1 hour ago
17 May 2009
So it's been forever and...
I'm pretty sure that my lack of blogging shows how amazingly busy I've been. Let me just say that in the time I have not written, I have been at the most stressed, and yet, at the most exciting/enjoyable time in my life. However, the year is not over yet and so I am still busy with school. So I will only write this short bit.
05 October 2008
Am I doomed?
I got an email from a friend today with a link to an article about how depression rates and thoughts of suicide are high in medical students. Also, the other day, we had a class about doctor self-care where I found out that female medical students are at a higher risk for suicide. On top of that, being Latino in medicine was a risk factor for depression. Not Indians, not Asians, just Latinos. WTF?!? Add this all up, and it sounds like I (a female, Latina medical student) am doomed.
When does this happen though? The article proposes that it’s the workload along with the expectations faculty and residents have for students during rotations. So I guess this happens during third and fourth year. Which for me is five years down the road.
I think the other thing is the driving force within each medical student to become a doctor. Some of them are in med school because their parents were doctors. Others want to move up in society or make more money. I see it in some of my classmates. I don’t know if it’s that medical students get to that point because they’re naturally high strung, or if the process of getting in to medical school makes you high strung, but being high strung, to me, is the biggest risk factor for wanting to blow your brains out.
Right now, in first year, I’m pretty much having the time of my life. Med school is super interesting and my classmates are fun. There is a lot of information to learn though, and it only gets harder from here, which can be stressful. However I’m really not feeling too stressed right now. In the past the biggest thing causing me stress was the fear of not getting in to medical school. Now that I’m in, it went away. Not to say that I’m this laid back type of person. I pretty much stressed out all the time up to our first test. And that was because I was worried that I could cut it. Now that I’ve gotten in to my groove at school, I’m less stressed. Which makes me wonder if I’m not focused enough, which actually makes me stress out. Oh no, vicious cycle! Just kidding… or am I?
So am I doomed? I don’t think so. Like I said, I’m in and getting in was the biggest worry in my life. I think my school tries their best to not have us freak out about being a med student. It’s pass/fail, which pretty much eliminates the competitive environment that is probably going on in some medical schools. Instead, the environment at my school is mostly inviting and social and I’m completely cool with that.
The other thing I think that reduces the stress in medical school is having a sense of humor. And an easy way to see if you have one is if you check out this video. It’s pretty much the funniest SNL skit I’ve seen in a while. Enjoy!
When does this happen though? The article proposes that it’s the workload along with the expectations faculty and residents have for students during rotations. So I guess this happens during third and fourth year. Which for me is five years down the road.
I think the other thing is the driving force within each medical student to become a doctor. Some of them are in med school because their parents were doctors. Others want to move up in society or make more money. I see it in some of my classmates. I don’t know if it’s that medical students get to that point because they’re naturally high strung, or if the process of getting in to medical school makes you high strung, but being high strung, to me, is the biggest risk factor for wanting to blow your brains out.
Right now, in first year, I’m pretty much having the time of my life. Med school is super interesting and my classmates are fun. There is a lot of information to learn though, and it only gets harder from here, which can be stressful. However I’m really not feeling too stressed right now. In the past the biggest thing causing me stress was the fear of not getting in to medical school. Now that I’m in, it went away. Not to say that I’m this laid back type of person. I pretty much stressed out all the time up to our first test. And that was because I was worried that I could cut it. Now that I’ve gotten in to my groove at school, I’m less stressed. Which makes me wonder if I’m not focused enough, which actually makes me stress out. Oh no, vicious cycle! Just kidding… or am I?
So am I doomed? I don’t think so. Like I said, I’m in and getting in was the biggest worry in my life. I think my school tries their best to not have us freak out about being a med student. It’s pass/fail, which pretty much eliminates the competitive environment that is probably going on in some medical schools. Instead, the environment at my school is mostly inviting and social and I’m completely cool with that.
The other thing I think that reduces the stress in medical school is having a sense of humor. And an easy way to see if you have one is if you check out this video. It’s pretty much the funniest SNL skit I’ve seen in a while. Enjoy!
14 September 2008
My how time flies
It’s been a while since my last post. For me though, it's been going by pretty fast. Med school keeps you pretty busy and disconnected from the outside world. Anyways, I know most of you are dying from Andrea withdrawal. Here’s your latest fix:
Standardized patients
During societies these past two weeks, we have been working with “standardized patients.” The whole reason for standardized patients is that we try out “real world” situations with people pretending to have a certain illness. The first week, it was high risk behaviors. The standardized patients exhibited some sort of behavior (alcoholism, drug use, depression, etc.) and we needed to figure out what it was. Mine was an alcoholic.
The second week was “delivering bad news.” This one was much harder. In my scenario, my patient was not responding to chemo and was most likely going to die in three months. The card that was given to me which explained all of this blatantly said “your patient has three months to live.” Now, I’m a person who likes to try and be as straight forward as possible, so what do I do? I tell my patient that the prognosis is three months. Apparently, that’s a no-no in medicine. Instead the words “death is a possibility” are much better.
There’s a few things that are pretty cool about standardized patients
1. They’re pretty good actors – One woman was told she had HIV and she panicked and cried right on cue. This not only looked real, but really forced my classmate to be empathetic.
2. Many of the SPs are elderly. This may not sound so cool, but when you have to pretend that your SP is a 23 year old woman and is being portrayed by someone in their 70’s, it’s makes it a whole lot harder (and funnier) to tell them they have genital herpes.
