Chloe Moses, MD ’21, found a home away from home while studying in Grenada at St. George’s University. Though it was far from her hometown of London, UK, she built a support system with the resources SGU provided, setting her up for the success she has found now as a foundation doctor completing a general surgery rotation at Southend General Hospital.
Dr. Moses was recently a featured doctor on SGU’s doctor shadowing series for future students that provides an opportunity to hear directly from SGU grads—where she discussed her experience as a med student in Grenada and as a physician in the UK. The session included a discussion about lower gastrointestinal bleeds, including real-life experiences from Dr. Moses.
At the end of the virtual experience, audience members were invited to ask questions about Dr. Moses’s journey as a physician. Here is an excerpt from that live question-and-answer session.
What is a typical day like as a foundation doctor in general surgery?
Dr. Moses: It’s kind of difficult to answer because we do a lot of different shifts. If I have a normal ward day, I will do a ward round with the consultant or whoever’s relevant and part of the team. I will usually stay on the ward and cover all the ward jobs, which might be discussing patients with different members and teams, organizing different scans, taking blood tests, and dealing with acute emergencies, for example, lower GI bleeds.
During a typical on-call shift – as I am currently rotating in gastrointestinal surgery, we often see presentations of appendicitis, cholecystitis and acute abdominal pain. We also perform surgeries such as cholecystectomies, and for common medical emergencies such as acute bowel obstruction and pancreatitis.
As a practicing doctor, what would you recommend students do as they prepare for med school?
Dr. Moses: I would say just be prepared to be focused and know that it’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be a journey. SGU will teach you everything in terms of material that you need [to be successful in residency]. You also need to prepare mentally to be away from home.
How did you go about making friends and building your support system at SGU?
Dr. Moses: Quite conveniently, SGU assigns you to study groups at first. So initially, I became particularly good friends with the people in my study groups. We’re all in the same position. We’re all away from home. We’re all anxiously trying to learn medicine. I stayed close to my study group. We ended up being friends and, even though we were only together for one subject, we ended up studying for all our subjects together. There wasn’t one day where I didn’t see them or message them and we used to do some practice questions together.
I found SGU to be completely diverse, so chances are you will find someone else from wherever your town is, in America or Dubai or wherever else. It’s quite a good opportunity for you to meet people and I still speak to my friends, who are now working doctors, regularly.
What were some of the opportunities you got involved with on campus outside of your studies?
Dr. Moses: I did a few societies, and they have a lot of opportunities for you to engage within the community, whether it be taking blood pressure or educating the local community on diabetes. I quite enjoyed doing things like that. I also enjoyed going to the religious celebrations on Sundays. It’s a time where everyone kind of came together and got a breather from studying. There’s a lot of social events that, even if you’re not a member of a certain club or society, you can join. One example is swimming, you can help teach swimming to the local children.
There’s always something going on, something for you to join in with and everyone’s always together. Even if you don’t know them, I’m sure most people didn’t know everybody there but you’re all able to have fun with each other.
What did you enjoy most about your time at SGU?
Dr. Moses: I really enjoyed studying in Grenada. And for me, living in the UK, it was a wonderful opportunity to go somewhere else with lovely weather and to study what I love. Paired with the state-of-the-art facilities, I was not missing home at all. SGU had everything I needed, I was very well supported there and able to study with a beautiful view. I felt like it was an exceptionally good foundation for my medical knowledge, which is what I use today.
