“Good preparation is half the battle”

Fellow student and teacher combined

Gwendolyn Graf stands in the preparation room wearing a lab coat and holding a scalpel. She’s waiting for a group of six medical students who are taking part in her anatomy lab practical training. The idea is for them to learn preparation technique while acquiring a basic knowledge of anatomy. The room is kept very cool. Gwendolyn is in the fourth year of her course, two years ahead of her fellow students. She’s always well prepared, going over the material again before each course so that she makes a competent impression. “A wonderful side-effect of teaching is that in the course of preparing, I gain an even deeper knowledge of the subject,” she explains. She also sees her tutorial work as an opportunity to prepare for an academic career in medicine.

One of the difficulties of her work is having to gear herself up week for week for a new group of students at widely varying stages of preparation. She starts out by asking questions to find out how much the participants know. Each group only gets to work on one part of the specimen. For example, Gwendolyn shows them how to expose nerves in the thigh before moving into the muscle tissue. Whenever possible she takes time to answer questions on learning techniques or the upcoming exam. She was a primary school teacher before studying medicine, so she has a flair for instruction. But there’s a difference between teaching children and people of your own age. “I’m a fellow student and teacher combined: You have to find your own way into the role.” (mf)