The Coloured Prescription: Recent Episodes
The Coloured Prescription
Join Rafiah and Lara, two medical students as they talk unserious medicine in The Coloured Prescription. The coloured prescription looks at medicine with a black, brown and female gaze. Unafraid to tackle big topics, get deep and occasionally completely change their minds, listen now for a funny, insightful podcast about medicine from another perspective. If you want to continue the conversation please do here: Insta: @TheColouredRx Twitter: @TheColouredRx Email: thecolouredprescription@gmail.com Artwork by the talented Jacob Stevens http://www.jacobstevens.co.uk/
Is there anything scarier than optional reflection!
In a surprisingly uplifting Halloween episode Lara reflects on nine things she learnt, wished someone had clued her in on before, during and after medical school.
Some are obvious, some are counterintuitive and others are personal.
Enjoy!
A meandering ramble with your fave perennial student around representation in medicine from a working and patient perspective.
Achieving equality, diversity and inclusion is something that many organisations claim to be working towards but the grim truth is in almost 30 years almost nothing has changed.
Why? The answers aren't obvious but what is are the many efforts of people who are fighting the good fight. EDI is a dirty word in some circles but not in this episode, which does contain one naughty word.
Check out Medium for a modified transcript along with further references.
Medicine is expensive.
Student loans are not free money and the cost of being a medic is not cheap.
Why?
This episode has some adult themes, but also a game to play along with.
Welcome to Nazi or Nah where we list a bunch of eponymous disease, scores, books and surgeries and ask if the names behind the disease were Nazis or Nah.
It is a simple game but the answers are not always obvious.
What is good character?
Character, Identity and personality are similar but not the same.
Medics, seemingly ahead and more than all the other professions revel in public self-abasement when we make mistakes.
Does anyone else read the MPTS reports for fun or is Lara just weird?
Reflections have become weaponised and an exercise in tick boxing, is there a better way to show growth?
All these questions and more are left half answered in this stellar pod episode.
In this questionable return to the medium the pod talks about middle classness and medicine. Together we've dallied with lower class issues and highlighted the upper class influence this episode is all about the middle. If we can figure out what middle class even means
Is Medicine still a middle class profession?
Will it stay that way with the persistent increase in women and other Allied Health Professionals increasing their scope?
Is the overwhelming middle class nature of medicine bad?
How long does it take to adjust to the doctor identity?
Bonus points to those who hear Potato the cat
In the second instalment of this class two part we take a look at the Big Boy reports of health inequalities: The Black report, the Marmot report and the Kings Fund Health Inequities.
There is a big ol’ side note on social group and how this can influence, negatively and positively health outcomes. We look at how targeting specific groups can lead to better outcomes.
Attempting to keep to a thursday episode this is a two parter about the impact of class in medicine.
This episode touched on class, the medicine/nursing gender gap and how being a doctor rarely changes economic status
Could you survive on 6 powernaps a day? Or are you the type that needs 10 hours a night every night.
Sleep is a core part of being alive, and we are not getting enough. This episode is a sip of nighttime warm milk with a brief look at sleep and what it is. Then snoring on through to the risks of not enough sleep before being rudely woken by the alarming way the NHS regards sleep.
Sleep: Are you getting enough? How do you sleep? Do you have any sleep hacks for managing night shifts. Let us know at:
Insta @ColouredPrescriptionPod
Twitter @TheColouredRx
Resources
Book: Why we sleep - Mathew Walker
Paper: https://ep.bmj.com/content/102/3/127.full
Paper: https://doi.org/10.5665/sleep.3298
This special edition of the coloured prescription is a special prescription specifically for you.
Junior trainee who failed an exam, This is for you.
Final year who didn't match into a deanery. This is for you.
Medical student who failed the year. This is for you.
Senior Boss medic who missed out on a promotion. This is for you
Life can be hard and medicine harderer. Take time to sit with your failures but don't let them swallow you. This special edition is just about trying to not get swamped by the downsides of life. Someone very wise once said "What doesn't break us makes us stronger, but only if we heal from it" Consider this a microbenevolence in a bustling sea of microagressions.
It is something we all consume and necessary out of life but do you think you know if your diet is nutritionally complete?
