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My elective experience

Ritu Bhattacharyya's elective experience

Ritu Bhattacharyya, a final year Medicine student, chose her elective in her local area - Hull - to gain valuable insights and solidify her career path.

With aspirations to serve her community during her foundation years and beyond, Ritu opted for an elective that would offer a comprehensive understanding of paediatrics and psychiatry.

Read on for an interview with Ritu, where she shares the learnings and inspirations in her elective that shaped her career aspirations and reinforced her passion for psychiatry.

Where did you go for your elective?

I chose to do my elective in Hull. I would like to work in Hull during my foundation years and beyond and felt doing an elective in this locality would be advantageous.

I spent my elective observing paediatrics wards and the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) inpatient and outpatient clinics. The objective was to gain an insight into paediatrics and psychiatry as two specialities that I was interested in.

What did you learn from the experience?

My experience in CAMHS truly reinforced the importance of multidisciplinary team meetings and discussions in making decisions in mental health care.

I would like to commend my elective supervisor Dr Hannah Townsend, a Hull York Medical School alumni and consultant paediatrician for providing me with the breadth of experience that I had during my elective.

What did you enjoy about your elective?

I enjoyed the variety of clinical environments I was exposed to through my elective from outpatient clinics to inpatient psychiatric wards, community paediatrics, paediatric wards, the Paediatric Assessment Unit, and High Dependency Unit.

Did your experience help shape your career aspirations?

My elective has reinforced my interest in psychiatry, and this is the speciality that I would like to pursue. My elective has also reinforced that I would also like to work in Hull as well.