Med Day puts the elderly to the fore

HUNDREDS of future doctors risked colds and flu to raise money to help the elderly and less well-off students yesterday.

The proceeds from Trinity College Dublin’s Med Day will support the Care of the Elderly unit at St James’s Hospital.

“It will be used to renovate a long-term elderly care ward, which is desperately in need of modernisation to create a happy and homely atmosphere for elderly patients,” said Med Day chairperson Karen Given.

The fifth year medical student said the trainee doctors want to give something back to the hospitals which help teach them during their six years in college.

The €42,000 raised by the Trinity students on the first Med Day last year went partly to the National Children’s Hospital.

The remainder went to the provision of a medical scholarship to assist students from disadvantaged backgrounds study at university. A similar scholarship will be provided from this year’s proceeds, under the Trinity Access Programme.

In order to promote the idea of studying medicine, the college brought in around 120 second level students from around Dublin for an interactive clinical skills session

yesterday morning. Senior medical students demonstrated a variety of skills, such as reading x-rays and using a stethoscope, with the aim of inspiring students to apply for the scholarship.

Trinity College Dublin has around 600 medicine students, with a handful benefiting from the college’s successful access programme.

The Med Day also aims to promote interaction amongst different medicine classes and staff, through fun activities such as a Med Cup soccer tournament.