Post by Shriya Karlapudi

Tell me you're a med student without telling me you're a med student 🩺 😷 As this academic year comes to a close, I can't help but look back at everything that somehow fit into 12 months. Alongside the demands of full-time clinical placements, this year was filled with research, conferences and leadership. I led 10 research projects, presented my work at over 15 national and international conferences and was fortunate to receive two national and two international research awards. I also continued my roles as an Academic Representative for the King's Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, a member of the Board of Surgery at King's Health Partners, Vice President of the KCL Cardiovascular Society and Lead Editor for Science and Research at GKT Gazette. However, this year I've expanded my skillset beyond medicine. I've taught myself to code, learnt how to build websites, started playing the piano and violin again for the first time in years and discovered just how much I enjoy creating things from scratch. This eventually led me to build WardMaster, an opportunity to combine medicine, technology and education to create a more authentic ward-based learning experience. Watching it evolve from an idea into a working platform over the past few weeks has been incredibly rewarding. Looking back, I've realised that medical school has a way of teaching you far more than medicine. It teaches you how to prioritise relentlessly, manage uncertainty and keep moving even when the calendar feels impossible. This is exactly what I want WardMaster to capture: the challenge of deciding who to see first, what to ask, what to investigate and, ultimately, how to think like a doctor. As this academic year comes to an end, I'm incredibly grateful to have been awarded a Merit for Stage 2 (Years 2+3). Together with my Merit in Stage 1, this means I'll graduate with a Distinction in two years' time. But more than the result, I'm grateful for the experiences this year has given me, the people I've had the privilege to learn from and the opportunities to grow in ways I never expected. King's College London King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust #medicalschool #medicine #medicalstudent #medstudent #wardmaster