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Cover artwork
No full textI was inspired to create this piece of art after reading Withering, the touching short story about neurodegenerative disease featured in this issue of PhysiOdyssey. Using the app Procreate, I designed a tree and limes to represent motor neurons and a dead branch to illustrate the decaying of the tree, mirroring the progression of the disease.
I am studying science at a Further Education College and have a particular interest in environmental sciences and biology as well as art.
Interdisciplinary Learning: A Study of Practice within Secondary Schools in Glasgow, Scotland
Full text linkThe need for young people to acquire transferrable skills and knowledge by blurring disciplinary boundaries and applying their learning to real life contexts has been a theme of global educational policy in recent years (OECD, 2018a; United Nations, 2015). Within Scotland this is reflected in Curriculum for Excellence where Interdisciplinary Learning (IDL) features heavily and is cited as one of four main contexts for learning alongside: Curriculum areas and subjects, Ethos and life of the school, and Opportunities for personal achievement. However, some studies indicate that an implementation gap exists and that IDL is not being fully realised in practice (Graham, 2019; Harvie, 2018). A recent report suggested that “Colleges and universities might consider partnering with practitioners to measure the impact and requirements of quality IDL experiences.” (Education Scotland, 2023, p. 7). In line with this, Glasgow City Council and the University of Glasgow partnered to conduct a research study in three secondary schools in Glasgow which were identified as having good practice in IDL. This article presents the findings in relation to approaches participating schools used to plan and implement IDL and the impact this work had on pupils and the wider school community.
Finding a balance as a medical student
No full textAs students, one key area that all of us struggle with is finding balance between studying and other activities. With the constant stresses of exams and coursework looming over us, it can feel challenging to try and reach a healthy medium. This can be extremely beneficial to achieve as it helps aid our mental health and combat burnout, something we are all familiar with.
Some key activities/responsibilities that can provide a break from intense study sessions can be:
Sports
Socialising with friends
Reading
Exercise
Work
Volunteering
It is vital to schedule in these times between for various activities so that we protect our mental health(and overall sanity) and also improve our efficiency of studying.
Nowadays, mental health issues are more publicised, so it is very important to check in with yourself as well as your friends to make sure they are ok. If you are ever feeling overwhelmed and struggling to cope there are various resources available and staff members/friends who are willing to listen and aid you in finding balance in your university life.
Surgo Meets... Dr Christine McAlpine : First Woman President, MedChir Society
No full textIn this issue, we speak to Dr Christine McAlpine or “Christine Corbett” as she was known back in the days of Glasgow Medical School. Dr McAlpine broke through the ceiling and entered the history books as the first woman President elected to lead MedChir Society. Radiologists Brian Mucci and John Shand were on her committee while Sam Galbraith was her Honorary President (1945- 2014; https://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/obituary-sam-galbraith-brain-surgeon-and-politician-1528621; https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/aug/19/sam-galbraith).
1) Dr McAlpine, since it is graduation season, please tell us a little of your career after you qualified MBChB and why you chose the specialty you did.
Up to my retirement 3 months ago, I was a Consultant Geriatrician and Stroke Physician. I find Geriatric Medicine interesting and a nice mix when compared to a single-organ-based specialty. I became interested in Stroke Medicine when it became a specialty in the 1990s. I really enjoyed the mix of acute and rehabilitation aspects of managing patients in the Stroke service.
2) Can you share some of your career highlights?
I have always enjoyed being a doctor! Locally, I was for many years the clinical lead for the NHS GGC Stroke Managed Clinical Network, which was a varied and interesting role. I was, over the course of my career, the Geriatric Medicine Advisor to the Chief Medical Officer of Scotland and Chair of the British Geriatrics Society (Scotland). I had a long and fruitful collaboration with Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Scottish Stroke Care Audit. I was co-Chair of the Scottish Care of Older People Audit until my retirement – and I am still on the committee to improve care of this group of people in Scotland. I was able to maintain an interest in research via the Scottish Stroke Research Network and had various roles in the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. I have been fortunate to have had a very enjoyable career.
3) Tell us a little of your time as a student at Glasgow University, especially about your time in MedChir?
We celebrated the 45th reunion of our graduation just last week! I thoroughly enjoyed being a medical student in Glasgow and my time in MedChir. Take a look at the pristine MedChir membership book I found recently. The MedChir afforded me the opportunity to meet students from other year groups - it was good fun! I enjoyed working with Sam Galbraith and we were kept busy organising all the educational activities and lectures, at least once a month! Before each event, a couple of committee members would head to the Ubiquitous Chip with that evening’s speakers for dinner – those were the days! Outside of Medicine, I was part of the University of Glasgow Cecilian Society – still running today! – where I played the clarinet with the orchestra. As a “Western Infirmary” girl, I was sad to see it demolished, but I am very impressed with the new buildings appearing.
4) What would you say to your medical student self if you had the chance?
“Believe that you can do things” and “Read up on Imposter Syndrome”. I think women in particular are more prone to this.
5)What would you say to medical students today?
I would tell them something which was said to me as a student: “You are usually more content regretting the things you did, than the thing you didn’t do.”