New applicants
Interviews started last week. I was pretty surprised to see they started this soon. The two years I interviewed for medical school, I was doing them in November and January. Just goes to show how late I was with the whole application process. And yet somehow, I still got in… hmmm.
So last week I caught my first glimpse of them: scared, nervous, dressed well. I wondered how much I was like these kids when I was interviewing. Seeing as these are the early applicants, I’m guessing there’s a huge difference between us. These are the people that will probably get in to way better schools and go there. They probably finished their personal statements in January and just waited around until the first possible day that they could turn in their AMCAS. Eager beavers I call them. Well that, and gunners.
Anyways, I signed up to be an ambassador, which means I’ll get called up to give a tour of the school and answer any questions the youngins have got about medical school. I plan on giving them the tour a la Mouth in the film “The Goonies” which means I’m going to scare the crap out of them. When I show them the library I’ll probably say something like “Here is where we study about 6 hours a day after class is over. And that’s on a slow day.” In the lecture hall I’ll say “Here’s where classes go on. They take attendance and call on you during lectures. You should probably start studying for them now cause those questions are hard and the professors make fun of you if you don’t know the answers.” And finally, just to be a snob, at the door of the student lounge I’ll say “Here’s the student lounge, and as the name implies, it’s only for students, so you’ll only be seeing the inside of this if you get in.”
Giving injections
So a few years back legislation was passed that made hazing illegal. But for some reason it’s totally ok for young, inexperienced medical students to stab each other with needles. That’s right, we learned how to administer injections and perform phlebotomy… ON EACHOTHER!
Not gonna lie, it was tough. I mean we’re told to stab our classmates with long needles. I’m not a fan of shots even though they really don’t hurt. But it’s just tough to see something go in a human body they way a needle does. Actually performing said stabbing is even harder. You’re afraid to hurt someone, which makes you nervous which then makes you shake. After the first shot though, it’s no problem. I think I have the touch, because my partner had no bruises the next day. I can’t say the same for others. One guy, volunteered to be the pin cushion in place of students (such as myself) whose veins aren’t so visible. This poor guy looked like a heroin addict by the end of the night.
So that’s about it for now. We have another test this week. I was good this past weekend and studied Friday, Saturday and Sunday so this one will probably be less stressful than the last. Anyways, I haven’t heard from some of you guys in a while. Let me know how you’re doing.
-Drea
Standardized patients
During societies these past two weeks, we have been working with “standardized patients.” The whole reason for standardized patients is that we try out “real world” situations with people pretending to have a certain illness. The first week, it was high risk behaviors. The standardized patients exhibited some sort of behavior (alcoholism, drug use, depression, etc.) and we needed to figure out what it was. Mine was an alcoholic.
The second week was “delivering bad news.” This one was much harder. In my scenario, my patient was not responding to chemo and was most likely going to die in three months. The card that was given to me which explained all of this blatantly said “your patient has three months to live.” Now, I’m a person who likes to try and be as straight forward as possible, so what do I do? I tell my patient that the prognosis is three months. Apparently, that’s a no-no in medicine. Instead the words “death is a possibility” are much better.
There’s a few things that are pretty cool about standardized patients
1. They’re pretty good actors – One woman was told she had HIV and she panicked and cried right on cue. This not only looked real, but really forced my classmate to be empathetic.
2. Many of the SPs are elderly. This may not sound so cool, but when you have to pretend that your SP is a 23 year old woman and is being portrayed by someone in their 70’s, it’s makes it a whole lot harder (and funnier) to tell them they have genital herpes.
New applicants
Interviews started last week. I was pretty surprised to see they started this soon. The two years I interviewed for medical school, I was doing them in November and January. Just goes to show how late I was with the whole application process. And yet somehow, I still got in… hmmm.
So last week I caught my first glimpse of them: scared, nervous, dressed well. I wondered how much I was like these kids when I was interviewing. Seeing as these are the early applicants, I’m guessing there’s a huge difference between us. These are the people that will probably get in to way better schools and go there. They probably finished their personal statements in January and just waited around until the first possible day that they could turn in their AMCAS. Eager beavers I call them. Well that, and gunners.
Anyways, I signed up to be an ambassador, which means I’ll get called up to give a tour of the school and answer any questions the youngins have got about medical school. I plan on giving them the tour a la Mouth in the film “The Goonies” which means I’m going to scare the crap out of them. When I show them the library I’ll probably say something like “Here is where we study about 6 hours a day after class is over. And that’s on a slow day.” In the lecture hall I’ll say “Here’s where classes go on. They take attendance and call on you during lectures. You should probably start studying for them now cause those questions are hard and the professors make fun of you if you don’t know the answers.” And finally, just to be a snob, at the door of the student lounge I’ll say “Here’s the student lounge, and as the name implies, it’s only for students, so you’ll only be seeing the inside of this if you get in.”
Giving injections
So a few years back legislation was passed that made hazing illegal. But for some reason it’s totally ok for young, inexperienced medical students to stab each other with needles. That’s right, we learned how to administer injections and perform phlebotomy… ON EACHOTHER!
Not gonna lie, it was tough. I mean we’re told to stab our classmates with long needles. I’m not a fan of shots even though they really don’t hurt. But it’s just tough to see something go in a human body they way a needle does. Actually performing said stabbing is even harder. You’re afraid to hurt someone, which makes you nervous which then makes you shake. After the first shot though, it’s no problem. I think I have the touch, because my partner had no bruises the next day. I can’t say the same for others. One guy, volunteered to be the pin cushion in place of students (such as myself) whose veins aren’t so visible. This poor guy looked like a heroin addict by the end of the night.
