Student BMJ Review: June 2008 issue
General Comments
I greatly enjoyed reading the Student BMJ, and was impressed with its content, presentation and layout. It was nice to browse and to read in more depth. The articles and news snippets were punchy but accessible and well-written, and appropriately illustrated (with the possible exception of the three young people leering out of a car on page 224). I thought the overall balance of the articles was good, and there were several learning points for me; for example, jargon on quality improvement (page 228-9), from which it was clear that the Student BMJ shows no signs of Muda, Muri or even Mura.
The news items, including the research round-up and Eye-Spy, were interesting and informative. The research items were timely and clearly explained, and there were some important practice points - for example, no more antibiotic prophylaxis against infective endocarditis.
Several of the articles I found thought-provoking. These ranged from the personal views (meeting the first patient and the paired articles on medical students working as nurses); the truly inspiring account of the Chief Executive of the international initiative against blindness, who is also now studying medicine; and a well-researched piece on child labour.
I thought the practically-orientated articles - when to sit MRCP, the virtues of intercalating and practising venous cannulation - were very useful and I certainly would have appreciated them when I was a student.
The clinical cases were well-chosen and informative.
The letters, in this issue concerning complementary medicine and UKCAT, were interesting in that they illustrated a range of views which need to be recognised. Possibly a line or two to indicate the diversity of responses received on each topic, or how the views of correspondents were broken down under 'for' or 'against' might help to put the selected letters into a wider context.
Quibbles
I have very few.