Low fat or Low carb. High protein and one meal a day. There are so many varieties of diet out there. All while people are struggling to hit the basic requirements of fruit and vegetables a day. Have you hacked the perfect plate? Have you beaten "Big Carb" and escaped the tyranny of processed Junk food? Tell the pod your ways
Insta @ColouredPrescriptionPod
Twitter @TheColouredRx
Reflecting on some of the news of the week before diving down into a review and reflect of the ASIT conference last week.
This short episode pulls no punches in a review of last week's #ASiT2021 conference. Currently in adversity, unsure about excelling, this episode flies in on time and before yet another exam. Life long learner here.
ASiT's 2021 Conference was overall a big success and they should be proud of their event. However it was not perfect...
Are virtual conferences worth it? Conference food at home? Are fuzzy slippers appropriate conference wear? Asking all the important questions here.
Why are so many conference posters badly designed? Who signs these off?
What can be done to increase the number of women getting big chunky leadership roles so more than one, admittedly legendary face, is appearing on our screens?
How do you network without being a creep in a virtual space?
How can we get even more pets in zooms?
It is World Book day and like many others Lara was a voracious reader. In this episode we look at some of the books that changed her view from teeny tiny bookworm toddler to adult book devouring caterpillar.
Did any one else absolutely love Guns Germs and Steel? Who was scared by the stories in The Coming Plague and who was intrigued? Please say someone else felt embarrassed reading Power Sex and Suicide?
Almost everyone in medicine now has read Atul Gawande, but how many have thought about how they communicate their own ideas? As a future medic Breath becoming Air hit me like a tonne of bricks but Baliga helped me find another arty side of medicine.
The amazing artwork was provided by the very talented Jacob Stevens. Seriously check out his artwork at Jacobstevens.co.uk
Get in touch all the usual places Twitter @TheColouredRx and Instagram @colouredpresciptionpod
A collaboration with Time Well Wasted's Faisal on mental illness and wellbeing.
Medical school has limited time to teach a lot of topics and many key areas can get missed. It is obvious that there are many issues with how mental illness are taught in medical school. We think that and we went to one, where there was a mental health and wellbeing focus! So what can we do better? How can future docs and current ones too make medicine a less hostile environment for patients who survived abuse or trauma?
Can people who have serious mental illnesses become doctors?
Like this collaboration? Tell us on YouTube:Time Well Wasted
And Instagram (coloured prescription pod) and Twitter (The coloured Rx)
In this episode the CP takes a cautious look at the Health at Every size movement.
With only one musical interlude this is a more serious episode about the darker side of the fat activism movement.
Keeping it medical there is a raft of information about the risks of obesity but the HaES community are fighting that. Can you be healthy at every size? Is medical bias against individuals with obesity increasing their morbidity and mortality?
Do you get as excited as Lara about physics?!
Welcome to Series 2
The Coloured Prescription is back and blacker than ever.
There are musical interludes, fades and new editing levels achieved. Thank you to everyone who listened from the beginning or started listening to us over Christmas. The CP is back with tepid takes on everything to do with medical culture.
In an episode that is not late but right on time Lara talks about failure. Personal or Institutional we all make mistakes but what happens when only some get punished? Is the desire to gloss over changes the reason that the NHS will crumble? Are we holding institutions to account when they mess up? Who polices the medicine police?
In this final episode we celebrate the last of the 12 days of Christmas and think about our future as working professionals, the pod after 3 months of it being out there in the world and how this global panoramic has changed our priorities.
We also wish our fellow final year students the best of luck as we head into exam season. We thank our friends who have been keen listeners and so kind in their feedback.
Surgery has a reputation for being mean despite the excellent #HammerItOut , #HeforShe and Operate With Respect campaigns. Those focus mostly on surgical colleagues treating each other with some decency. Surgeons working perhaps forget that students are literally there to learn, and paying very dearly for the experience.
In this penultimate episode we recall a less than positive experience in theatre and throw some shade at Exeter and their fancy dancy Hip. We also talk about the flow state and the talent and brilliance of watching a really good surgeon at work.
Not technically surgery but obs and gynae is a surgical speciality so we are allowing it.
In Vitro Fertilisation is still a controversial step towards creating a family despite developments in technology and wider popularisation of IVF/Egg freezing.
IVF is expensive and its allocation to people trying to conceive can cause distress. How much medical/support should people be given to help them conceive? Are doctors playing God? Does life begin at conception? Listen now to find the answer to none of these questions.
In this episode we discuss a piece of surgical history: Vagotomies.
