Out of the classroom and into the clinic.
Rotating is very different from sitting in the basement studying.
It is much more like starting a new job each month. You show up super early on your first day and hope to impress everyone around. Slowly you get used to your new preceptor, the flow of the office and patients and then your four weeks are up and its time to move on to another clinic.
Although it sounds overwhelming, it is wonderful. The chance to work with and learn from various doctors in the community is priceless. It is also wonderful that members of the public are willing and often times excited to see a student in the clinic and be subjected to multiple rounds of questioning.
I have been learning to speak clearly, to avoid slang/jargon and most importantly how to be infinitely gentle yet thorough in my physical exam. The sticky part is that each doctor expects a different physical exam and a different reported history, so medical student have to be ever-adaptable.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Friday, June 17, 2011
Not so good at blogging, hopefully better at enjoying summer!
Blogging. Apparently I am not very good at it. Goal for the next year is to be better!
Well, I did it! I finished my first year of medical school. I must say that last August, as I was going into it I was cocky and completely underestimated the impact that it would have on my life. The past 9 months or so have been harder than anything I had experienced before. For example at one point mid-march during our Neuro (neuro-anatomy and physiology combined with A/P of the head and neck) I found myself dreaming of being on fire. Not the kind that generally requires transport to the hospital, but the kind where you work with 20 of your best (or not) friends for 16 hour shifts for weeks in a row with no break. That sounded like a vacation compared to my repeated 14 hour study days. Studying for 14 hours in a row is an amazing feat of pain and torture that I didn’t even realize existed before medical school, especially for someone who has reached the age of 25 without learning how to sit still. I try to minimize the amount of time I spend staring off into space, maximize the number of study locations available to me, and do pushups when I start to fall asleep sitting up.
The mantra of the academic advisors and professors at our school is to keep up and not to get behind. This is a great theory, but I have not yet figured out how to do this. There were days where we would have lecture and lab for 8 hours, then I would go home feeling like the organ inside my cranium was made out of blue cheese dressing instead of gray matter. At home I would try in vain to review and comprehend the previous 8 hours of my life, generally by trying to make my notes legible and reviewing power point presentations. Then, here is my favorite part, the professors would like us to prepare for the next day i.e. do the reading and preview the power points. I still don’t know how to pack review of 8 hours plus preview for the next set of lectures into one evening. There must be a way.
The course of the semester was pretty rigorous. We started out with Renal A/P (anatomy and physiology) then move onto the Endocrine and Reproductive systems, followed by Neuro (as explained above). After Neuro was over we were rewarded with a much needed spring break. After break it was into Immunology and we ended the year with Pathology. I had hoped that it would ease up after the immunology course because we were also done with our Osteopathic Principles and our Principles of Clinical Medicine class. Alas, Pathological Basis of Disease was harder yet.
The good news is that I now have six weeks of nothing to do...well let me re-phrase…six weeks of cutting trees, going to weddings and hiking. My goal is to read for fun, not for school and maybe do a couple of art projects. We will see how it goes!
Well, I did it! I finished my first year of medical school. I must say that last August, as I was going into it I was cocky and completely underestimated the impact that it would have on my life. The past 9 months or so have been harder than anything I had experienced before. For example at one point mid-march during our Neuro (neuro-anatomy and physiology combined with A/P of the head and neck) I found myself dreaming of being on fire. Not the kind that generally requires transport to the hospital, but the kind where you work with 20 of your best (or not) friends for 16 hour shifts for weeks in a row with no break. That sounded like a vacation compared to my repeated 14 hour study days. Studying for 14 hours in a row is an amazing feat of pain and torture that I didn’t even realize existed before medical school, especially for someone who has reached the age of 25 without learning how to sit still. I try to minimize the amount of time I spend staring off into space, maximize the number of study locations available to me, and do pushups when I start to fall asleep sitting up.
The mantra of the academic advisors and professors at our school is to keep up and not to get behind. This is a great theory, but I have not yet figured out how to do this. There were days where we would have lecture and lab for 8 hours, then I would go home feeling like the organ inside my cranium was made out of blue cheese dressing instead of gray matter. At home I would try in vain to review and comprehend the previous 8 hours of my life, generally by trying to make my notes legible and reviewing power point presentations. Then, here is my favorite part, the professors would like us to prepare for the next day i.e. do the reading and preview the power points. I still don’t know how to pack review of 8 hours plus preview for the next set of lectures into one evening. There must be a way.
