Island Med Student

Tomorrow is officially Halloween (October 31st), but a lot of kiddies seem to be celebrating it today. Halloween has always been one of my most favorite holidays. I love dressing up in costumes, and and some of my most favorite memories are of trick-or-treating as a child. My mom being the coolest mom, we pretty much always had homemade costumes instead of store bought ones. I went as wonderful things like Strawberry Shortcake, a princess, Laura Ingalls Wilder (who by the way shares my birthday), She-Ra (Princess of Power), and a cheerleader. All costumes made by my very awesome and creative mother. Since I have three sisters, and no brothers, we were frequently dressed in similar matching costumes.

In other news, I’m loving the feeling of fall right now. The gorgeous leaves in wonderful and vibrant colors. The smell of the crisp air.

I’m still on a hiatus from rotations, and hope to be starting an elective on Monday. I’ve knocked out three residency interviews so far, and still have a bunch more to go.

Today I went grocery shopping and then came home and took the doggies on a nice long run. We went down Myrtle Avenue and over the Brooklyn Bridge into Chinatown. Halfway back my iPod died, and my knee started to act up so I had to walk most of the way home. But a good time was had by all, and I rocked a 12-mile run.

I’m about to make some dinner, reply to some emails, and then likely call it a night. I doubt I’ll be going out tomorrow night for Halloween since I’m short on money and still recovering from the flu. It will be the first time I haven’t dressed up and gone out for Halloween in a long time. I guess I’m getting old.

But I still dress up in costumes on days other than Halloween, so I think it all evens out.

Three of the above photos are from last year’s Halloween during my surgery rotation. Great photos from our winning entry in the hospital pumpkin carving/decorating contest. Man, I miss those days!

Brooklyn Bridge Photo by Carlos Seo

Check out my post on Medscape to read my thoughts on teaching the new crop of med students.

Click Here To View the Entry

In addition to the information I posted about studying for the USMLE Step 2 CK, I thought I’d share with everyone my opinion (and the opinion of other students I’ve met) about which books are best for each core rotation/clerkship.

Internal Medicine: Step-Up to Medicine (Step-Up Series)

Surgery: Surgical Recall, North American Edition (Recall Series)

Obstetrics/Gynecology: Blueprints Obstetrics and Gynecology (Blueprints Series)

Psychiatry: Blueprints Psychiatry (Blueprints Series)

Pediatrics: I haven’t had peds yet, so I don’t want to put this info up yet. I will update this once I take peds, or get good opinions from other students who have completed it!

Nothing will ever beat the bonds that everyone in my surgery rotation “group D” have with each other. It’s been almost a year since we all met, yet we continue to be an unstoppable force. Many of us have gone on our various paths. We’ve moved apart, and come back, and will continue to do so. Baby Boy and Katrina are both now medical doctors. Congrats to them both!

Over the last week, I was able to hang out with some of my old “group D” friends, and as always, we rocked it out. I love all of you and can’t wait to see you again soon!

I’ve posted some (crappy, sorry, iPhone) photos to remember the good times.

Click Here to View the Pics

I can’t believe it’s been almost a week since I posted something! This is very unlike me. Anyway, I’ll try not to do that again. I don’t really have any good excuses as to why I didn’t post stuff, so I won’t try to make up any.

This coming week is my very last week of internal medicine. Now that I have finished the only two rotations that are a whopping 12 weeks long, it’s all smooth sailing from here on out. Actually, not really, but it’s nice to think of it that way.

Next Monday I start Neurology, which I’m actually pretty excited about, because that’s always been a field of interest to me.

So, what did I think of the internal medicine rotation? Well, it kind of sucked. While I did learn stuff here and there, I don’t feel like I learned nearly as much as I could have. I do feel a little more comfortable with some of the concepts, but I still feel pretty fuzzy on most of them. One thing that I didn’t like as much, especially as compared to surgery and psych, is that we didn’t have as much patient contact. In fact, I’d go days without really even seeing a patient. This pretty much sucks. And while I could always take the initiative and just go examine patients, it seems kind of silly to do this, and I hate bothering the patients for no other reason than my boredom.

While I don’t think that I am anywhere near being able to actually function as a doctor, I definitely feel like I’ve come a long way since my basic sciences. I don’t feel like a complete idiot examining patients, and I can come up with a reasonably good list of differential diagnoses for many different types of complaints. So, all in all, I know I’m learning stuff.

One thing that I keep realizing over and over again is that I need to be around patients. The longer I go without seeing patients, the more apathetic I become, and the more I feel like med school sucks, and that being a doctor sucks. But then when I see a patient, all the goodness comes flooding back. I definitely could never work in a lab, or in an office on a computer, or any of the other sorts of jobs that require little or no patient contact. I need to talk to people, and touch people, and make people laugh.

I’m off to take my doggy doos on a long walk now. Happy Sunday!

I’ve been contemplating writing this blog post for a few days now. I wanted to write it, but thought I should wait until I had calmed down a bit, so that it didn’t sound like a huge ranting session. I guess I might as well just tell the story. I think it might help release some of the stress.