So that’s about it for now. We have another test this week. I was good this past weekend and studied Friday, Saturday and Sunday so this one will probably be less stressful than the last. Anyways, I haven’t heard from some of you guys in a while. Let me know how you’re doing.
-Drea
02 September 2008
Poodles, stories and tests: oh my!
First test: done! This last week has been the most studying I’ve done for any class in my life… ever! (Great album title by the way). I tried the best I could to not procrastinate, but it happened. However, I did sacrifice my stories (yes I call them stories): the colbert report, the daily show, project runway, mad men and weeds, to study and learn the material. In the week before the test, you learn a lot about yourself and the people in your class.
Test time behavior that I find unacceptable:
I understand that with medicine and medical school there’s a lot of pressure. The pressure that goes with tests; the pressure to do well on the boards; if your parent is a physician, the pressure to follow in their footsteps, etc. blah, blah, blah. I get it. Here’s the deal though: you will know the material based on the time and effort you put in to it. So why is it that when I’m showing up to class at 8:45 in the morning for lecture, I have to hear these people quizzing each other on details that don’t even matter on the test? That is not cool. They emit this energy which is like that of a poodle – antsy combined with a lot of barking. You know what it does? It riles me up. I get anxious and then fear that I have forgotten a huge piece of information and will fail the test.
So what do I do? I stay away from them the best I can. However, poodles are everywhere. They’re not only in the library, but in our histology classrooms and the student lounge. They study in groups, which means they express their reasoning, logic, fears, etc. out loud. (Note to self: invest in a good pair of earplugs) Worst of all, they take all the study rooms in the library way before any person sleeping normal hours.
…
Ok, so the long weekend has passed since the previous paragraph. Good news: I passed! I more than passed, actually. Thing is, I told myself that the weekend would be spent not worrying about school and if the grades came out during that weekend I wouldn’t check them. That pretty much lasted up to our post-test drink fest. Cause when I got home, an email was waiting for me telling stating that grades were out. I couldn’t help but check immediately. Good thing I passed cause if I didn’t, it would’ve been a really shitty weekend.
In reality though, it is such a relief to get that first test over with. There’s so much pressure there because it’s the first time we’re being graded in medical school. It sets the tone not only for the block, but for the rest of the year. If you do fine, your confidence goes up and you feel ready for the next test. If you do terribly, you’ll freak out and feel like you’re playing catch up for the rest of the block.
Yep, test time tells you a lot about yourself and your classmates. People have calmed down since the past week. The poodles are back to just stressing about the weekly assignment; the slackers are back to not studying or going to lecture and I’ve caught up with all of my class work and am ready to move forward. More importantly, I’ve caught up with my stories. Cause if I didn’t have them, I’d have no reason to live.
Test time behavior that I find unacceptable:
I understand that with medicine and medical school there’s a lot of pressure. The pressure that goes with tests; the pressure to do well on the boards; if your parent is a physician, the pressure to follow in their footsteps, etc. blah, blah, blah. I get it. Here’s the deal though: you will know the material based on the time and effort you put in to it. So why is it that when I’m showing up to class at 8:45 in the morning for lecture, I have to hear these people quizzing each other on details that don’t even matter on the test? That is not cool. They emit this energy which is like that of a poodle – antsy combined with a lot of barking. You know what it does? It riles me up. I get anxious and then fear that I have forgotten a huge piece of information and will fail the test.
So what do I do? I stay away from them the best I can. However, poodles are everywhere. They’re not only in the library, but in our histology classrooms and the student lounge. They study in groups, which means they express their reasoning, logic, fears, etc. out loud. (Note to self: invest in a good pair of earplugs) Worst of all, they take all the study rooms in the library way before any person sleeping normal hours.
…
Ok, so the long weekend has passed since the previous paragraph. Good news: I passed! I more than passed, actually. Thing is, I told myself that the weekend would be spent not worrying about school and if the grades came out during that weekend I wouldn’t check them. That pretty much lasted up to our post-test drink fest. Cause when I got home, an email was waiting for me telling stating that grades were out. I couldn’t help but check immediately. Good thing I passed cause if I didn’t, it would’ve been a really shitty weekend.
In reality though, it is such a relief to get that first test over with. There’s so much pressure there because it’s the first time we’re being graded in medical school. It sets the tone not only for the block, but for the rest of the year. If you do fine, your confidence goes up and you feel ready for the next test. If you do terribly, you’ll freak out and feel like you’re playing catch up for the rest of the block.
Yep, test time tells you a lot about yourself and your classmates. People have calmed down since the past week. The poodles are back to just stressing about the weekly assignment; the slackers are back to not studying or going to lecture and I’ve caught up with all of my class work and am ready to move forward. More importantly, I’ve caught up with my stories. Cause if I didn’t have them, I’d have no reason to live.
22 August 2008
It’s all fun and games until someone takes a test.
Well, it’s Friday afternoon. Normally on a Friday I’m in the “woo hoo it’s Friday!” mood where I’m constantly saying woo hoo and excited about doing nothing for two days. Well that’s over. We have a test next Friday. T-minus seven days until our first medical school evaluation. I’m not stressed about it… yet.
Actually, I’m in the library right now. We got out of school half an hour ago and I’m still here. WTF? No one told me it would be like this… I lie. Everyone told me it would be like this. I just chose not to believe them.
