In preparation for their future Year 11 Public Health studies, 32 Year 10 historians were given the opportunity to attend a Health and the People workshop, focusing on surgery & anatomy, at Newcastle University. To start off with, the students were able to learn about and handle primary resources relating to the history of medicine, in particular the history of surgery and anatomy.
Incredibly, some of these resources, which were linked to key medical pioneers like Vesalius, were worth tens of thousands of pounds and dated back as far as 1380. In addition, the students got a real flavour of university life, attending a mini lecture in the School of Medicine. This was followed by arguably the highlight of the day, with the students taking part in a carousel of activities related to anatomy. Alongside surgical practitioners from the School of Medicine, the students tried keyhole surgery (with sugar cubes!), handled 19th century medical instruments and got to illustrate an anatomically correct hand. Will some future surgeons have been inspired by their experiences today?