Let me begin with some background. I have no idea how to say this without sounding conceited, so I’ll just say it anyway. Echoing the thoughts of Jeff Wonoprabowo in his recent post, I have also always struggled to be the best. I have always maintained a very high GPA. I have always excelled in my exams. I am a bit of a perfectionist. I am a natural leader, and I always try to do everything to the best of my ability. I am generally not lazy, and I am good at “getting things done.” Okay, I hope I don’t sound too full of myself. I am certainly “not good” at many things (singing is an excellent example), but there are some things that I’m really good at, and making good grades has always been one of those things (as is common with most med students).

I did very well during the basic science years of medical school. I maintained a high GPA and performed well on both written and oral exams. I also did very well during my first two clinical rotations. My third and fourth clinical rotations, however, have been a bit different.

Okay, so now I’m going to come right out and say what I’ve been beating around the bush about. I received a “B” in my surgery rotation. Now, I know there are probably many people out there who are thinking, “seriously, SERIOUSLY, she’s complaining about getting a ‘B?!’ What’s wrong with this girl?!” But I’m hoping that many of you are still reading, and maybe there are even a few of you out there thinking, “hey, I understand!”

Here’s the thing. My surgery rotation was very tough. The hours were grueling, and the work was at times quite challenging. But I rose to the challenges. I stayed late when no one else would. I offered to do consults and other non-required tasks. I scrubbed in when no one else wanted to. I went out of my way to help my patients. I spent more time with them then I had to. I got along well with “most” of the nurses, residents, and attendings. I always did what my residents asked of me, and tried to always go above and beyond their expectations. I also did comparatively well on all the exams and quizzes. I can honestly say that I think I deserved an “A.”

I think the main problem with the surgery rotation was that we were never really told how we were being evaluated. Unlike my first two rotations, which provided clear guidelines on how students were graded, we were basically in the dark. When I got my grade, I didn’t even know who actually gave it to me. I also don’t know what I could have done better to earn an “A.” I certainly can’t think of anything shy of actually performing the surgeries myself.

Unfortunately, my current internal medicine rotation seems to be going similarly. I don’t really feel like I know what is expected of me. And this time, I really don’t know if I’m even doing a good job because I’m not sure what a good job is!

So, that’s my rant. I know it seems like such a silly thing to be upset about, but I just don’t like the feeling of “not knowing,” I guess.

I’m wondering if this lack of information about expectations has to do with the hospital, or the rotations, or the attendings, or something else. I’m actually very interested to know if anyone out there has experienced anything similar. Do you always know how you’re being graded during your clinical rotations? Or have any of you also experienced what I’m going through? Also, have you ever received a grade on a rotation that you thought was not a true reflection of your performance?

Click Here To View the Original Post on Medscape

And now for the long awaited music video made from the footage shot at Ghazel’s party on Friday night.  Many thanks to Micah, who was the behind-the-scenes man who shot all of the great videos.  I love all of you, Group D!  Click the pic to watch. Enjoy!

 

Friday night, some of us Surgery Group D folks got together for a party at Ghazel’s pad, and then went to Dr. C’s birthday party afterwards.  We all had a BLAST, and Micah took a bunch of awesome videos during the party, including several dance-offs.  I’ll be uploading the video footage very soon, but for now you can enjoy some of the pics.  Also, I finally posted some other pics of another Group D even at Life Cafe a few weeks ago.  Enjoy!

Click Here to View the Group D Party at Ghazel’s Pics

Click Here to View the Group D at Life Cafe Pics

So, it turns out that I actually did learn quite a bit during my surgery rotation. As I’m realizing more and more every day, I learned a lot about a lot of stuff in surgery. I learned a lot of important little things, like how to move a patient, and how to perform procedures, and just all kinds of little details that really add up. Many of the students in my current internal medicine rotation don’t know a whole lot. For many of them, this is their first rotation, and they don’t have much experience with a lot of things. I’m very glad to have a lot of “firsts” already out of the way. Tonight, we had to do get a stool guaiac on a patient, and the other med student in our group had never done one, so I offered to help. He was a complete mess and was completely horrified at the procedure. As I’ve said many times before, my non-fear of poop has really come in handy many times as a med student. I was so shocked that he was literally terrified of getting near someone else’s poop! Why would you go into med school if poop is absolutely horrifying to you? Anyway, I’ll save my rant. But the point is, a little poop never hurt anyone (okay, maybe it did, but you get the point). Even if you plan on going into psychiatry, you still have to make it through med school, and you still have to deal with poop. Get over it!

I finally made a movie of my much loved Surgery Group D folks. It’s not exactly what I had planned as I am missing a bunch of video footage and photos that other people (I’m talking to YOU, John!) were unable to send me or I couldn’t find. I also had another song planned out to use, but (ah hem, Farrah) was unable to get the song in time.

So, please check out this lovely music video for Group D. Hopefully if I ever get the other videos, photos, and song, I will make yet another video which conveys my obsession with Group D!

Click the photo below to view. Enjoy!