For those of you who don’t know me, let me acquaint you with my work ethic: practically non-existent. In college, (and I’m not trying to brag here, I’m actually a bit ashamed) I hardly studied. It’s not that I hated the material (except in the cases of organic biology and physics). I just get easily distracted by movies, television shows, popular culture, the internet, friends, shiny things, etc. What can I say? My mind was built for useless knowledge.
So I am now finding myself in a situation where studying diligently is pretty much 100% required to pass a course. I didn’t say get an A, I said pass. And I’m completely ok and aware with the scenario. It’s my work ethic that somehow seems to not be cool with it. I start studying and an hour into it, my work ethic says “Andrea, you have soooooo much time until you really need to know this. Can we stop for the day?” For some reason, I am compliant with my work ethic’s request and I stop. “Yeah, let’s stop for the day. I mean, there’s a new DVD from Netflix that I have yet to open. What the hell?”
It’s not that the material isn’t interesting. It’s quite the opposite. I love medical school! Each day, I have an “Oh, so that’s how it happens!” moment where a light bulb goes of in my head because a medical question I’ve thought about my whole life has finally been answered. Not only that, but we get to play doctor (get those dirty thoughts out of your head!). Do you know how cool that is? Every once and a while, I catch myself shaking my head in disbelief because I’m exactly where I want to be right now and it’s great.
Anyways, such moments don’t stop me from taking long breaks between studying. In fact, I’ve already spent more time than I should have writing this blog… in the library… where I should be studying.
I need to get away from this lazy work ethic of mine or else I will not survive medical school. In these last seven days before mid-term #1, I will try to be a better student. I just don’t know how. Any suggestions?
Actually, I’m in the library right now. We got out of school half an hour ago and I’m still here. WTF? No one told me it would be like this… I lie. Everyone told me it would be like this. I just chose not to believe them.
For those of you who don’t know me, let me acquaint you with my work ethic: practically non-existent. In college, (and I’m not trying to brag here, I’m actually a bit ashamed) I hardly studied. It’s not that I hated the material (except in the cases of organic biology and physics). I just get easily distracted by movies, television shows, popular culture, the internet, friends, shiny things, etc. What can I say? My mind was built for useless knowledge.
So I am now finding myself in a situation where studying diligently is pretty much 100% required to pass a course. I didn’t say get an A, I said pass. And I’m completely ok and aware with the scenario. It’s my work ethic that somehow seems to not be cool with it. I start studying and an hour into it, my work ethic says “Andrea, you have soooooo much time until you really need to know this. Can we stop for the day?” For some reason, I am compliant with my work ethic’s request and I stop. “Yeah, let’s stop for the day. I mean, there’s a new DVD from Netflix that I have yet to open. What the hell?”
It’s not that the material isn’t interesting. It’s quite the opposite. I love medical school! Each day, I have an “Oh, so that’s how it happens!” moment where a light bulb goes of in my head because a medical question I’ve thought about my whole life has finally been answered. Not only that, but we get to play doctor (get those dirty thoughts out of your head!). Do you know how cool that is? Every once and a while, I catch myself shaking my head in disbelief because I’m exactly where I want to be right now and it’s great.
Anyways, such moments don’t stop me from taking long breaks between studying. In fact, I’ve already spent more time than I should have writing this blog… in the library… where I should be studying.
I need to get away from this lazy work ethic of mine or else I will not survive medical school. In these last seven days before mid-term #1, I will try to be a better student. I just don’t know how. Any suggestions?
17 August 2008
Oh yeah, you're supposed to update these things too...
Here’s a brief summery of what’s been going on:
Interviewing my first patient
So once a week we have societies. The first half is where we learn how to examine a patient by practicing on each other. The second half is where we actually go into the hospital and interview real patients. We are literally playing doctor, which is completely nerve-racking. I learned how to do a bp and a cog test (used to determine whether or not someone might have dementia) along with other tests. It sounds like a lot of fun, but the whole time, we’re being watched by a real physician who’s evaluating our technique. (AHH!) It went well though.
The second part was interviewing a patient to find out their chief complaint. My patient was an older male who had been in a motorcycle accident. He was pretty out of it so I talked mostly to his wife and daughter. It’s amazing how much people will tell you once they find out you’re a medical student. I wouldn’t think they would want to spend even more time harboring on their illness with untrained people, but they kept telling me how important it was that I learn from them. I knew I couldn’t do anything to help their loved one, but I felt like sitting and listening to them helped somewhat.
Seeing a lot of dead bodies
We had a prosections course where we saw our fist set of cadavers. These were already dissected so that we could examine the abdomen. The whole thing was pretty cool I must say. The only problem is that I’m kind of short, so trying to see all the different organs was kind of difficult. Well that and the juices. Gross anatomy’s gonna get messy.
Anyways, one of the bodies we examined was the subject of our case based instruction course. (FYI Cased based instruction is where we meet twice a week. In the first meeting, we learn about the a person’s chief complaint and try to come up with hypotheses as to what’s wrong with them. In the second meeting, we come with research on the patients’ symptoms and get the prognosis.) It kind of ruined it for us that we found out the outcome before we came up with a diagnosis, but there she was - A 58 year old woman who died of adenocarcinoma of the pancreas. Crazy.
Not Studying
So I didn’t do a lot of studying during the week. Which left me playing catch up this weekend. It was awful. I’ve learned my lesson. From now on I will study every day the minute I get home. Well, after I lie down for a bit… and watch the daily show… and the Colbert report… and have a snack.