The course of the semester was pretty rigorous. We started out with Renal A/P (anatomy and physiology) then move onto the Endocrine and Reproductive systems, followed by Neuro (as explained above). After Neuro was over we were rewarded with a much needed spring break. After break it was into Immunology and we ended the year with Pathology. I had hoped that it would ease up after the immunology course because we were also done with our Osteopathic Principles and our Principles of Clinical Medicine class. Alas, Pathological Basis of Disease was harder yet.
The good news is that I now have six weeks of nothing to do...well let me re-phrase…six weeks of cutting trees, going to weddings and hiking. My goal is to read for fun, not for school and maybe do a couple of art projects. We will see how it goes!
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Semester 1...DONE!
Semester number one done! The sacry thing my friend Julie pointed out is that in a mere 7 semesters they unleash us onto the world as doctors. That is a humbling thought I'd I ever had one.
You all may have noticed the lack of posts recently mainly due to the overwhelming load of information being packed into my head. I was desperately worried that if I attempted to use my English skills the bulk of that information would tumble out of the files in my brain. Now after taking a bit to decompress I feel it is safe to write.
Over the past semester I have taken Principles in Clinical Medicine, Osteopathic Practices and Principles, Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms, Musculoskeletal, Cardiorespiratory, and Gastrointestinal. A semester of 6 classes totaling 32 credits. Well that is as long as you trust my math! The average week had over 30 hours of lecture and lab plus studying after that. I tried to keep it under 14 hours a day but at times I failed on that front. I wish I could say it was going to improve bu t in looking at the schedule for next semester I don't believe it will.
The one thing that will improve is my ability to deal. This past semester was an exercise in learning study skills. During myundergrad I studied (and stressed) the night before the test maybe a couple of days before a final. Unfortunately that doesn't work in medical school. It's ok though because I am figuring it out.
Our school was generous enough to give us finals for our last 3 classes over the month or December. Finals started out with a written and practical exam for the Osteopathic Principles class. The practical portion put our semester of skills to the test, of all the techniques we learned our exam came down to one. As it seems to work I ended up with the one I felt weakest in! Next we had our unit test and anatomy practical for GI which was rough for the whole class. The next Monday we had a written exam for clinical medicine followed by a standardized patient experience. The SP is a chance for us to practice our clinical and interviewing skills with trained patients. Many students have mixed feelings about it, but I love it because it is what I came to learn about. For those who have done EMT it is like an extended scenario. Finally on this past Monday we took our final exam for GI! Now I have until the 2nd to decompress.
You all may have noticed the lack of posts recently mainly due to the overwhelming load of information being packed into my head. I was desperately worried that if I attempted to use my English skills the bulk of that information would tumble out of the files in my brain. Now after taking a bit to decompress I feel it is safe to write.
Over the past semester I have taken Principles in Clinical Medicine, Osteopathic Practices and Principles, Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms, Musculoskeletal, Cardiorespiratory, and Gastrointestinal. A semester of 6 classes totaling 32 credits. Well that is as long as you trust my math! The average week had over 30 hours of lecture and lab plus studying after that. I tried to keep it under 14 hours a day but at times I failed on that front. I wish I could say it was going to improve bu t in looking at the schedule for next semester I don't believe it will.
The one thing that will improve is my ability to deal. This past semester was an exercise in learning study skills. During myundergrad I studied (and stressed) the night before the test maybe a couple of days before a final. Unfortunately that doesn't work in medical school. It's ok though because I am figuring it out.
Our school was generous enough to give us finals for our last 3 classes over the month or December. Finals started out with a written and practical exam for the Osteopathic Principles class. The practical portion put our semester of skills to the test, of all the techniques we learned our exam came down to one. As it seems to work I ended up with the one I felt weakest in! Next we had our unit test and anatomy practical for GI which was rough for the whole class. The next Monday we had a written exam for clinical medicine followed by a standardized patient experience. The SP is a chance for us to practice our clinical and interviewing skills with trained patients. Many students have mixed feelings about it, but I love it because it is what I came to learn about. For those who have done EMT it is like an extended scenario. Finally on this past Monday we took our final exam for GI! Now I have until the 2nd to decompress.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Oh Anatomy...I don't know how I feel about thee.
