Last month, three medical students, Natanya Lim, Maryam Nadeem and Dan Williams, completed their Community Engagement Selected Student Component (SSC) with the Tayside Medical History Museum. SSCs are an important part of medical training and aim to establish a foundation for lifelong learning, explore new ways to communicate information and develop an approach to learning based on genuine curiosity for a subject or theme. Over the month, Natanya, Maryam and Dan worked with our collections and conducted independent research to create their exhibition celebrating Ninewells’ 50th Anniversary.
At the time of its opening in 1974, Ninewells Hospital in Dundee was the first new teaching hospital to be built in the UK since the Victorian era, and the largest hospital site in Europe. The creators of Ninewells pioneered radical new ideas in hospital design. Rather than the traditional multi-storey blocks of wards, the hospital was constructed as a group of low buildings, making use of the slope of the site to separate internal traffic. The wards were located on the quieter South and West sides to minimise noise and maximise light. The medical school was built right into the heart of the hospital for the best learning experience.
In their research for the exhibition, the students were amazed at the number of exciting new discoveries and important medical innovations which occurred at Ninewells such as the development of the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) for medical students in 1975 and Britain’s first laparoscopic operation in 1987. There are many more exciting innovations which can be discovered in their exhibitions.
Over the course of four weeks, Natanya, Maryam and Dan all worked together to produce both a physical and digital exhibition, each taking the lead on a specific aspect. As part of their digital content, they also interviewed two former staff members about their memories of Ninewells. This video can be found at the end of their online exhibition.
The online exhibition was put together by Natanya and is available below.
Dan and Maryam worked on the physical exhibition for the Medical School which features objects from the Tayside Medical History Museum collection. You can see their exhibition 50 Years of Ninewells on Level 8 of the Medical School (next to the lifts) until May 2025.
Watch this video to see them unveil their exhibition