Clubs:
Finally, this week we had a club fair where we walked around and heard about all the different extracurricular activities going on in med school. I walked in and realized “Oh my god, I’m in high school again… kinda.” And here’s why:
Also, I don’t know if you can call this irony but last week there were signs everywhere about a margarita party. To myself, I was like, “Sweet, a margarita party.” (Yes I’m an alcoholic, but we can save that talk for another time.) Turns out it was an informational meeting run by the Students for Choice Club. Seriously, you’re talking about abortion, while serving alcohol and calling it a party? Again, I know you can’t call it irony, but there’s gotta be a name for whatever kind of silliness that is.
Alrighty, that’s it for now. This week is more foundaions. We’re learning about blood tomorrow. That’s right, blood. I know you’re just filled with anticipation as to what crazy stories will come out of this hot topic!
PEACE!
Interviewing my first patient
So once a week we have societies. The first half is where we learn how to examine a patient by practicing on each other. The second half is where we actually go into the hospital and interview real patients. We are literally playing doctor, which is completely nerve-racking. I learned how to do a bp and a cog test (used to determine whether or not someone might have dementia) along with other tests. It sounds like a lot of fun, but the whole time, we’re being watched by a real physician who’s evaluating our technique. (AHH!) It went well though.
The second part was interviewing a patient to find out their chief complaint. My patient was an older male who had been in a motorcycle accident. He was pretty out of it so I talked mostly to his wife and daughter. It’s amazing how much people will tell you once they find out you’re a medical student. I wouldn’t think they would want to spend even more time harboring on their illness with untrained people, but they kept telling me how important it was that I learn from them. I knew I couldn’t do anything to help their loved one, but I felt like sitting and listening to them helped somewhat.
Seeing a lot of dead bodies
We had a prosections course where we saw our fist set of cadavers. These were already dissected so that we could examine the abdomen. The whole thing was pretty cool I must say. The only problem is that I’m kind of short, so trying to see all the different organs was kind of difficult. Well that and the juices. Gross anatomy’s gonna get messy.
Anyways, one of the bodies we examined was the subject of our case based instruction course. (FYI Cased based instruction is where we meet twice a week. In the first meeting, we learn about the a person’s chief complaint and try to come up with hypotheses as to what’s wrong with them. In the second meeting, we come with research on the patients’ symptoms and get the prognosis.) It kind of ruined it for us that we found out the outcome before we came up with a diagnosis, but there she was - A 58 year old woman who died of adenocarcinoma of the pancreas. Crazy.
Not Studying
So I didn’t do a lot of studying during the week. Which left me playing catch up this weekend. It was awful. I’ve learned my lesson. From now on I will study every day the minute I get home. Well, after I lie down for a bit… and watch the daily show… and the Colbert report… and have a snack.
Clubs:
Finally, this week we had a club fair where we walked around and heard about all the different extracurricular activities going on in med school. I walked in and realized “Oh my god, I’m in high school again… kinda.” And here’s why:
- Ortho/Surgery Club: AKA the jocks. Pretty much all the big guys joined this one.
- Family Medicine/Pediatrics club: The nice kids – nothing bad to say there… dammit!
- Research Club: The geeks (my kind of club!). I saw like four people go up to hear about this one. Including myself.
- Student council: Yes, there is even student council in medical school. Why? I have no clue. But it came as no surprise to me that the people who are running for class rep are also the most social in our class. Anyways, I’m guessing the people involved in this want to write something down on their resume.
- Nature Club/Global Health Club: med school equivalent of the stoners. Damn hippies, I shake my fist in your general direction!
- Tots shots/Med Teach: Clubs outreaching to the community. There’s nothing bad I can say about that… and I joined them.
- Latino/Asian med student associations: Sweet! I joined this one too. Latino Student association, that is. I don’t think my 1/16 Taiwanese heritage is enough for membership into the Asian Medical Student Association.
Also, I don’t know if you can call this irony but last week there were signs everywhere about a margarita party. To myself, I was like, “Sweet, a margarita party.” (Yes I’m an alcoholic, but we can save that talk for another time.) Turns out it was an informational meeting run by the Students for Choice Club. Seriously, you’re talking about abortion, while serving alcohol and calling it a party? Again, I know you can’t call it irony, but there’s gotta be a name for whatever kind of silliness that is.
Alrighty, that’s it for now. This week is more foundaions. We’re learning about blood tomorrow. That’s right, blood. I know you’re just filled with anticipation as to what crazy stories will come out of this hot topic!
PEACE!
10 August 2008
SO AM I A DOCTOR YET?
I really wish I was cause I know I’m in for a really hard, long road. Anyways, it’s been a while since I’ve posted so I’ll try and sum the first week of med school up as best as possible…
Our first week of school, prologue as they call it, was like a mock week. Our coursework concerned HIV and was an introduction to our societies (groups of people that we go to the clinic with), team learning and CBIs. For the most part, the first week was pretty much the same as the bridge program. Needless to say, I didn’t go to a few of the lectures because they were a bit redundant. To me, the most important part about first week is meeting your classmates.
My three step process of making friends in medical school:
White coat:
So, we got whitecoated this past Friday. The ceremony was pretty straight to the point. Someone speaks about medicine and then we’re given white coats, representing our transition into the medical profession. I find it to be somewhat unnecessary to congratulate and celebrate people that have yet to achieve anything in the field of medicine, but whatever. My parents were proud.
