Island Med Student

I just got home from my first day of Ob/Gyn. I was somewhat elected group leader. I unexpectedly had to spend the day in the out-patient Gyn clinic across from the hospital. Oh, how grateful I was to have clinic and pelvic exam/pap smear experience. It made life soooooo much easier!

Anyway, it’s 9:13 p.m., and I have to get up at 4 a.m. tomorrow, so that’s all I have time to write for now. Also, ERAS opens tonight at midnight. I doubt I’ll stay up for that, but hopefully will start sending out my app soon…. G’nite!

Check out my post on Medscape to read my plea for help getting an emergency medicine residency.

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This is a post I have been meaning to write forever. It would probably be better if I had written this a long time ago, when I was still in Dominica (as everything would be fresh in my mind, and the resources there would be the same), but nevertheless, I feel like it might be helpful for me to list some things.

Here is my disclaimer: things might have changed in Dominica since I was there (from 2006-2008). Also, let me say upfront that what you decide to bring really depends on the type of person you are. If you don’t really care so much about brand name items, and you are willing to pay a little more or less, you really don’t need to bring that much. If you are the opposite, you should bring more. I only brought two suitcases, within the weight limit, and was pretty much okay. You will have to decide for yourself what you really need.

Here are my suggestions (in somewhat order of importance):

1) ALL computer/tekmology related items that you need. This includes laptop, cables, camera, iPod, headphones, jumpdrive, etc. Technology items are expensive and very hard to come by in Dominica. Bring everything you might need.

2) Clothes. This is rather obvious. There are clothes available, but not necessarily the ones you would like. Bring plenty of t-shirts/tank tops, shorts, flip flops, underwear, etc. Dominica is HOT. You will need to dress accordingly. But you should also bring a pair of jeans, and a sweat shirt, etc., as the classrooms and library tend to be very cold. Bring some shoes that you can hike in (I highly recommend hiking), and a few work-out outfits for running, going to the gym, etc. Also bring some swimwear and at least one nice outfit, with shoes, for your white coat ceremony. You will need dress clothes for ICM and stuff like that, but not until your 3rd semester on.

3) Toiletries. If you can’t live without a special type of deodorant, make-up, or face lotion, bring it with you. If you don’t mind using whatever is available, you will be able to find other substitutes in Dominica.

4) Medicine. Although there are pharmacies and such, it’s not a bad idea to bring a supply of any medications with you if you can. It just makes things easier.

5) Food. If there are items that you CAN’T live without, bring them with you. Dominica has plenty of food, but maybe not the selection that you’re used to in the States or Canada.

6) Books. This is a complicated issue. It depends on if you decide to buy your books in advance, or buy them once you get on the island. In retrospect, I think I would have bought them in advance on Amazon and had them shipped, but this really just depends on what your needs are.

7) School supplies. You will be able to find almost any type of binder, highlighter, notebooks, etc., at the RossU bookstore. However, they will be much more expensive there. If you want to pay less, you should buy these in advance.

8 ) Heavy duty flashlight and umbrella. It’s not that you can’t find these in Dominica, but it’s probably easier if you just bring them with you, as you will need them every day!

9) Battery operated clock. If you have an iPod, I highly recommend the iHome. You can buy clocks in Dominica, but it’s not a bad idea to have one from the outset.

10) A good pair of scissors and a can opener/swiss army knife. For some reason, these are hard to come by in Dominica.

11) Bug spray. You can find it there, but if you like, you can bring it with.

Okay, now here is where my advice is different from other lists I’ve seen online. I really don’t think you need much more than the above items. Obviously, if there are other items that you CAN’T live without (favorite stuffed animal, photo of your loved one, a pet rock) you should bring those as well. However, I don’t necessarily agree with other lists I’ve read. You don’t “have” to bring everything under the sun with you. You can find plenty of things in Dominica. You don’t need to bring pots and pans with you, unless you are very specific about the kind you need. Again, as I said above, you can find many things in Dominica, just perhaps not to the standard you’re used to. But for me, that was part of the fun! Why go to a new country and live there for two years without experiencing what they have to offer?

Anyway, that’s my list. Much shorter than most, I know. Please feel free to add, subtract, or comment!

Med school isn’t the only place to learn about the art of medicine. There are many colleges, universities, and other institutions that offer free online medical courses and education resources to self-learners around the world. Here are 10 free resources to explore in your spare time:

MIT OCW – The Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers more than 50 free health science and technology courses through the school’s OpenCourseWare (OCW) program. Courses typically include lectures, reading lists, assignments, exams, and other self-study materials.

JHSPH OCW – The John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health also offers free courses to self-learners through their OCW program. Courses cover a wide range of public health and medical topics, including child health, adolescent health, public health, mental health, aging, chronic diseases, infectious disease, nutrition, and health policy.

Open Michigan – The University of Michigan provides several free medical courses that are open to everyone with an Internet connection. The school also offers courses in nursing and dentistry.