Take any opportunity you are offered. I generally did that when I was a student and most times I was glad for the experiences they brought.
There were a few opportunities I didn’t take and I regretted later - for example I regret not taking the opportunity of intercalating to do a BSc. I wasn’t sure I wanted to do a science degree in the middle of my medical training. Now, with hindsight, it would have been a very good thing. But I think I have always been a ‘glass half full’ person, which I hope has stood me in good stead over the years
The Student-Staff Sustainability Partnership
No full textThe Student-Staff Sustainability Partnership aims to bring together like-minded people from across the medical school to promote the concept of planetary health and share resources that allow us to advance our understanding of OneHealth, sustainability, and how we as healthcare professionals can apply them into practice.
From community facing events such as volunteering at the Glasgow Science Festival where we had a stand exploring the environmental impacts of the NHS, to the annual completion of the Planetary Health Report Card, and even sharing international workshop opportunities such as the U21 2025 SDG Workshop in Ireland - through the Partnership, students have gained many opportunities to be involved.
Planetary Health Report Card
The Planetary Health Report Card was created in 2019 as a tool for students around the world to audit their university\u27s performance in implementing planetary health into the curriculum and practices. From 2020, students at the University of Glasgow have undertaken this project annually.
32 metrics, divided into 5 domains (Curriculum, Interdisciplinary Research, Community Outreach & Advocacy, Support for Student-Led Initiatives and Campus Sustainability), were used to calculate an overall grade.
Areas of improvement were targeted using information collated from the report through staff-student liaisons.
Since its adoption, the University’s overall score has improved from 40.5% to 58.71%. Since 2021, improvements have been made in all domains:
Curriculum: The role of Planetary Health Vertical Theme Lead as a member of staff was created and appointed. Students across all the years were given more lectures that mapped to the metrics in the PHRC.
Research: The University of Glasgow has joined the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education.
Community Outreach: The University of Glasgow hosted courses for the community during COP26. We have also partnered with Glasgow City Council to launch GALLANT - Glasgow as a Living Lab Accelerating Novel Transformation, which aims to co-produce sustainable solutions (with many health co-benefits) with a variety of communities
Support for Student-Led Initiatives: Many student-run societies have started to host activities that aim to encourage sustainability, which receive great support from the University.
Campus Sustainability: The University has now fully divested from fossil fuels. The medical school has also introduced guidelines to make its lab spaces more environmentally friendly.
It is evident that there is steady progress as scores improve year after year. This shows that faculty take on board the feedback and work towards achieving a better score. The PHRC team has also grown since 2021, showing that more students wish to be involved in sustainability efforts. While there is more work to be done, it is obvious that there is a need for continuous auditing, and the Planetary Health Report Card offers an opportunity to highlight areas for improvement.
A poster that audited the medical school’s sustainability efforts based on data from the PHRC was also presented internationally at the MS4SF Climate Health Equity Day Conference 2025 in Washington D.C.
U21 2025 SDG Workshop
The U21 2025 SDG Workshop was held at University College Dublin and participating students hailed from University College Dublin, Lund University, University of Glasgow and University of Nottingham from a variety of disciplines, including public health, medicine, biomedical science, human nutrition, agribusiness and veterinary science. From the University of Glasgow, our delegation included one student from Nursing, one from Veterinary Medicine, one from Vet Bioscience and three from Medicine. This diverse group was intentionally chosen to represent the concept of OneHealth - the overarching theme of the workshop.
The WHO states that “One Health is an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals and ecosystems. It recognizes that the health of humans, domestic and wild animals, plants, and the wider environment (including ecosystems) are closely linked and interdependent.”(1)
On Day 1, Lecturers from UCD gave talks covering a wide range of topics to illustrate how many solutions require interdisciplinary cooperation under the umbrella of OneHealth. These talks were:
Cervical cancer elimination by Professor Patricia Fitzpatrick
Global HIV epidemic: Achievements and Current Challenges in Treatment, Prevention and Cure by Dr Virginie Gautier
Disability as an Issue in the University Sector - Insights from U21 Partners, by Associate Professor Deirdre O’Connor and Professor Paul Harpur
A One Health mindset by Dr. Gerald Barry
One Health and Sustainable Development by Professor Patrick Paul Walsh
Biodiversity and Human Health by Associate Professor Barry McMahon
Educating Public Health Leaders of the Future: A Global Health Perspective by Associate Professor Mary Codd
As our delegation included students from a diverse range of degrees, we each brought forth our expertise in different subject areas. This was especially useful during Day 2 of the workshop, where the students were given case studies where the concept of OneHealth needed to be considered in order to assess the problem and devise solutions.
A real-life example that was given of “Operation Cat Drop.”(2) In the 1950s, Borneo asked the World Health Organisation to help them with malaria control. The World Health Organisation sprayed dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) - an insecticide used to kill malaria-carrying mosquitoes. It was then noticed that the population of rats had increased and infestations were leading to diseases passed from them.
The issue was that DDT was poisonous to cats. With the native cat population declining, the population of rats increased, and so did the diseases from them.
