Lessons from Guys and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
Pain is the body’s most persuasive teacher. This is one of the key lessons from The Wright Society’s recent visit to Guys and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, joining 4th-year medical students in a lecture on pain by Consultant Anaesthetist Suneil Ramesur. The session covered what pain really is, identification and assessment of pain, effective treatment, and why it is critical for pain to be treated effectively in modern society.
The lecture was an amazing opportunity to gain insight into medical lectures and learn why something we regard as such a negative result, is so important in preventing further harm when we injure ourselves, or in preventing getting injured in the first place.
My personal highlight was learning about the range of drugs used during and post-surgery to manage and minimise pain in patients. I also found it fascinating how pain can be treated using non-pharmacological approaches such as CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy), instead of immediately using medications alone, challenging past beliefs that drugs are always the solution. This emphasised how medicine is such a rapidly changing field as it is always responding to new research and evidence.
A big thank you to Mr Quinton for organising this amazing opportunity for us.
The next highlight in The Wright Society calendar is our Annual Lecture on 2 March by a Consultant of Plastic Surgery featured in the Netflix Series ‘Critical’ – everyone is welcome to attend – please follow this link to sign up
Written by Cameron Whitfield, Lower Sixth Medic
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