast is produced and edited by Dom Byrne and Duncan Jarvies.

Sharing is caring

We’ve talked before about how one's own experience of illness can affect their practice, but does it also influence how much you share with your patients?
In today’s episode we’re going to be talking all about physician self-disclosure - that is, all the things we, as future doctors, might share with our patients. We’ll be asking how appropriate it is to share your own stories with a patient and how you know when the timing is right to do this. This week, we’re going to be focusing on stories of illness and health, but we’ll come on to talking about other aspects of our identity in a future episode.
Expert guests:
Dr John Launer is a medical educator and writer. His background is in general practice and family therapy, and he also has a degree in English literature. He now devotes his time to medical education and he specialises in interactional skills.
Check us out on social media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BMJStudent
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bmj_student/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BMJStudent/
This podcast is produced and edited by Dom Byrne and Duncan Jarvies.

What’s in a name?

Some supervisors say "call me Bob'' but others insist on "Doctor Jones". In this episode we're reflecting on what types of supervisors fall into each camp and why sometimes using professional titles feels like honouring someone's hard work, but other times it feels like a way of putting you in your place.
In today’s episode, we’re thinking all about the title “doctor”. We’ll talk about when and how it should be used and discuss our own experiences with this. We’ll also discuss why some people get called ‘doctor’ far less than others, and how titles can sometimes create strange power dynamics and unhealthy hierarchies in medicine.
Expert guests:
Dr Anna Baverstock is a paediatric consultant in Somerset. She has a wellbeing role within the trust and is passionate about kindness, civility and inclusion.
Miss Evelyn Mensah, otherwise known as Evie, is a consultant ophthalmic surgeon in a large acute trust in north west London.
Check us out on social media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BMJStudent
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bmj_student/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BMJStudent/
This podcast is produced and edited by Dom Byrne and Duncan Jarvies.

Nothing like Grey’s Anatomy

From Casualty, Holby City, and Cardiac Arrest to Grey’s Anatomy, Scrubs and House, medical TV dramas are part of the fabric of growing up interested in a career in medicine. So today we’re discussing all things medical TV dramas and talking about whether these shows prepared us for medical school and life as a doctor!
Join us for this episode as we play some of our favourite clips from popular medical TV programmes and talk more about how our experiences as medical students and new doctors compare. We’ll be discussing the heartbreak, the friendships, the drama, and the romance, as well as unpicking just how realistic (or unrealistic) these shows really are.
Check us out on social media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BMJStudent
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bmj_student/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BMJStudent/
This podcast is produced and edited by Dom Byrne and Duncan Jarvies.

It’s not just you, medicine is weird

Medicine is a career unlike almost any other. As medical students and junior doctors, we’ve had a lot of experience with strange, surreal moments. The first time you ask a super invasive question to someone you’ve known for all of five minutes, the first time you make an incision in surgery, the first time you do an intimate examination - all of these things can be really strange as they go against our social norms.
Getting used to this is important but no one ever teaches us this in medical school. In everyday life, there are lots of rules that we follow that aren’t written down anywhere. But when we start placements, we have to unlearn years of following those rules and start doing things that conflict with how we would normally act. Join us in this episode as we talk about how strange medicine can be and how best to cope with moments that can sometimes be uncomfortable or awkward.
Check us out on social media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BMJStudent
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bmj_student/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BMJStudent/
This podcast is produced and edited by Dom Byrne and Duncan Jarvies.

I’m a (Phobic) Medical Student… Get Me Out of Here!

Medicine is occasionally like the reality TV show I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! in that some of the things we have to do are just unpleasant, whereas other parts may be phobia-inducing. But how might having a phobia as a medical student affect the ways you are able to work on placement?
In today’s episode, we’re going to be talking all about phobias. We’ll discuss what happens when you have a phobic response to something, the ways that this can impact you whilst studying medicine, and how to tell whether something is just dislike or an actual phobia.
Expert guests:
Dr Digby Quested is a general adult psychiatrist working in Oxford. He works in the community, and has covered many of the GP practices which serve the student population. He self managed blood phobia whilst at medical school
Check us out on social media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BMJStudent
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bmj_student/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BMJStudent/
This podcast is produced and edited by Dom Byrne and Duncan Jarvies.

Everyone has an accent

Accents and dialects are influenced by so many different things including race, gender, and class. They change frequently depending on where we are, who we are with, and even what we are trying to get out of any given interaction. But why does this happen? Do we gravitate towards a certain accent in order to fit in?
In this episode, we'll find out what an accent actually is, we'll discuss how our accents have changed whilst we've been at university, and we'll also examine the judgement that can arise when you speak in a ‘different’ accent to what someone else is used to.
Expert guests:
Lisa Casey is an Assistant Principal in a secondary school in London with a background in English and literacy. She is one of the hosts of Lexis, a podcast about language and linguistics for A Level students, teachers and anyone else who's interested in language.
Check us out on social media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BMJStudent
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bmj_student/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BMJStudent/
This podcast is produced and edited by Dom Byrne and Duncan Jarvies.

Compassionate medical schools

Any medical student knows that medical school can be tough. The hours are long, the work is hard, and stress can build quickly. Throughout all of this, we’re taught about compassion - how to be a compassionate medical student, and eventually a compassionate doctor. But do our own medical schools show compassion towards us?
In this episode, the Sharp Scratch team talks about compassionate organisations and the impact that compassion (or a lack of it) can have on students. We also talk more about the struggle that ensues when you have compassionate individuals but not compassionate systems, and what needs to change within our medical schools.
Expert guests:
Dr Rob Jarvis is a senior lecturer and lead for the gateway programme at the University of Dundee. He is a GP by background. For the last ten years he has been lead for student support at Dundee Medical School and also for the ScotGEM (graduate entry) programme.
Check us out on social media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BMJStudent
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bmj_student/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BMJStudent/
This podcast is produced and edited by Dom Byrne and Duncan Jarvies.

Students, sex work, and stigma

The relationship between our personal and professional identity has always been an important part of the conversations we have here on Sharp Scratch. What doctors and medical students do in their own personal lives is often brought into debates on professionalism.
The Student Sex Work Project (2015) reported that around 5% of students have, at some point, been involved in the sex industry. In this episode, the panel talk to Dr Jessica Simpson about the attitudes towards student sex workers, the GMC’s stance on this, and the concept of the personal-professional identity.
Expert guests:
Dr Jessica Simpson is a lecturer in sociology at the University of Greenwich. Her research area is the sex industry and her doctoral thesis was specifically on the topic of student sex work. She has recently contributed to this book on student sex work: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-07777-7.
Check us out on social media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BMJStudent
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bmj_student/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BMJStudent/
This podcast is produced and edited by Dom Byrne and Duncan Jarvies.

Being out of your depth

A career in medicine can sometimes mean stepping outside of your comfort zone. No matter what stage of your career you are in, it is likely that you will have to manage uncertainty, and will occasionally feel out of your depth.
In this episode, the Sharp Scratch panel talks about the reality of never being able to know everything in medicine, and the benefits of acknowledging your strengths and limitations. We also talk about how to recognise that something is beyond the limit of your capabilities, and the importance of asking for help if you need it.
Expert guests:
Dr Jennifer Rasanathan is a primary care physician and clinical editor at the BMJ. She is also a podcaster on Deep Breath In, a podcast for GPs.
Check us out on social media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BMJStudent
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bmj_student/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BMJStudent/
Thank you to Louise Griffin, final year med student at the University of Birmingham and Clegg Scholar 2022, who proposed this idea to be a Sharp Scratch episode.
This podcast is produced and edited by Dom Byrne and Duncan Jarvies.