Hey everyone
It has been two weeks since my last update and I thought it would be a good idea to provide an update. I have just officially finished my first month of medical school. I have very mixed feelings about med school so far. I have enjoyed the social aspects of medical school and how I have been able to form a group of close friends so quickly and people in my cohort in general are really nice (even though at times it is kind of hard to keep up as someone who is more on the introverted side - although I have slowly started to put myself out there in social events). whereas in Science, it took a while to find my people and the cohort felt way too big to be able to get close with people. I have also enjoyed some of the classes and activities we have done especially those that are more clinically relevant such as pharmacology and clinical skills. However, I have personally found the pace of med school to be extremely fast and at times I have felt overwhelmed with content and feel like there is too much content to know and memorise. I have also disliked the number of hours of classes we have as I often have classes 4-5 days a week and several hours of classes each day which has been very tiring and as someone with ADHD, trying to concentrate for a 3 hour class, a 1 hour class and a 2 hour class all within one day for example is very difficult and exhausting.
I've realised that I have spent the majority of my time so far studying (aside from when I go out with friends) and am feeling quite tired. After talking to some of my friends, I have realised how important it is to have a life outside of Medical school otherwise you will get burnt out very quickly. With this in mind, I am hoping to apply to a few clubs and societies, try and attend the gym regularly, slowly start to get into running and pick up learning the piano again (this time self-learnin). As I have slowlysettled into med school and the workload, I think its very important to start doing some extra-curriculars and hobbies and build that into my schedule. Aside from that, I will provide a brief update on the classes we have taken so far below:
Pharmacology:
- I really enjoy this subject so far and I like how our lecturer is engaging and cares about her students. So far the first weeks have been mainly revision since I covered most of the content in my undergrad degree however the difficult part now is trying to memorise the information.
Physiology:
- I find Physiology to be ok. I don't particularly enjoy the mechanisms and pathways on its own however when it is applied in a clincial setting, it is decently interesting.
Anatomy:
- Currently the bain of my existence (and most of our cohorts too). The pacing is way too fast and the lecturers haven't given us any indication on what is relevant or not. The classes and workshops are often not helpful and we end up getting more confused than before we started the class. Currently using some external resources to try and teach myself anatomy and I have found that to be more helpful than watching the lectures so far.
Clinical Skills:
- We did some history taking last week and I thoroughly enjoyed practicing and going through the different cases. I think I do need to do a bit more practice outside of class but am looking forward to using my stethoscope this week for Upper Limb examinations.
Evidence Based Medicine:
- This is a very dry subject and suprisingly, I struggled with the last few weeks.
Clinical Application to Patients (Basically PBLs or CBL):
- I find the second part of the session to be very interesting where we go through different patient cases and try and unpack the information. However presenting our individual learning outcomes can be quite boring and also quite time consuming as well.
Health and Society:
- Fairly chill subject so far and although at times it can be dry, the lecturer does try her best to make it fun and I appreciate that.
Microbiology:
- Suprisingly the workshop we had was pretty fun even though the content is a bit boring and brings back bad memories from undergrad.
Health Enhancement (HEP):
- Once again a fairly chill subject and at times, some of the content seems intuitive however I guess it is a good break from all the sciency stuff.
Medical Law:
- Super dry but important ig.
Community Based Placement:
- I have started my community based placement in a school and even though we have only had our introduction, I found it to be very enjoyable and quite eye-opening to see the disadvantage that is so prevalent particularly in rural communities.
That is all the subjects we have done so far at the top of my head. I am looking forward to starting hosptial placements in April and connect what we are learning (which at times doesn't seem relevant or link anywhere) to real patient situations in the wards. That's it for now and see you in the next update!
