I hope my unwillingness to embrace the business “outside of hours” doesn’t limit me. Surely it won’t?

I finished my first year of medicine in mid-November. I’ll try and deliver my impressions bit-by-bit each week until next semester kicks off. It was pretty rough, pretty busy, and didn’t leave me with much time to take it easy.

I started writing this down in reverse order, thinking I should start with things freshest in my memory.

That was too hard.

I last picked up here after my first set of exams. Tomorrow, it will be 6 months to the day. I passed that set of exams with little fuss. I did note with some concern that I was not able to deal well with the anatomy component of my exam. Unfortunately the timetable is so packed at that point, and with work in full steam, there was no room to properly address the unfolding situation.

Anatomy as it is taught at LTU is not reliant upon memorizing large numbers of discrete facts. Instead, you have to learn every… er, principle, in every lecture from musculoskeletal block onwards. I know this having passed my first anatomy paper, failing the second by a mark, then failing the final theory exam by 3.5 marks. Anyway I will get back to this in another post.

By the middle of first year I think I had finally found some rhythm with study and work, and this allowed me to come out of my shell socially as well. Looking back, my time away from study really weakened my mental acuity and left me underprepared to start the course. In the first few months I found it easy to just coast along, thinking I was going fine. I had learned this habit from engineering, where it is better first to learn broad concepts slowly and carefully, then ramp up to all of the technical stuff towards exams. This was hopelessly ineffective in medicine, as the sheer volume of information I was hit with meant that I needed to read en masse, all the time. Taking thorough notes during lectures at LTU was also critically important.

I wasn’t actually doing this of course.

My prior knowledge of medical science allowed me to paper over my lack of specific info about some of the early topics. I had this false security blanket, I suppose. In my favour though was my attendance. I showed up to as many classes as I could, so at least I could learn by osmosis.

I have continually advocated against doing preparation of any kind before medicine starts- I stand firm behind that policy. Don’t piss away your precious freedom before your new career starts by learning stuff you will be taught anyhow.

When you do start however, be vigilant in the way I wasn’t! Show up to class, take copious notes (I started doing this too late), and shift from conceptual knowledge to factual knowledge as soon as you can.

Many policies enforced

Lost in minutiae

It was, to say the least, a mixed bag. Should be a comfortable pass, however at least for this year I am always going to have a knowledge deficit. There is simply not enough time to properly learn all of the material to achieve fully conversant standard.

Coming to that realization makes me feel much more comfortable with the whole process. At least at this point of the course I’m fully settled and organized. I get the disctinct feeling I’ve written that before.

Grad-entry medicine, for all it’s perceived glories… Is notoriously superficial. I suspect I’ll have a long summer reviewing and consolidating this all.

Never mind! On to the next exam (next Monday).

I am not saying the media is mostly reporting stupid shit, not by a long shot. I am more complaining about stupid shit people do.

Casey Anthony- remarkably acquitted of child murder

News of the World- phone hacking scandal

Those two stories are at the top of my list. Google for interest. Anyhow my point is, that I find it rather difficult to maintain a placid outlook on life while I keep seeing this sort of… radioactive bullshit. Good to know I am not apathetic quite yet.

Oh man, by the way! Seeing a middle-class fellow spitting chips on Paging Dr about what happened in Sri Lanka a few years back was galling. It happened in 2009 mate- get a grip. I’m half Tamil, and have links to the conflict through friends and family. As such I was aware of the bullshit happening when it occurred. The point is though, that seeing people get onto causes long lost raises my hackles. The remarks about the inhumanity of it all were also rather trite.

What I would like to see is more awareness across the board about global issues, rather than token knee-jerk reactions when this issues are raised in mainstream local media.

Aside: Had some thorough discussion about medical malpractice and past indiscretions of doctors with Ms. Lean Times and a mutual friend. If a doctor has a misdemeanour recorded against him/her that you are aware of, how may it affect your professional relationship with them as a doctor/student/patient. No strong conclusions were reached. Tread carefully etc. Will be interesting to see how our opinions are formed over time.

The que sera sera outlook is a work in progress

I’m sure Ms. Lean Times will be pleased that surgical careers are towards the bottom of the list Anyhow the burning question is…

What is preventative medicine?

But the apathy I tell you! Instead of studying yesterday I worked, and played golf. Then went out for dinner. And then concluded the evening with a few episodes of the “The Wire”. Saturday was much the same. Except more golf and less work.

There was some token study here and there, but really I should have done much more. Or not- maybe incremental amounts will continue to serve me well rather than obscene cram sessions. I perform much better under relaxed conditions and while my memory continues to retain things as well as it does, this will do just fine.

Aside: http://www.apple.com/au/ipod/red/

For the minority of you chasing an iPod nano presently, at least get it in red, so some money goes towards fighting AIDS in Africa.

And finally:

I’m no bleeding heart- but this is bullshit and should be stopped.