First moment of drama for the class of 2012
I believe that we’re all adults. We’ve been through elementary, middle and high school and have earned degrees in college. As such, we are all capable of making mature decisions and respecting our peers. So it came as a surprise to me that the third day of medical school I look up at the chalk board and see the following message (and I wish I had taken a picture to prove it) and I’m paraphrasing here:
“You are not allowed to change seats anymore!!! The seat you are sitting in today will be the same for the rest of your medical school career!!! And by the way, you’re not allowed to save seats for your friends!!!” _class of 2012_"
So for the first half of the day I was pretty pissed. I mean, who the fuck does someone think they are that they can write on the board and sign it as if we all agreed to it? Secondly, why three exclamation points? Isn’t the point made already with one?
I calmed down somehow after lunch (my anger may have been due to low blood sugar) and didn’t try to think about it. That night I got the preliminary info. Apparently someone was pissed that another student was in “their seat” and told them to move. That person was nice enough to do so. The culprit, we’ll call them gunner #1, then proceeded to write the message on the chalk board. Anyways, people didn’t want to spread the gossip and so they kept their lips sealed as to who did it. I can respect that for the most part, but I know now that I can’t go to those people for the juicy info.
Anyways, it turns out that our class has it’s own Perez Hilton that leaks all the info and drama out, so I was able to find out who it was and in no way am I surprised. I already knew this person was a gunner but never knew they were an asshole too.
So that’s pretty much it for now. Second week starts tomorrow. We’re doing histology and reviewing cell biology. I’m pretty excited about that. I wish I had some witty remark to close this, but I’m so fricken’ tired from this past week that my brain can only come up with anorexia and abuse jokes about the various Olympic women’s gymnastics teams… Oops, too far?
Our first week of school, prologue as they call it, was like a mock week. Our coursework concerned HIV and was an introduction to our societies (groups of people that we go to the clinic with), team learning and CBIs. For the most part, the first week was pretty much the same as the bridge program. Needless to say, I didn’t go to a few of the lectures because they were a bit redundant. To me, the most important part about first week is meeting your classmates.
My three step process of making friends in medical school:
- Go out to as many first week events that you can. I attended a karaoke night (and totally murdered Whitney Houston’s “I wanna dance with somebody” if I don’t mind saying), a classmate’s birthday celebration and the med student’s version of pub crawling known as “grand rounds.”
- Be nice to everyone: something that’s really hard for me. I can’t help the things that I say sometimes, so I didn’t say much this past week.
- After having done 1 and 2 I have been able to weed out the lame people (aka those that didn’t even go out once during the week), the assholes (the one’s that don’t listen to you when you talk) and the gunners (the assholes that didn’t even go out). The remaining will be my preliminary group of friends who, by the end of the year, will be narrowed down to my nearest and dearest friends in medical school with whom I will be able to say what I want even when it’s not nice.
White coat:
So, we got whitecoated this past Friday. The ceremony was pretty straight to the point. Someone speaks about medicine and then we’re given white coats, representing our transition into the medical profession. I find it to be somewhat unnecessary to congratulate and celebrate people that have yet to achieve anything in the field of medicine, but whatever. My parents were proud.
First moment of drama for the class of 2012
I believe that we’re all adults. We’ve been through elementary, middle and high school and have earned degrees in college. As such, we are all capable of making mature decisions and respecting our peers. So it came as a surprise to me that the third day of medical school I look up at the chalk board and see the following message (and I wish I had taken a picture to prove it) and I’m paraphrasing here:
“You are not allowed to change seats anymore!!! The seat you are sitting in today will be the same for the rest of your medical school career!!! And by the way, you’re not allowed to save seats for your friends!!!” _class of 2012_"
So for the first half of the day I was pretty pissed. I mean, who the fuck does someone think they are that they can write on the board and sign it as if we all agreed to it? Secondly, why three exclamation points? Isn’t the point made already with one?
I calmed down somehow after lunch (my anger may have been due to low blood sugar) and didn’t try to think about it. That night I got the preliminary info. Apparently someone was pissed that another student was in “their seat” and told them to move. That person was nice enough to do so. The culprit, we’ll call them gunner #1, then proceeded to write the message on the chalk board. Anyways, people didn’t want to spread the gossip and so they kept their lips sealed as to who did it. I can respect that for the most part, but I know now that I can’t go to those people for the juicy info.
Anyways, it turns out that our class has it’s own Perez Hilton that leaks all the info and drama out, so I was able to find out who it was and in no way am I surprised. I already knew this person was a gunner but never knew they were an asshole too.
So that’s pretty much it for now. Second week starts tomorrow. We’re doing histology and reviewing cell biology. I’m pretty excited about that. I wish I had some witty remark to close this, but I’m so fricken’ tired from this past week that my brain can only come up with anorexia and abuse jokes about the various Olympic women’s gymnastics teams… Oops, too far?
01 August 2008
Two days of med school down. A bajillion more to go
I can pretty much sum up the first two days as follows:
- We all got our look books which have allowed us to peek just a little bit into each others’ souls.
- If the school’s goal for the first two days were to ease us in to medical school, they did even more than that. They lulled me into a nice nap.
- I am now CCR (cardio-cerebral resuscitation) certified. So if you keel over, I got your back.
- I vowed never again to go to O’Maley’s but that was our first MSI outing. It wasn’t too bad. Once you get a little liquid confidence in med students, they’re pretty talkative.
- I got my stethoscope! It’s not pink like I hoped. Instead, it’s black. But it’s pretty sweet. We were also required to by a reflex hammer and penlight. So, after the white coat ceremony, my Halloween costume will be complete
As for upcoming events, we have the ropes course tomorrow. It’s from 9-12. I’m really not looking forward to this. It’s supposed to be a team building exercise, but I think it’s really going to be us trying not to pass out from the intense desert heat.