LearnersTV – LearnersTV provides hundreds of free medical lectures from colleges and universities around the world. Lecture categories include immunology, bacteriology, virology, parasitology, mycology, infectious disease, anatomy, physical examinations, and neuroanatomy.

Health Sciences Online – This virtual learning center provides high quality courses and references for medicine, public health, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, basic sciences, and other health sciences disciplines. The center currently offers more than 50,000 hand-selected resources.

GFMER – The Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research offers hundreds of free education resources on their website. Resources include free medical journals, databases, books, and professional publications.

Medscape – Medscape is a free online resource for specialists, primary care physicians, and other health professionals. Offerings include articles, journal commentary, book reviews, medical news, free textbooks and medical journals, conference coverage, and medical practice information.

eMedicine – More than 10,000 physicians contribute to this clinical reference from Web MD. The online reference includes nearly 7,000 medical articles.

Medical Animation Library – This online library from the University of Pennsylvania hosts medical animations that can be viewed with free video players. Animations cover a wide range of medical topics. Each animation includes a short explanation of the topic to help viewers understand what they are seeing on the video.

SlideWorld – Designed specifically for medical professionals, this online library contains more than 7 million PowerPoint slide presentations. Slides are sorted into 20 medical topics and are easy to find using the site’s search features.

Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about top online colleges for OnlineCollege.org.

If you have never seen this incredibly true and funny cartoon about med student personalities, you must check it out now. SO TRUE!

I remember seeing this before I even started med school and thinking how I would definitely be the painfully enthusiastic med student once I began. But then, maybe after a few years, I would eventually lose interest in the little things. However, I’m now a 4th year student and am still the painfully enthusiastic one. I guess some things never change!

• Strained by Katrina, a Hospital Faced Deadly Choices – NYTimes.com
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I just got home from my last emergency medicine night shift. Oh, how I wish I had done 4 weeks instead of 2 weeks! I just can’t say enough how incredibly awesome it was.

As always, I am pooped to the max, and can’t type in coherent sentences, so here is a random jumble of my emergency medicine night shifts:

diagnosed a non-stemi mi, squirted a lot of blood when setting up IVs, diagnosed many cases of PID, watched my first patient jump because of my assessment for cervical motion tenderness (positive chandelier’s sign), saw many young women with chest pain which ended up being anxiety, convinced a psych patient that we were administering an anti-emetic, not an anti-psychotic, assessed a zillion patients for costo-vertebral angle tenderness, took gonorrhea and chlamydia cultures, fought with and restrained very intoxicated patients, snuck off to eat ice cream at dunkin donuts, wrapped the knee of a patient handcuffed to a bed while he cussed at me, reduced a dislocated shoulder, performed 100,000 digital rectal exams, treated a patient with DKA, befriended many police officers and EMTs, refused to make tea for a drunk patient, provided a billion vomitus bags, took an ABG, placed foley catheters, examined a grossly swollen scrotum, walked patients to the bathroom, emptied a billion bedpans and urinals, tried to place a bedpan underneath an intoxicated lady urinating on the floor standing up but had it kicked back on to me and was called some very bad names, palpated a trillion abdomens, wrote scripts, discharged patients, performed neurological exams, took many peak flows, gave a tetanus shot, aroused an unarousable man from an OD stupor, consoled the unconsolable, was complimented on my ability to perform a gentle digital rectal exam, auscultated a million hearts and lungs, palpated for veins, smiled at patients who needed a smile, stopped a demented patient from masturbating in the hallway, talked with families, increased my spanish vocabulary, made friends with nurses, loved my patients.

and that’s really just a sprinkling.

good night!

Note: Photo is of a mural I see on my walk home from the hospital.

“Yo Brooklyn, Fuhgeddaboudit” Photo Series

A few iPhone pics taken recently in Bushwick, including one taken just now on my way home from the hospital at 7:30 a.m. Enjoy. Good night!

“Yo Brooklyn, Fuhgeddaboudit” Photo Series

It’s 7:40 a.m. I just got home from my 12-hour emergency medicine night shift. I learned a lot and did a lot. Will share soon.

I am normally good at not taking my work home with me. In medicine, you see so much sadness and horrific things. To stay sane, you must separate yourself from your visceral reactions.

For privacy sake, I can not elaborate on my last patient of the evening. But it affected me. It brought tears to my eyes. It made me mad. It made me want to scream and cry and throw my arms in the air. A young woman who was mugged and brutally beaten on her way to work in the early morning. How could a human being do this to another human being? An innocent soul. Her life changed forever. How? I simply can’t fathom it. And I can’t get over it. Her bloody face echoes in my mind. Lingering. How I just wanted to hold her hand and tell her everything would be okay. But everything won’t be okay for her. And neither will it be for me.

I just went down to the laundry room IN MY BUILDING to discover that someone had stolen my bathroom rug from the dryer! I am PISSED, to say the least! Seriously, who steals bathroom rugs?! Anyway, I am going to Kinko’s to print out 20 or so copies of the above flyer, and hanging them all over my building. I WILL get my rug back!! Someone has messed with the wrong girl!!!