Operation Cat Drop was planned to parachute cats into Borneo to increase the cat population there.
It was fascinating to be able to hear and understand how the concept of OneHealth applied in the real world. The workshop taught us how we had to consider the interconnectedness of the environment to public health.
References:
1. One health [Internet]. [cited 2025 Jun 20]. Available from: https://www.who.int/health-topics/one-health
2. Campbell N, Powers E, Cabrera L, Cabrera D. Cats, Rats, and Roofs: The Perils of Ignoring Relationships
Glasgow Straight Talk Uganda Trip
No full textThis summer, the Glasgow Straight Talk Society sent a group of eight second year medical students for a five-week outreach project in the Eastern Districts of Uganda. There, we educated young people about sexual and reproductive health and rights. We started fundraising in September of 2024, organising events such as bake sales, pub quizzes and mock exams. Later on, we were also granted the University of Glasgow’s Chancellor’s Fund, to help us with our project. Then on the 13th of June 2025, we set off!
After orientation in Kampala, we set off to the first district, Bugiri. To teach, we started off by performing a skit to the whole school, often outside, under trees, to the children and young adults, who were often in their thousands. After our skit, we broke into classes and started our face-to-face sessions. In these classes, we went over general topics in more depth and then gave the students opportunities to ask their own questions. This was by either putting their hand up or writing it down on paper we gave them. We also did condom demonstrations and used visual aids (like female reproductive tract diagrams) to convey our message, as we were very aware of the language barrier.
After completing our second district, Iganga, we estimated we spoke to 12,386 students, although this is probably a lot more! We collected all the written questions we received, which gave us insight on what topics were most asked about. Menstruation made up the overwhelming majority of questions asked (23%), some were basic questions about physiology and their personal menstrual cycle variation, whilst many were on period poverty. We know that period poverty was the most pressing problem young women faced. Many missed school for the entirety of their period or simply dropped out after their period began.
Overall, the trip was incredibly rewarding. The Straight Talk Foundation do incredible work for young people in Uganda, equipping them with the knowledge to lead healthier and more empowered lives. Despite some of the students coming from very difficult environments, they were incredibly resilient and inspiring. I know the entire team return home with a fresh perspective and sense of gratitude for the privileges we have.
We hope that, in reading this article, we can inspire a new team of second years to consider joining Straight Talk and and hopefully return to Uganda in coming years! We would also like to use this opportunity to thank the Straight Talk Foundation, The University of Glasgow, the schools and teachers and most importantly, the students
IRRP implementation in practice: an Open Research Scotland collaboration
Full text linkAt a time when five Scottish universities have run their institutional rights retention policies (IRRPs) for at least a year (if often for much longer) and five additional ones are planning to pass their own policies in the course of 2025, it’s a good moment for a cross-institutional discussion on the various technical areas that would benefit from some level of consensus. Several key areas were addressed during the Open Research Scotland-held “IRRP implementation in practice” session on 16 January 2025. The paper provides a summary of the discussions, together with some institutional best practices identified during the session and some thoughts on how the application of rights retention could result in more visibility for research publications. It is expected that the discussion could serve as a source of inspiration for other networks dealing with rights retention policy implementation such as the N8 Research Partnership or the Great Western Alliance (GW4) member institutions
A Microbial Ballad
Full text linkHelen Godefroimont is a Neuroscience graduate who got a gut feeling (pun intended) that the bacteria from her thesis deserved a tribute. Inspired by studying pre- and probiotics (especially pectin-fermenting strains from artichokes) she wrote this playful poem to honour their work to inspire a little more awareness, respect (and perhaps affection) for these microscopic heroes and all they do for the gut-brain-axis
Wellbeing and Learning Post-Pandemic: Amplifying the Voices of Early Secondary School Students
Full text linkEducation systems have had to rethink their approach in terms of wellbeing and learning particularly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the numerous crises being faced across the world. Learner voice has to be woven through all levels of policy in order to understand the experience of young people, during and since the pandemic. Post-Covid, there is a need for educational reform to articulate the direct link between wellbeing and learner progress and to debate the questions of how we assess learner progress. This journal article draws on a small empirical study of learners, conducted by a headteacher researcher in June 2023, to explore participants’ experiences of learning in their first two years directly following school closures. The paper draws on literature from the original study, completed in 2023 and literature published since. It aims to highlight the voice of the learners as being crucial to research on wellbeing and learning and to amplify the influence of learner voice on further research and policy making.
The research findings demonstrate that, immediately following the pandemic, young people had a heightened awareness of their own wellbeing and the support that they require. This paper challenges educators to consider how the change in young people’s engagement with this aspect of their learning might be used to influence educational reform. The study also highlights the importance of privileging the learner experience with practices that encourage safe articulation of complex feelings.
In terms of learning, the findings suggest that there needs to be a deeper consideration of how and what young people learn, what motivates them to learn and how attitudes both to how and what they learn has changed since the pandemic. While the general discourse of curriculum reform in Scotland is asserted to be in line with the views of the young people, there is a dearth of evidence of young people’s voice influencing policy change at all levels