In this post, Rozet Balliou describes how she, along with a group of staff and students, set up a wellbeing day at Edinburgh Zoo for Edinburgh Medical School students and staff. Rozet is a 4th year Medical Student at Edinburgh Medical School, and a and a member of the WellMed committee. This post is part of the Student Partnership Agreement 2024 series.
Last March, I was lucky enough to collaborate with a group of wonderful people in setting up a wellbeing day for medical students. After some discussion, we decided that such a day would take the shape of a free Zoo trip, open to any student or staff member who may wish to join. Indeed, the Edinburgh Zoo is a staple of the community! Set a mere 40 minutes from campus, not only does it host a range of animals from all around the it is also a hub of conservation and research. By ensuring students do not have to pay to access the activity, we aimed to circumvent the steep entry fee and allow participants a relaxing and fun day in the lead-up to their exams. We also wanted to encourage building connections, both between students in the different year groups and between them and staff members, cultivating a feeling of community inside the medical school.
How it went
Leading up to the project, there were quite a few worries! Would people be interested? Would we manage to get any sign-ups? How can we make sure people who sign up show up? There was a lot to think about and I was definitely a bit stressed. Clare MacGregor, a wonderful staff member with whom the WellMed committee collaborated on the project, set up an ‘Eventbrite’ link with the free tickets. Importantly, people were able to return or transfer their sign-ups! That way, we made sure that if someone’s plans changed, they would be able to let go of their spot easily and allow another student to have access to it.
Despite our best efforts, and as things sometimes go, we did have a few no-shows. This is certainly something we want to reflect upon when working on repeating this project next year, as there is limited availability in the places we can offer, and we want to make sure these spots are all allocated.
We promoted the event through social media, WhatsApp groups and the ‘Medical Student Hub’, and were delighted to see it sell out within days. For next year, we hope to make even more places available!
As part of the educational aspect of the project, we were invited to a guided tour of the zoo, with a researcher talking to us about various projects the zoo is involved in. The guide was very passionate about her job, and she entertained us with stories of unexpected behaviours in the animals she has worked with. Participants enjoyed this portion of the day and were engaged, asking questions throughout.
“Was one of my favourite events so far at university. The structure with the guided tour and then free time was really great.”
An aspect to improve on was the separation into groups for the tour. Indeed, due to the number of people, two tours had been booked for us. However, in the haste of entering the zoo, the groups ended up being unequally divided with about 25 people in the first one and 7 in the second one. I ended up being in the smaller group, and while it was fun, I felt I would have liked to meet the other 25 people who had signed up! We did end up having free time to roam around and have lunch after the tour which was a good opportunity to mingle.
What people thought
Fortunately, at the end of the day out, everyone seemed to have had a very nice time. We were also incredibly lucky in terms of weather: despite its usual unpredictability, Edinburgh decided to grace us with sunshine on that particular day.
Feedback was gathered in two ways: the first, informal verbal feedback at the event; and second, a feedback form that was sent to everyone who had signed up. Either way, the feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive:
“Very fun and relaxing! Very much needed break from studying”
“I really enjoy nature and animals so it was lovely to take a break from studying to do something like this that I enjoy and otherwise don’t get much time to do/can’t really afford”
Overall, I am glad we managed to set this up, and in doing so bring back what had become a tradition in the medical school. Indeed, this was not the first WellMed Zoo Trip, however, it was stopped during COVID-19 and it was not brought back in the years right after. We hope to keep this going in the future, and I am excited to see how it can be improved in the coming years!
Rozet Balliou
Rozet Balliou is a 4th year medical student at Edinburgh Medical School, and a member of the WellMed committee.