Anatomy…where do I start. Well, the first thing is DO not get behind, regardless of wildfire or any other natural disaster. When I should have been getting a jump start on the muscles of the back, I was cutting trees in Gold Hill. We have our first anatomy exam on Monday; it will cover the back, skin, and much more. The past two weeks we have been dissecting our cadavers and trying to uncover the secrets held inside. We are fortunate that there are generous people in this state who have donated themselves to science so that as medical students, we can gain first-hand knowledge of the body and the differences that run rampant through our lab. The body we have the privilege of working with has small, frail muscles. In order to be successful our group will have to learn patience and gentleness. After Monday, we will start to dissect the upper limb. As we continue, we enter a season where there will be exams each Monday. Get ready to buckle down!
Monday, September 13, 2010
Perfect Storm
Two things I would never like to combine again: wildfire and medical school. Last Monday, Labor Day, I was coming back from a camping trip up by Mount Evans. As I passed through Golden on my way to Gold Hill my pagers, both my Boulder County and my Gold Hill pager, started going off. I found a stopping point to see what the message was, and was directed to a small wildland fire in Four Mile’s fire district. Because Gold Hill is an automatic mutual aid partner I turned on the radio and began to listen, hoping it wasn’t a fire, unfortunately that was not the case.
As I came into Boulder I talked to my dad up in Gold Hill and decided to head straight to the fire after picking up a couple of other firefighters. I rendezvoused with Karl and Kerry in a parking lot where all three of us quickly changed out of civilian clothes into nomex, boots and helmets. For anyone on the outside is must have been quite a site, three young people trying to be as modest as possible when changing clothes in a parking lot, that was probably the last of the humor all day. We loaded up into my trusty Subaru and headed up Four Mile canyon (yes it IS two words). We never made it to the initial scene because the fire advanced and we were forced to turn around and head for the staging area in Boulder. Once in the staging area, chaos broke loose.
It was evident from the radio traffic that the fire was not going to stop in Emerson Gulch, Gold Hill Fire had been toned and I could hear my dad on the radio implementing a back burn to save as many houses as possible. Resources were streaming into the parking lot, engines, crews, single firefighters; as strike teams and hand crews were being dispatched I could hear my dad’s crew struggling. There was nothing we could do from Boulder; it was too dangerous to send anything up the canyons to get there. The rest of the day was a blur for me. I checked resources in, sent them out, reorganized them, worked with logistics and probably more. Sometime in the afternoon I heard the ominous news that Gold Hill probably was not going to survive, I shut down after that. Fortunately I was given some direction by my Sergeant at the Sheriff’s Office and went to assist him with evacuations in the Carriage Hills Neighborhood.
By the end of the evening, my brother had arrived at the ICP to meet with my mother (he was evacuated from Gold Hill to Nederland) and I had briefly spoken to my dad. We talked just enough to find out that he was okay and so was home, for now. I attempted to sleep Monday night, but didn’t have much luck. Tuesday morning I headed for Gold Hill with my mom and brother. Once up there we did what we could to work on hot spots and keep each other safe. It was a long day, but I ended it in Parker attempting to study in the RVU library with my friend Julie.
The one thing that I have not mentioned up to now is that I had my final exam for my Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms class on Wednesday. Fortunately, I had done well on the first two exams, but the pressure was still on. Julie attempted to help me focus Tuesday night until I went back to my apartment, and my very grumpy cat and collapsed into bed. I made it to my Wednesday exam, though I am not sure how. The test was an excruciating combination of early morning, little breakfast, not enough caffeine and no sleep. There were points during the test where I was closing one eye to let the other rest—in the middle of my test. Fortunately I had a good grasp on the material and did okay on my exam.
The rest of the week has been more of a blur, somehow I woke up this morning and it was Monday. I drove back and forth between Gold Hill and Parker more times than I would ever care to, but I was able to help my department. I have made it through the ordeal with my family and my home intact, but there are many others that have not. It still makes me cry to think about walking through the rubble of my childhood friend’s home to do a damage assessment. I can remember playing in the greenhouse and sitting in the kitchen eating goat cheese quesadillas with my friends, today all that is left of the house is the chimney and the garden. My thoughts and prayers go out to those who have lost something in this fire.
