PUBLISHED 18 March 2021
It is wonderful to see the new AKS Medical Society up and running on Fridays. This superb initiative is particularly special as it is pupil-led and has been set up by AKS Year 10 students Kate & Anna.
Kate and Anna have set clear objectives and aims of what they wish to achieve by setting this club up, but mainly want to help inform people about all the fascinating opportunities that Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary sciences bring.
They are passionate about the admission process into medicine, what universities have to offer, different specialities, volunteering and work experience. They look forward to thought-provoking medical ethics debates and aim to set up seminars to hear from real-life doctors, dentists, vets, and allied health professionals.
This is a totally student-led group and is open to any suggestions regarding new topics of discussion. Anyone in Year 9 and above is very welcome to join the Friday after school sessions which are 4.00pm - 4.30pm.
At their first meeting last Friday they discussed the following four key principles;
- Autonomy
- Beneficence
- Non-maleficence
- Justice
The students that attended the meeting engaged in debating the wide and varied subject matter that both Anna and Kate prepared around these 4 principles. Several students shared their thoughts after attending this first meeting:
"Overall, I thought that the Medical Society Club was very enjoyable. The discussions on medical ethics that we had were very engaging and it was interesting hearing everyone else’s opinions on some of the discussions that we talked about. The discussion was also good because I had learnt some new things about medicine, for example, I learnt about the four pillars of medical ethics that doctors and nurses had to stand by".
Eisa, Year 10
I really enjoyed discussing the key points in Medical Society about doctors’ rights, whether they should be allowed to go on strikes and about private hospitals, concluding that the NHS should be free! I found it very interesting, and I appreciate all the effort Anna and Kate have put into Medical Society. I learnt new things in just one meeting, about the four key codes of conduct for the medical practitioners. These included the basic ethical principles which apply to forensic activities, and are autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice. I learnt that expressing respect for patients' autonomy means acknowledging that patients who have decision-making capacity have the right to make decisions regarding their care, even when their decisions contradict their clinicians' recommendations. I found it very fascinating to know that beneficence means that health care providers must do all they can to benefit the patient in each situation. All procedures and treatments recommended must be with the intention to do the best for the patient. Nonmaleficence is the obligation of a physician not to harm the patient. Lastly, the principle of justice could be described as the moral obligation to act on the basis of fair adjudication between competing claims. As such, it is linked to fairness, entitlement, and equality. All these key terms were unknown to me before coming to Medical Society, so I wish to thank Anna, and Kate for starting this society.
Ayushi, Year 10