Medical student forums
The
internet is becoming one of the most important means of international
communication. Medical student forums give students from different
cultural backgrounds the opportunity to exchange their ideas and share
their experiences about how to survive medical
school.
The Student Doctor Network Forum at
www.forums.studentdoctor.net is one of the most popular medical student
discussion forums, which boasts more then 150 000 posts. This
includes discussions on textbooks, suggestions on how to do well on
clinical clerkships and impress your professors, also analysis of
different medical specialties which helps you to make your own choice.
Although the discussions are rather oriented toward US students, the
medical student issues are pretty universal, so you will find relevant
information no matter what your country of
origin.
British
medical students have their own forums at
www.medschoolguide.co.uk/forum/index.php, with more then 2000
registered users. It contains a section for current medical students,
with more than 3500 posts. Additionally, each medical school has its
own discussion section. This website would attract students by the
posts on medical student equipment, textbooks, career advice, student
malpractice insurance, palmtop software, and much more. Overall, the
site is a good source of information on how to survive medical
school.
An example of a medical
school forum sponsored by a single university is the Brown Medical
Student Forum, at
www.brown.edu/Courses/Digital_Path/forum/index.php.
It has a section for academic topics on different classes with some
general information. Although not very active, it is still an
encouraging example for starting a similar thing at your own medical
school.
Medical students also like
the message forums at the Doctors' Lounge
(www.thedoctorslounge.net/forums). There are several categories
relevant to students' everyday life, such as studying basic
sciences and studying clinical sciences. Similar topics are also
discussed at www.studentdoc.com. The major drawback of these websites
is that there are too few
posts.
Matas Morkevicius, sixth year medical student, Vilnius University Medicine Faculty
Email: matasmorkevicius@yahoo.com
studentBMJ 2005;13:265-308 July ISSN 0966-6494
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REVIEWS
Medical student forums
Matas Morkevicius (July 2005)
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Taiyyab Mehmood
(August 23rd, 2005)
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REVIEWS
Medical student forums
Matas Morkevicius (July 2005)
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Balaji Ravichandran
(September 1st, 2005)
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