If we all get out of there alive, our prize is a party at my place followed by another one thrown by the second years.
That’s pretty much it for now. I must prep myself for tomorrow by listening to “Eye of the Tiger” over and over again.
- We all got our look books which have allowed us to peek just a little bit into each others’ souls.
- If the school’s goal for the first two days were to ease us in to medical school, they did even more than that. They lulled me into a nice nap.
- I am now CCR (cardio-cerebral resuscitation) certified. So if you keel over, I got your back.
- I vowed never again to go to O’Maley’s but that was our first MSI outing. It wasn’t too bad. Once you get a little liquid confidence in med students, they’re pretty talkative.
- I got my stethoscope! It’s not pink like I hoped. Instead, it’s black. But it’s pretty sweet. We were also required to by a reflex hammer and penlight. So, after the white coat ceremony, my Halloween costume will be complete
As for upcoming events, we have the ropes course tomorrow. It’s from 9-12. I’m really not looking forward to this. It’s supposed to be a team building exercise, but I think it’s really going to be us trying not to pass out from the intense desert heat.
If we all get out of there alive, our prize is a party at my place followed by another one thrown by the second years.
That’s pretty much it for now. I must prep myself for tomorrow by listening to “Eye of the Tiger” over and over again.
30 July 2008
Reason #1 to love Project Runway is not Tim Gunn, it’s Michael Kors
“She looks like Barefoot Appalachain Lil' Abner Barbie.”
“Next thing you know, it's big button earrings and you're on 'The Facts of Life.'”
"It's a little Shirley McClaine when she played a hooker with a heart of gold."
- Nuggets of Wisdom from Michael Kors on Project Runway
First of all, I just want to say, I love Michael Kors. I have no clue what his designs look like, or what his aesthetic is, but I think I could be entertained for the rest of my life if he and I sat down on a park bench and just judged people…
Speaking of judging people, class starts tomorrow. Well, just for the first years. It’s two days of orientation (and a ropes course on Saturday… fuck) where we ease our way in to medical school. One hundred and fourteen people in a lecture room looking around, making first impressions. Yes I’ve already met some of my classmates in the bridge program, but this is the real deal. How do I feel about it? Apathetic mostly. My plan is the following:
(1) Avoid the gunners - plain and simple.
(2) Say as many absurd things as possible to weed out any people who lack a sense of humor.
(3) Stake my claim on a left-handed seat in lecture hall. Being left handed narrows the seating options way down and I’m hoping that the place I do sit in isn’t full of people who hope we become “best friends for life” (gag). Side note: where’s my Leftorium Ned Flanders?
The thing I am most excited about for tomorrow is that we get to buy our stethoscopes. Apparently they cost around $200, but it’s a stethoscope! That’s like the official tool of all doctors!
When I was little, I had the Fischer-Price doctor playset and my favorite item in the bag was the stethoscope. Yeah it was made of plastic, but it worked well enough that you could hear a hearbeat. Anyways, it was that stethoscope that had me hooked for life about becoming a doctor and tomorrow, I get a real one. I’m probably gonna go with pink. Not gonna lie, I’m geeking out right now about it.
So yeah, tomorrow begins my life as an MSI (first-year med student in the med school lingo). Am I excited? Not really. I mean, how can you get excited about sitting around in a lecture hall all day. Nope, I’m saving my excitement for the day that I’ll see Michael Kors on a park bench and ask him: “Is this seat taken?”
“Next thing you know, it's big button earrings and you're on 'The Facts of Life.'”
"It's a little Shirley McClaine when she played a hooker with a heart of gold."
- Nuggets of Wisdom from Michael Kors on Project Runway
First of all, I just want to say, I love Michael Kors. I have no clue what his designs look like, or what his aesthetic is, but I think I could be entertained for the rest of my life if he and I sat down on a park bench and just judged people…
Speaking of judging people, class starts tomorrow. Well, just for the first years. It’s two days of orientation (and a ropes course on Saturday… fuck) where we ease our way in to medical school. One hundred and fourteen people in a lecture room looking around, making first impressions. Yes I’ve already met some of my classmates in the bridge program, but this is the real deal. How do I feel about it? Apathetic mostly. My plan is the following:
(1) Avoid the gunners - plain and simple.
(2) Say as many absurd things as possible to weed out any people who lack a sense of humor.
(3) Stake my claim on a left-handed seat in lecture hall. Being left handed narrows the seating options way down and I’m hoping that the place I do sit in isn’t full of people who hope we become “best friends for life” (gag). Side note: where’s my Leftorium Ned Flanders?
The thing I am most excited about for tomorrow is that we get to buy our stethoscopes. Apparently they cost around $200, but it’s a stethoscope! That’s like the official tool of all doctors!
When I was little, I had the Fischer-Price doctor playset and my favorite item in the bag was the stethoscope. Yeah it was made of plastic, but it worked well enough that you could hear a hearbeat. Anyways, it was that stethoscope that had me hooked for life about becoming a doctor and tomorrow, I get a real one. I’m probably gonna go with pink. Not gonna lie, I’m geeking out right now about it.
So yeah, tomorrow begins my life as an MSI (first-year med student in the med school lingo). Am I excited? Not really. I mean, how can you get excited about sitting around in a lecture hall all day. Nope, I’m saving my excitement for the day that I’ll see Michael Kors on a park bench and ask him: “Is this seat taken?”
29 July 2008
Thanks?
Classmate: "You remind me of my aunt."
Me: "Oh yeah? Like how?"
Classmate: "Just the way you talk and act. It's kind of the same."