Originally done for peptic ulcer disease, this is now an almost obsolete surgery. What will surgery look like in another 20 years? Will Interventional radiologists take over everything? Will Rafiah remember how to pronounce vagotomy? So many questions in just 10 short minutes.
Day 8 and Whipple's Procedure
The only eponymous surgery in the whole list.
The honour belongs to Dr Allen Whipple because it seems he was an absolute legend. Whipple was a bold surgeon who just removed most of the pancreas and small intestine instead of taking bit of organ piecemeal. His operation pioneered in 1945 and developed into the 40s is still a formidable operation close to a century later.
This was the surgery that tipped Lara to the shiny cutty side. It seems every med student has a moment where they realise that surgery is or really isn't for them.
In what is turning into an unintendedly sexy theme we talk about stoma surgery, breaking bad news and living life. A short episode to welcome you into the New Year
Stoma creation is a surgery that does necessitate some lifestyle changes but the prevalence of social media means that people can now see people who look like them, have the same conditions as them having full and rich lives.
Stomas are often done as part of a cancer treatment although they are used for other diseases. Telling someone that they may need a stoma for the rest of their life can be a difficult conversation. There are difficult conversations everyday in medicine and when is the right time to have one, especially when there is an optional element.
The humble lap chole rounds out the 2020 portion of this series. The laprascopic cholestectomy, a staple of routine procedures. This elective operation has gone from common to almost an endangered procedure in these pandemic stricken times.
We end the year looking forward to the return of elective procedures and wondering what 2021 will hold for surgery.
We also get of topic to talk about surgical jobs as a junior and give a heartfelt thanks to the nurses, OTs physios and HCAs that keep wards running.
How soon after getting your heart plumbed can you get ahem busy.
In true CP fashion Lara and Rafiah get distracted from the magic of cardiac bypass and talk about how to get freaky after surgery.
Does medicine equip us to really look after our patients as people, or is it just lip service? There are benefits and downsides to seeing your patients as fully rounded people.
Also does anyone ever know what the abbreviations in medicine stand for?
Another short and sweet one, we start with a fishy pun and continue in the same calibre.
Burns can be a life changing injury and options that can restore skin integrity can save lives. Although not immediately surgical the implications that xenografts have for plastic surgery could mean more options for complex cases.
Black flat black noses. Long pointed hook noses. Noses come in all shapes rhinoplasty is one of the most popular cosmetic procedures and over millions of noses and thousands of years we have moved away from simple flaps to minimally invasive approaches.
Unlike some noses and Lara's forehead this is a small one.
It is Day 2 of our 12 surgeries of Christmas and we are taking a good long look with Corneal Transplants.
Eye surgery is some of the oldest surgery documented with 'couching' (pushing the lens into the eyeball) being written about 3000 years ago. Corneal transplants are usually done for medical reasons but there are some people who have corneal prosthetics for aesthetic reasons. Corneal transplants are unusual as the eye has a special immune status, and this contributes to corneal transplants being THE commonest transplant surgery.
In this mini-sode Lara makes a mistake and Rafiah is grossed out by your feet
It is the 12 days of Christmas and our gift to you is talks of surgery. For each of the 12 days of Christmas we will be sharing a surgery with you.
Day 1: Lobotomies
We talk about mental illness and the culture that though lobotomies were a viable answer to these. This links to shame and the medical treatment of conditions. We talk about death and how sometimes normal states can be distressing.
It is the end.... of 2020 and the season finale is here.
In this episode we touch on medicine as service provision, autism and what we have learnt in our first 10 episodes. Lara gets open about her own mental illness and Rafiah has a confession about prayers.
Stigma around mental illness is rife. The black and brown community in Britain have a silent burden of mental ill health. Religion, culture and shame can make it difficult for people in these communities to access needed services.
We also touch on identity first language for Autistic People, the impact of neurodivergence on Medical practice and the joy of seeing someone like you on TV.
Spoiler for a 10 year old plot point from Grey's
In reflecting on things we would like to see left in 2020, include and are not limited to: the Hijabi taking off their headscarves trope, Grey's Anatomy (Sorry Queen R) and QUARANTINES.
We are so excited to see you in 2021.
What starts as a focused, tight talk on productivity spirals back round to our favourite topic, racism! In this mammoth episode we talk productivity, why palliative care docs are the best, and spurn any Apple sponsorship, well Lara does. We also talk about how medicine, particularly has a privilege problem and Rafiah calls out those who post the most about doing the least.
