What a placement. It actually went by a lot faster than I thought it would as I hated my first week of placements. In the end, it wasn't too bad. Definitely found out colorectal surgery is not for me. I can never seem to orientate myself in theatre especially during laparoscopic procedures. Everything looks the same! Just bowels here and there. Clinics were alright - completely understand why consultants hate it though. It's usually the same old things - over and over again. Only been to 2.5 clinics - and to be fair - it was starting to get repetitive and boring. I must admit, I am a bit embarrassed by the fact that I only turned up to ward rounds ONCE in the entire 4 weeks of placement. Oops. 7:30am ward rounds are too early - Note to self: don't get admitted as a patient to a hospital with 7:30am ward rounds - no wonder most of the patients we saw on ward round were cranky. You're ill/in pain and you're tired - 7:30 am a team of 5+ doctors (have seen teams of 10) crowd around your bed - doctor takes a feel/ask a few questions and then disappear. As a patient, that would really tick me off, but then again I'm not the most cheerful person in the morning.
What else have I learned on this placement? As previously mentioned in an earlier post - common sense takes you a long way. Oh and some consultants are actually human and love to talk about other stuff other than medicine. And again especially at busy hospitals - medical students are probably the least important things in the hospital - be prepared to get ignored/no one caring about you. That's reality and you just have to be proactive and be responsible for your own learning.
Next placement will be in endocrinology. Don't know what to expect; however, I don't even think I will have time to go into placement as exams are around the corner (December). Need to really study and start focusing. Can't tell you how stressed I am - it's mental. Like most students - I hate revising. The only thing that keeps me going is the future. I keep telling myself that once these exams are over I can slack off again and it'll be a year before my next exam. Can't wait as we just had our year-end exams in May - so it's only been 6ish months. The thought of 2nd year exams/revision still scares me - it was tough/a nightmare. At least this year's December exam will be more clinical (what I like) and not as science based. Still a bit lost as to what to study. Just hoping the best and hoping that I'm studying the right material as this year - we've hardly had any guidance. Eep.
Showing posts with label Common sense. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Common sense. Show all posts
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Common Sense.
On tuesday at clinic my consultant looked me in the eyes and told me: "No matter how smart you are, in order to be a successful doctor, you must have common sense." Since then, I can't stop thinking about what he said.
So I've started revision for my December exams and as I'm studying up on management and treatments of conditions, "common sense" suddenly pops up. I realized I can know nothing about the disease, but if I know the symptoms from a history and use common sense - I can figure out how to manage a patient and treat. What my consultant told me on tuesday was really starting to click.
Clinical years of medicine is all about logic and common sense. A person can study all they want and flip through every textbook and know everything, but without common sense: they won't know how to apply their knowledge. It's all about going back to basics. Picking out key bits in a patient history and focusing on it. Unfortunately, in pre-clinical years of medical school - students tend to forget what is common sense. 2 years of pre-clinical almost trains your brain to just retain information and splurge at exams. Because questions in exams are structured in such a detailed manner such as where cells of something is asked - common sense can't really be used. It's either you know the answer or you don't. It's that straight forward. Now in clinical years, you can work your way through a history and physical examination. It's really difficult to describe but in high pressure situations, you got to stop, relax, and think. Think basic and work through all the clues and start piecing the puzzle. Lots of people have the tendency to just jump to the most ridiculous diagnosis as they panic and don't think how one symptom can lead to a sign.
It sounds easy, but as a medical student it is difficult to remember to just use common sense. 2 years of pre-clinical medical sciences in our brains - we can't help but panic and just dig/try to remember information/answers that we crammed for exams. There were times where I would get put on the spot with a question and I would panic. My consultant had told me off a few times for blanking out as all I need to do is just stop trying to dig for an answer but instead work it out. I guess the closest thing I can relate it to is that in maths we learned 2 + 2 = 4. By now we've all memorized it - don't put any thought into it whatsoever. It's kinda like that in medicine. We see 2 + 2 = 4 (symptom + symptom = disease x) - easy. Sometimes we don't know the answer so when we get 1238 + 236, we will panic. Our brains will go "I haven't memorized this!". Instead break it down and try and link them together to come to your answer.
Anyways I hope that made sense. But only now, after 2.5 years - it has clicked. Medicine is all about common sense. We can't memorize everything. At the end of the day we'll need to use our brain to solve/work out things. It won't all be 2 + 2. But as we encounter more problems, we learn more. The beauty of medicine - never ending knowledge.
So I've started revision for my December exams and as I'm studying up on management and treatments of conditions, "common sense" suddenly pops up. I realized I can know nothing about the disease, but if I know the symptoms from a history and use common sense - I can figure out how to manage a patient and treat. What my consultant told me on tuesday was really starting to click.
Clinical years of medicine is all about logic and common sense. A person can study all they want and flip through every textbook and know everything, but without common sense: they won't know how to apply their knowledge. It's all about going back to basics. Picking out key bits in a patient history and focusing on it. Unfortunately, in pre-clinical years of medical school - students tend to forget what is common sense. 2 years of pre-clinical almost trains your brain to just retain information and splurge at exams. Because questions in exams are structured in such a detailed manner such as where cells of something is asked - common sense can't really be used. It's either you know the answer or you don't. It's that straight forward. Now in clinical years, you can work your way through a history and physical examination. It's really difficult to describe but in high pressure situations, you got to stop, relax, and think. Think basic and work through all the clues and start piecing the puzzle. Lots of people have the tendency to just jump to the most ridiculous diagnosis as they panic and don't think how one symptom can lead to a sign.
It sounds easy, but as a medical student it is difficult to remember to just use common sense. 2 years of pre-clinical medical sciences in our brains - we can't help but panic and just dig/try to remember information/answers that we crammed for exams. There were times where I would get put on the spot with a question and I would panic. My consultant had told me off a few times for blanking out as all I need to do is just stop trying to dig for an answer but instead work it out. I guess the closest thing I can relate it to is that in maths we learned 2 + 2 = 4. By now we've all memorized it - don't put any thought into it whatsoever. It's kinda like that in medicine. We see 2 + 2 = 4 (symptom + symptom = disease x) - easy. Sometimes we don't know the answer so when we get 1238 + 236, we will panic. Our brains will go "I haven't memorized this!". Instead break it down and try and link them together to come to your answer.
Anyways I hope that made sense. But only now, after 2.5 years - it has clicked. Medicine is all about common sense. We can't memorize everything. At the end of the day we'll need to use our brain to solve/work out things. It won't all be 2 + 2. But as we encounter more problems, we learn more. The beauty of medicine - never ending knowledge.
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