Saturday, February 16, 2013

Stuck In the Middle With You

Howdy folks.

It's been a while.

I figured an update was in order. A very close friend of mine started her blog and it makes me want to write in here more... at least occasionally with some updates.

I'm going to do this in list form to save time.

I'm now approaching the end of my first year in med school.

Here are some realizations I've made so far:

1. Medical School is fun! I love to learn and we have so much dedicated time to learn new things. It's totally awesome! I'm happier now than I've been in a long time.

2. If you enjoy learning and don't mind longish hours, medical school is easier than grad school or a real job.

3. Maintaining personal relationships outside of medical school is hard. So much of my day is taken up with either learning or hurdles my school throws at me. Also, I find I am less able to talk about topics outside medicine, philosophy, or politics.

4. The administrators in charge of designing your curriculum have an agenda. Often times this agenda will get in the way of you learning in the fashion that suits you best. It can be very, very frustrating.

5.You will notice trends in teaching towards what is politically fashionable in the education world, but not necessarily helpful for you to learn the "language of medicine." Their counter argument will be, "We know what it takes to be a good doctor. We want you to teach you to be a good doctor."

6. Similar arguments, "We know what's best for you" will be used often. You WILL be treated like a child.

7. Professors are watching you. They are probably tied to a residency process to some degree. Don't tick them off.

8. My classmates are a bright and shining light in my life. Sure, there is rampant gossip and sure, people will judge you, but that happens everywhere. I know that if the chips were down, this is a group of people who really care about others. The more time I spend with them the more I feel like a family. People do douchey crap to eachother, but they get over it and love eachother in the long run. I love them.

9. The more I learn, the more I realize that pretty much everything will be covered by the end of the first year except microbiology. We follow an organ system curriculum and they sneakily teach us some pathology with the physiology throughout the first year. If you can cram that micro in somewhere you can start reviewing first aid pretty effectively by the end of the first year. That's my plan at least.

10. Problem based learning/small group learning is bittersweet. To sit in a group and try to solve a case (kind of like a who-done-it murder mystery) is super fun. The didactic back-and-forth conversation based on limited understanding of a subject is really interesting and helps you learn people as well as material. Going home and writing essays on particular topics related to the case is not fun and extremely low yield in my opinion. It gets in the way of you learning the big picture, broad concepts of the week and instead focuses you on learning a piece of minutiae about a disease related to the physiology which you haven't had a chance to fully learn yet since you're writing the figgin' essay. Uggh! Can you tell I'm frustrated by them?

At the moment I'm trying to sort out research for the summer. I'll let you know how that goes. There's a mad scramble for finding funded summer research around this time as applications are due by late March and getting professors to respond can be tricky.

On a personal note, I'm trying to be less dependent on personal relationships. I find myself getting lonely very easily. I like studying with people around, but not talking to them except on breaks. I'm also trying to work on expressing my opinion in a less aggressive way. I've always had problems with that. I'm trying to listen to people more instead of speak.... Kind of ironic in this case as there's no one to talk back.

Good night all and sweet dreams!