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Let's precis my story and get it out of the way.
Medical students did 12 weeks split between Psychiatry, Skins and Infectious Diseases. In Psychiatry it involved day release to a Psychiatric Hospital where you were allocated a patient in which you took a history and then presented it to the Consultant with the patient sitting there and to about 20 of your mates who were also doing Psychiatry.
It was an unpopular specialty and presenting a case was as dull as ditchwater and seemingly never ending.
Now...to the interesting bit. My mate who I shall call Jack, chatted up these two Psychiatric nurses who were married and came from Switzerland, took them to the pictures, fish and chip supper and then back to the Student's Hostel.
By chance we found out that there was Bursary in Psychiatry which would fund interested students to live in at the hospital for 6 weeks plus £3 a week subsidence.
Bingo,
We put our case to the Dean and he was delighted that 2 students were so interested in Psychiatry that they wanted to live in the Menta, Hospital, full time.
The deal was done.
For about 6 weeks jack and Ihadca whale of a time living with these two "friendly nurses". At the end of six weeks, we said goodbye and yes, ofcourse we loved them and it just wasn't for the sex and we would keep in contact with them.
6 weeks later, we were called to the Dean's office and told that we were to write a paper on Schizophrenia to be presented for publication to the Journal of Psychiatry if acceptable. That was an unexpected blow, as we had learned nothing in our subsidised period of intense Psychiatric residence.
The best part of the story is that Jack became famous, not in Medicine, but as an author and his books formed the basis of a very successful TV series in the 70s and 80s and no he wasn't Richard Gordon and no it had nothing to do with Doctor In the House.