Electives in London
Hello everyone, I am sharing experience of a friend of mine who has done his electives in London and New York few months ago

" All of the following is for people who have already gone through the crazyness of applying for an elective, finally getting accepted and have gotten a visa and are just sitting there wondering "..but whats it going to be like?" Whether your going to England or America read both parts of this post because Iv added things in the New york part that also apply for london. And remember.. HAVE FUN!*
*Also i was living on a small budget here so it should be useful for people doing the same.*
*General advice for a medical students going to London for the first time to do an elective:*

1. they expect you to dress semi formally...meaning pant and a shirt. You can wear a tie if you like but there is no point wearing a suit, why? See next
2. Roll up your sleeves and remove any outer clothing you might be wearing, sweaters etc when your about to see a patient, they think it might spread disease but even their own studies shows it makes little difference.
3. Some patients may also have plastic aprons and gloves outside their doors, don't go in without putting them on if you see them outside the door.
4. Most of the doctors and nurses are very helpful you can ask them about any problems you might have, in fact every ones very helpful but they are also a little reserved, they wont be very friendly or make a lot of conversation or ask you to join them for a meal.
5. take a adaptor with you for you laptop, they only use the flat 3 pins there except for some odd reason,they've got the round pins in every bathroom so if you have an en-suite you don't need to get it for your phone charger.
6. For getting around, Google maps ziadabad! It will tell you which bus or trains you need to take and exactly how long it will take. Also the TFL (transport for London) website will tell you would train, tube or buses will get you to your destination fastest. Buses are cheapest but tubes are fastest. From most expensive to cheapest is Black cab > Mini cab > Tube > Bus > walk
7.there are a lot of tourist buses but The Big Bus Tour is pretty good...you get one ticket for about 14 pounds that you can use for 2 days and they have stops at every major sight seeing thing. Their buses run constantly so you can hop off one, stay at a sight as long as you want then hop on the next that comes along when you get out
8. If your looking to do a little different sight seeing there are books with titles like 100 London secrets that have some interesting things you should see, they are small cheap paper backs, useful investment. You dont have to spend a lot of money in London to sight see, most of the good museums are free as are many other things.
9. As soon as you get off the plane, ask around for the tube station. Before entering you'll need to get yourself a Oyster card. Its an electronic card that you load credit into and can use on almost all of London's transport systems train,bus and tube. there will be a counter to your right as you enter the Hethrow TUBE station i.e if your coming in from there.
10. For money i used cash and cheques, if your worried about carrying all that money you have a few option either get a supplementary credit card from your financier or UBL has this new prepaid visa credit card that is practically free (Rs.160 charges for making the card), has a limit of 200,000 and can be easily recharged from Pakistan when ever you need more money. Yes, 2% charges do apply for every transaction made internationally and the card would have to be made by someone who is employed but it can be made in your name. While i was in London people kept telling me to get an account made, apparently it doesn't take long so that might be a good idea.
11. DO NOT compare prices to Pakistan because that way you'll never buy anything :P How ever chocolates and cheeses were a **** load cheaper there then they are here so i ended up gorging on those. Seeing as i had the halal issue and didn't want to spend too much time cooking so mostly all I would buy is precut fresh salads,salad dressings, garlic bread, cheese, chocolates,pastas and cereals or make daal (you can get all the masalas you need there).
12. The larger store chains are usually cheaper then smaller stores called Off-licenses which are like your local chota store however the latter are open till late while big stores like ASDA, Marks and Spencers and Sainsbury close sooner.
13. There are a lot of halal restaurants so dont think you'll be going without meet for the entire trip [image: :P] Nan is a lot more expensive then pita bread though they taste almost the same there so buy that if your cooking for yourself.
14. Very important, take a good pair of shoes that you will be comfortable walking long distances in and are still formal enough to wear to work. The ones i had were formal enough but chaffed my feet. you will have to do a lot of walking.
15. since you'll have a lot of room in your bag when your leaving its not cheap ( its Economical! ) to take your soap,shampoo,toilet roll, sanipast (needed them for my feet ), shaving kit etc with you.
16. take a few black pens with you, if they ask you to write in the patients notes they expect only black ink.
17. Your preceptor wont be with you very often so when ever you see him, make sure you make a good impression and ask him/ her for a reference letter at the end, always remember to stay in touch with them!
18. The first day that your there they will make you take care of some things like, you will be sent to get your ID card made, you should have an appointment already with Occupational health, they will have a look at your immunization reports there and may take a blood sample for a couple of tests. Until the results for that come you may not be allowed to see invasive procedures.
19. Have a look at the Wellcome museum,its opposite Euston station..its got some cool stuff especially for medical students. it wont be part of any tours plus its free "

Asim Vine - Shifa College of Medicine