Med school life discussion thread

[heart]

I personally haven't had much rural experience (spare the alcohol-fueled rural 2 week stint in Year 2 lol), but from my colleagues who have I have heard a lot of positive things. The student:doctor ratio is certainly better than 15:2, probably more like 1:1, and as a result you get much more involved. You do see less of the weird and wonderful (not that you need to see that at this stage!) and might get less structured formal teaching by hot shot Professors, but otherwise it's pretty good.

I've heard lots of amazing things for the rural rotations as you get to do much more. Also I wouldn't say all the hot shot people are necessarily in the city one of my tutors for anatomy has a triple fellowship, two in surgery (Australia and England) and one in emergency medicine. He also said as a general surgeon he gets to do way more variety of work then in the city which was an interesting insight. I agree though for the more rare clinical cases they would most likely be more in the city hospitals.

[pi]

Also I wouldn't say all the hot shot people are necessarily in the city one of my tutors for anatomy has a triple fellowship, two in surgery (Australia and England) and one in emergency medicine.

I think you'll find people like that tend to be like shiny Pokemon Very rare hahaha. The vast majority of rural doctor are GPs with diplomas or keen interests in this or that so they can cover more bases.

[MelonBar]

Hey guys, is there a good way to bring up deceased relatives tactfully when you're interviewing a patient.

Eg if your patient is an older person whose grandparents are likely to be dead, and you want to know what their health was like when they were alive in history taking. Maybe I'm overthinking things...

[thushan]

I didn't see that this thread existed. Well...hello everyone!

Melon - "By any chance do you remember anything about your grandparents' health - any medical conditions they may have had?"

[heart]

Given the changes of the MBBS(hon) to Bachelor of Medical Science and Doctor of Medicine (MD) in 2017 will I be part of the last MBBS(hon) students?

[pi]

Given the changes of the MBBS(hon) to Bachelor of Medical Science and Doctor of Medicine (MD) in 2017 will I be part of the last MBBS(hon) students?

Probably. You might get a fancy medallion or something like the UoM MBBS grads got in their last year.

[heart]

Probably. You might get a fancy medallion or something like the UoM MBBS grads got in their last year.

Nice . Out of curiosity for years 1 and 2 of your course did your cohort get to do dissections? 

[pi]

Nice . Out of curiosity for years 1 and 2 of your course did your cohort get to do dissections? 

Not in Sem 1 of Year 1, but from there on we did weekly dissections In all honesty, unless you're very keen on surgery and anatomy, dissections aren't super helpful. Prosections are probably more helpful.

(split, moved and merged the last few posts)

[MelonBar]

Any tips for steth buying?

I'm thinking littmann classic 3 or cardio 3. I heard cardio series has extra features that only a cardiologist would use, so it might detract from med school/general usage but iunnnnno.

[pi]

Any tips for steth buying?

I'm thinking littmann classic 3 or cardio 3. I heard cardio series has extra features that only a cardiologist would use, so it might detract from med school/general usage but iunnnnno.

Well there's also a Cardio IV now Either are fine for medical students, it's more-so anything with "Master" in it that's probably too much for medical students, you should get something with a turnable diaphragm. The Cardio III/IV has some use in paediatrics due to the convertible bell/diaphragm on one side. There are also other brands in addition to Littmann, but in all honesty pretty much everyone has a Littmann so I'd stick with it.

[vox nihili]

Any tips for steth buying?

I'm thinking littmann classic 3 or cardio 3. I heard cardio series has extra features that only a cardiologist would use, so it might detract from med school/general usage but iunnnnno.

Most importantly though, you can get the cardio 3 in rainbow...so yeah, that should just about cover it?

Make sure you shop around though, and remember that Medshop.com.au advertises their prices without GST (which is actually against the law, but oh well...)

[pi]

I think you'll find rainbow (and other fancy bright colours and designs) steths become old pretty fast, and then just look a little odd and out of place on the wards (I've heard some consultants even call them "unprofessional"). The vast majority of people stick with traditional colours like black, dark red, dark blue, etc. and I'd probably recommend a colour along those lines.

A steth is used for not only physical examination, but it also signifies your role as part of the "doctor team" (even if you aren't there yet!) in the mind of the patient and can instill confidence, I can't see a situation (other than maybe with little kids in paediatrics?) where having a fancy coloured steth offers anything but a potential disadvantage. I haven't seen this happen, but it would be terrible for a patient to think less of you because your physical examination equipment looked like it was straight from an episode of My Little Pony

[heart]

Not in Sem 1 of Year 1, but from there on we did weekly dissections In all honesty, unless you're very keen on surgery and anatomy, dissections aren't super helpful. Prosections are probably more helpful.

(split, moved and merged the last few posts)

Ah I really wanted to do some but we don't have it in the grad version of the course given time and location constraints as my aim is surgery. I can always do the postgrad diploma in surgical anatomy though so not too fussed was just curious if they delivered the anatomy much differently.

Any tips for steth buying?

I'm thinking littmann classic 3 or cardio 3. I heard cardio series has extra features that only a cardiologist would use, so it might detract from med school/general usage but iunnnnno.

I recommend the 3M LITTMANN CARDIOLOGY III STETHOSCOPE: BLACK & SMOKE FINISH as it looks nice as

[vox nihili]

I think you'll find rainbow (and other fancy bright colours and designs) steths become old pretty fast, and then just look a little odd and out of place on the wards (I've heard some consultants even call them "unprofessional"). The vast majority of people stick with traditional colours like black, dark red, dark blue, etc. and I'd probably recommend a colour along those lines.

A steth is used for not only physical examination, but it also signifies your role as part of the "doctor team" (even if you aren't there yet!) in the mind of the patient and can instill confidence, I can't see a situation (other than maybe with little kids in paediatrics?) where having a fancy coloured steth offers anything but a potential disadvantage. I haven't seen this happen, but it would be terrible for a patient to think less of you because your physical examination equipment looked like it was straight from an episode of My Little Pony

Yeah I see what you mean. Personally I do have one with some colour, but it's only on the chest piece whilst the rest is black. So it's conservatively fun.

[Russ]

If you want to do surgery, it's quite likely that you'll end up doing some sort of post grad anatomy diploma so I wouldn't worry about it too much. The anatomy you learn in medical school is insufficient for the surgical entry exams from what I gather, especially as you forget so much of it.