Me: "Oh... So are you ready for the test tomorrow?"
What exactly do you say to something like that? It's not a compliment but you're not sure if it's an insult either. I completely lack any sort of social etiquette when it comes to talking to strangers. So when a near stranger said this to me I today I reacted by changing the subject.
We really do have a test tomorrow but it doesn't count towards any real grade. I'm in this bridge program right now where 27 of my fellow classmates and I are learning about the types of learning modules we're going to be in at school. So we've been in class for a week now going to lectures, studying cases and working in teams. All of this is leading up to a test on the week's material. I'm not gonna lie, it's a lot of stuff. The concepts aren't hard, but the amount of information makes my brain hurt. I'm not talking about a headache. I mean, my brain feels like it has been stabbed in it's heart. If the brain had a heart. Wait, does it? See, my brain is messing with me already and school hasn't even started yet.
The learning modules are kind of interesting. There's lecture; it's pretty straight forward. We sit down for about 3-5 of them a day. The only thing is, you don't get anything out of them unless you skim the lectures beforehand. See, already, right there. Med school has become harder just by making it a requirement to learn before the designated time for learning.
Another module, Cased Based Instruction (CBI) involves reading information about a patient and coming up with hypothesis as to why s/he is in the hospital while a doctor tells us if we're going down the right path or not. From there, we have to research our hypotheses to then come to a conclusion and diagnosis. This is, by far, my favorite module. (We haven't done anatomy or clinics yet so this one might move down a couple notches) It's kind of like House where we get to sound like we know what we're talking about and then someone smarter than us shoots us down. Love it.
Then there's Team Learning. Or what I like to call: scavenging for glory. Take six people, most of them gunners, give them two copies of a medical scenario/quiz to share and watch them have at it. Yes, it's just as painful as it sounds.
Basically what goes on is, groups of six are given a scenario with lab information and everything about a case. Then we have to answer a quiz that tests are logic about how the labs connect with illness which is probably relevant to the lesson we're learning that week. Not only do we have to answer questions, but since their multiple choice, we also have to write down why the other options are wrong. After we're done, all the teams give their answers in a game show fashion where we wave our letter choices in the air with either pride, or fear.
Even though the courses we're taking this week are just practice, I have so far seen one guy try to take the paper from everyone else so he could answer the quiz by himself, and another group change their letter answer, which was clearly wrong, to avoid having to explain why they were wrong. See, med students don't want to be wrong... ever. So they'll do whatever it takes so as not to seem like they've made a mistake. Hmm... I wonder why each year the students have voted this their least favorite class?
I don't mean to shit on my class. In reality, most of the people a extremely cool and decent. It's just those few gunners that scare that crap out of me. That and the fact that I remind someone my age of their aunt.
Me: "Oh yeah? Like how?"
Classmate: "Just the way you talk and act. It's kind of the same."
Me: "Oh... So are you ready for the test tomorrow?"
What exactly do you say to something like that? It's not a compliment but you're not sure if it's an insult either. I completely lack any sort of social etiquette when it comes to talking to strangers. So when a near stranger said this to me I today I reacted by changing the subject.
We really do have a test tomorrow but it doesn't count towards any real grade. I'm in this bridge program right now where 27 of my fellow classmates and I are learning about the types of learning modules we're going to be in at school. So we've been in class for a week now going to lectures, studying cases and working in teams. All of this is leading up to a test on the week's material. I'm not gonna lie, it's a lot of stuff. The concepts aren't hard, but the amount of information makes my brain hurt. I'm not talking about a headache. I mean, my brain feels like it has been stabbed in it's heart. If the brain had a heart. Wait, does it? See, my brain is messing with me already and school hasn't even started yet.
The learning modules are kind of interesting. There's lecture; it's pretty straight forward. We sit down for about 3-5 of them a day. The only thing is, you don't get anything out of them unless you skim the lectures beforehand. See, already, right there. Med school has become harder just by making it a requirement to learn before the designated time for learning.
Another module, Cased Based Instruction (CBI) involves reading information about a patient and coming up with hypothesis as to why s/he is in the hospital while a doctor tells us if we're going down the right path or not. From there, we have to research our hypotheses to then come to a conclusion and diagnosis. This is, by far, my favorite module. (We haven't done anatomy or clinics yet so this one might move down a couple notches) It's kind of like House where we get to sound like we know what we're talking about and then someone smarter than us shoots us down. Love it.
Then there's Team Learning. Or what I like to call: scavenging for glory. Take six people, most of them gunners, give them two copies of a medical scenario/quiz to share and watch them have at it. Yes, it's just as painful as it sounds.
Basically what goes on is, groups of six are given a scenario with lab information and everything about a case. Then we have to answer a quiz that tests are logic about how the labs connect with illness which is probably relevant to the lesson we're learning that week. Not only do we have to answer questions, but since their multiple choice, we also have to write down why the other options are wrong. After we're done, all the teams give their answers in a game show fashion where we wave our letter choices in the air with either pride, or fear.
Even though the courses we're taking this week are just practice, I have so far seen one guy try to take the paper from everyone else so he could answer the quiz by himself, and another group change their letter answer, which was clearly wrong, to avoid having to explain why they were wrong. See, med students don't want to be wrong... ever. So they'll do whatever it takes so as not to seem like they've made a mistake. Hmm... I wonder why each year the students have voted this their least favorite class?
I don't mean to shit on my class. In reality, most of the people a extremely cool and decent. It's just those few gunners that scare that crap out of me. That and the fact that I remind someone my age of their aunt.
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