As I came into Boulder I talked to my dad up in Gold Hill and decided to head straight to the fire after picking up a couple of other firefighters. I rendezvoused with Karl and Kerry in a parking lot where all three of us quickly changed out of civilian clothes into nomex, boots and helmets. For anyone on the outside is must have been quite a site, three young people trying to be as modest as possible when changing clothes in a parking lot, that was probably the last of the humor all day. We loaded up into my trusty Subaru and headed up Four Mile canyon (yes it IS two words). We never made it to the initial scene because the fire advanced and we were forced to turn around and head for the staging area in Boulder. Once in the staging area, chaos broke loose.
It was evident from the radio traffic that the fire was not going to stop in Emerson Gulch, Gold Hill Fire had been toned and I could hear my dad on the radio implementing a back burn to save as many houses as possible. Resources were streaming into the parking lot, engines, crews, single firefighters; as strike teams and hand crews were being dispatched I could hear my dad’s crew struggling. There was nothing we could do from Boulder; it was too dangerous to send anything up the canyons to get there. The rest of the day was a blur for me. I checked resources in, sent them out, reorganized them, worked with logistics and probably more. Sometime in the afternoon I heard the ominous news that Gold Hill probably was not going to survive, I shut down after that. Fortunately I was given some direction by my Sergeant at the Sheriff’s Office and went to assist him with evacuations in the Carriage Hills Neighborhood.
By the end of the evening, my brother had arrived at the ICP to meet with my mother (he was evacuated from Gold Hill to Nederland) and I had briefly spoken to my dad. We talked just enough to find out that he was okay and so was home, for now. I attempted to sleep Monday night, but didn’t have much luck. Tuesday morning I headed for Gold Hill with my mom and brother. Once up there we did what we could to work on hot spots and keep each other safe. It was a long day, but I ended it in Parker attempting to study in the RVU library with my friend Julie.
The one thing that I have not mentioned up to now is that I had my final exam for my Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms class on Wednesday. Fortunately, I had done well on the first two exams, but the pressure was still on. Julie attempted to help me focus Tuesday night until I went back to my apartment, and my very grumpy cat and collapsed into bed. I made it to my Wednesday exam, though I am not sure how. The test was an excruciating combination of early morning, little breakfast, not enough caffeine and no sleep. There were points during the test where I was closing one eye to let the other rest—in the middle of my test. Fortunately I had a good grasp on the material and did okay on my exam.
The rest of the week has been more of a blur, somehow I woke up this morning and it was Monday. I drove back and forth between Gold Hill and Parker more times than I would ever care to, but I was able to help my department. I have made it through the ordeal with my family and my home intact, but there are many others that have not. It still makes me cry to think about walking through the rubble of my childhood friend’s home to do a damage assessment. I can remember playing in the greenhouse and sitting in the kitchen eating goat cheese quesadillas with my friends, today all that is left of the house is the chimney and the garden. My thoughts and prayers go out to those who have lost something in this fire.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Fire
Holding up despite the fire. Just so you all know, the town of Gold Hill is standing and the surrounding area was heavily damaged.
Monday, August 23, 2010
My classes
This week we have our second exam. I never thought I would have so many details of Molecular and Cellular Mechanics smashed into my brain at once. We are taking EVERYTHING I learned in my undergrad and organizing it into concepts instead of having a string of facts that are not connected. In my mind it is a much better way to learn and to deal with data.
The other 2 classes I have, Principles in Clinical Medicine and Osteopathic Principles are my sanctuary from the massive amounts of biological data. In PCM we are learning how to take comprehensive histories on patients, it is a lot of great information. Much of it is something I would like to teach the EMTs on my department, because I know the way we were taught to take a history in EMT school was kind of disjointed. Our OPP has been a lesson in learning how to use our hands. I feel that am lucky to have been working with my hands for most of my life, finding some sort of dysfunction in muscle is very similar to determining if your cantaloupe is ripe or adjusting the pressure in a hose when you don't have any gauges.
The other 2 classes I have, Principles in Clinical Medicine and Osteopathic Principles are my sanctuary from the massive amounts of biological data. In PCM we are learning how to take comprehensive histories on patients, it is a lot of great information. Much of it is something I would like to teach the EMTs on my department, because I know the way we were taught to take a history in EMT school was kind of disjointed. Our OPP has been a lesson in learning how to use our hands. I feel that am lucky to have been working with my hands for most of my life, finding some sort of dysfunction in muscle is very similar to determining if your cantaloupe is ripe or adjusting the pressure in a hose when you don't have any gauges.
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