Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Real Science

Block 1, "Becoming a Doctor," ended last Friday after our 5 hour-long Summative Synthesis Essay Questions (SSEQs). Basically this is a flashy way of saying we had a long ass test consisting of four essays. Overall I thought the test well. I wrote too much for many of the essays and I think my answers were kind of verbose and perhaps somewhat peripheral to the questions. We had one question asking us to describe how the poverty-gap, which is worse in the US than other developed nations, affects the health of the poor. Granted the question was politically charged to begin with, I ended up writting about supply-side economics and how public health funding is affected by fiscal policy. I am in medical school, right? I think it's safe to say we all passed, but we won't know for sure until tomorrow when we receive our feedback.

This week is when med school, in the traditional sense, really begins. Block 2 is called "The Human Blueprint." During this 11 week block we learn primarily about genetics and development. I think genetics is interesting, but I can honestly tell you that the material is out of my comfort zone. I am comfortable with molecular genetics, to an extent, especially with regards to pharmacology and biochemistry. There is still a bunch of other stuff that I am not comfortable with including patterns of inhertience, karyotypes and all the "big picture" genetic issues. Show me a nucleotide structure and I will feel at home. Talk about chromosomal abnormalities and I will freak out.

I might just be overreacting a bit because frankly, I am kind of overwhelmed right now. Every day we seem to have a ton of reading and things we need to go over. It's easy to get lost in detail and lose focus of clinically relevant concepts. I probably know more about genetics than what I give myself credit for, or so I hope.

Speaking of being overwhelemed, this week really is brutal: Instead of having our normal IQ groups, we have a ton of lecture, since this is the first week of the block and we're supposed to be getting acclimated to the new material. For once, I kind of don't mind the lectures since it's nice to have all random details focused into core concepts, but I can see it getting old real fast. I am looking forward to IQ and getting underway with new cases next week. Also during this block, we begin to learn about performing a routine physical exam. We get to practice on each other and standardized patients. It should be good times.

I know it's only been two days, but this basic science is kind of killing me. For one, I am in the small minority that misses public health. Luckily for me I'm taking an MPH class (and seminar, and working on my capstone-albeit at a snails pace) starting this Monday. The class is on mental health epidemiology and it should be interesting. Second, ever since I got to intubate that mannequin, I am really itching to get back to some EMS fun. I was contemplating signing up for one elective to spend 2 hours each week at Metro ER to shadow a doc and learn some procedures. I'm probably going to hold off on this for a bit and see how my schedule falls into place first. It's too easy to commit to activities around here.

In other news, the weather up here in Cleveland has been awesome lately. I came back home from school at around 8:30 pm today and it was actually kind of crisp outside-it feels like fall. I like the fall because it means 1.) football and 2.) greens fees at golf courses will go down soon. It's too bad the best weather of the year has to be when school starts up and I start to get swamped. Oh well.

1 comment:

Kim said...

Hey Kavi! This is Kim (from Rice). I found my way over here from Ivy's J-school blog. It will be interesting to read your experiences... probably so close to and yet so different from my own.