We also have a moment to drink a hearty cup of twitter tea. We don't name any users or expose any handles, but if you know. You know. Branching of this we talk about medical students and their allegedly naughty dalliances with social media.
We get mired down in the nitty gritty of whether it is Gilbert's disease or syndrome, and whether you can talk about placement too much.
SIDENOTE: This is the penultimate episode of the season, and we have really enjoyed sharing our thoughts with you. Look out for what we have planned as a treat for you over Christmas.
SIDENOTE SIDENOTE: What did you like? What did you hate? Let us know and we can maybe incorporate your feedback into the next season. Tweet us @TheColouredRx or message on insta @ColouredPrescriptionPod
The Melanin to the Mammaries this is part two of the episode where we touch on productivity, Tesco (again) and work life balance.
How much representation is too much representation and do really need more brown faces in adverts? Is having kids worth the potential career dent and why can't more men be stay at home dads.
Follow the conversation on instagram @colouredprescriptionpod and twitter @TheColouredRx
Here on the podcast we like to talk to race and gender but there is so much more to diversity than mammaries and melanin.
The range of topics in this monster episode is broad and we also feature three rants from Lara. Can black and brown people be performative in their ethnicities? What is the toll of being a black or brown person in the UK in medicine worth it? What does a professional 'body' look like? Mentors in medicine. what the point of having a woman. Those Christmas adverts, do we have too many black people on a screen. Can you policy your way to equality, justice and equity.
This episode was loosely based on the Human Rights Commission report, work by Prof Greenhalgh and Dr Woolf. We touch on health inequalities and its wide ranging ramifications in this two part episode.
The dream team is back. Rafiah and Lara talk on everything from Long COVID, being a family member to a child with a long term illness and disability. Could you date someone who had a disabled child?
With the team barely recovered we wanted to get together to talk about our experiences with Miss Rona.
We stray from clinical medicine to insult Boris Johnson, cuss out Rishi Sunak, and provide some agony aunt advice.
Despite touching on some heavy topics; like workplace risks, socially distanced graduation this is a nice laid back episode despite the constant emails interrupting. Enjoy
Another solo prescription but a much lighter topic, Stereotypes. From calling all ladies "nurse" to Surgeons are all heartless men what stereotypes do you hold about roles in medicine? Not all stereotypes are bad and not all of them are even true.
Plus check out the insta for clues for the Christmas special episodes.
Check out the pod's insta and twitter.
Email at thecolouredprescription@gmail.com
This episode is about miscarriages.
Although there isn't graphical descriptions the topic and content may be upsetting. 1 in 4 pregnancies will end in loss and it remains an area that is still considered taboo.
This week Lara is going solo, on a topic that many mothers face alone.
Twitter: TheColouredRx
Instagram: ColouredPrescriptionPod
Email: thecolouredprescription@gmail.com
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/miscarriage/
https://www.miscarriageassociation.org.uk/pregnancy-baby-charities-network/ and https://www.tommys.org/ are two charites that support families in baby loss.
Inspired by a short 12 second clip of a woman deadlifting Rafiah and Lara talk about weightlifting. Why do the medical profession not encourage women to lift heavy, the fear of the "bulk", and more.
The video was from Maymah Lifts's Insta so give her a follow.
This week Lara is joined by fellow student Mike to talk about Puberty blocking. This is a step that children can take if they wish to transition genders. Not every one who transitions goes through this step but for those who do this can be a life changing step finally allowing them to be comfortable in their body.
However it puberty blocking is not without concerns. There are some health risks and it may not be an easy decision for a patient and their family to make.
"I tell ya, life ain't easy for a boy named Sue" I think Johnny Cash was on to something there.
This is the first episode from Lara and Rafiah and we jump in with a controversial topic; Fat. We talk BMI, touch on fatphobia and put Rafiah through her paces with Fun Fat Facts. Is 'obesity' a slur, can doctors do more to look after fat patients?
Points to the first 5 people who hear my cat!
The papers mentioned in this episode can be found on our website. Information in this pod does not constitute medical advice, please contact your doctor.
If you want to continue the conversation please do here:
Insta: @colouredprescriptiopod
Twitter: @TheColouredRx
Email: thecolouredprescription@gmail.com
Website: http://thecolouredprescriptionpod.com