Uni Stuff > The University Journey Journal
Vox Nihili, Vox Dei—VN's Medicine Journey Journal
vox nihili:
Had a practice exam for the end of the year yesterday. Was better than I expected. To be honest, I had expected some of the questions to be a bit unreasonable, but even though there was still a lot there that I didn't know, it seemed reasonable that we could have been expected to know it.
The clinical years in many respects are a lot more loose, so what we're expected to know and what we aren't expected to know isn't hugely clear. That can be a source of enormous frustration and arguably isn't particularly fair (especially seeing as Victoria is the only state left that actually worries about marks pretty much), but we manage :)
--- Quote from: Absurdo on August 28, 2017, 07:10:18 pm ---Hi there,
How hard was it exactly to get into medicine? Did doing a biomed degree makes it any easier?
Looking forward to hearing more :)
--- End quote ---
It's hard. That said, it's probably not quite as hard as some people would have you believe.
Doing biomed doesn't make it easier to get into med per se, though being in a degree full of people who want to do med is definitely motivating.
--- Quote from: insanipi on August 28, 2017, 07:23:24 pm ---Gotta love Rang and Dale! :)
What's your main interest in medicine currently?
--- End quote ---
Hahah I'm so glad there was someone who enjoyed the Rang and Dale reference :p
To be honest, I'm not 100% sure. If I had to pick a speciality tomorrow I'd pick neuro, but with that said that's barely a strong preference. All I know is that in my future I want to teach and I also want to work on the "bigger picture" things. Whether that's policy or whatnot, I'm not entirely sure, but I don't think I'll be content without getting out there and working on something.
At the moment that something that I'm really interested in is how we gather and apply evidence in medicine, but whether that changes I don't know :)
vox nihili:
Not a lot been going on the last couple of weeks.
Surgery Rotation
So that started. Haven't had the chance to go to theatre yet. Only went on my first wardround today (had to wake up before 5am lel). I'm starting to really enjoy the way surgery is approached, particularly the way it's taught. It seems to be a lot more practical than some of the other specialities. Unfortunately, I don't really have the patience, dexterity or love of mornings to be a surgeon.
UTAs
For the most part, we kind of have to learn clinical examination (i.e. stethoscopes and shit) by ourselves. This is sometimes a little challenging, but typically works pretty well.
Some examinations, however, are deliberately taught. These tend to be the sensitive examinations: think breasts and genitals. Though we do have the opportunity to hone our skills with patients, before we do that, some people come to visit us at the hospital and go through how to do the exam. We then get to have a go at the exam ourselves.
These sessions are pretty confronting, but they're also really useful. The people who come in are absolute guns. Firstly, for allowing us to practise on them, but also because they're just so lovely about teaching us too—no judgment at all.
Practice Exam
As mentioned in the last post, we had a practice exam the other week. We only really got the results of the MCQ section. The average was really low, which was mildly concerning; however, I was above this so I think I have a little less to worry about.
I don't feel like I've worked nearly as hard this year as I did last and could certainly have approached the clinical environment better. At this point, I think I'm just ready for holidays and to give things a better crack next year.
vox nihili:
Went to my first surgery today (yes it's late in the year, leave me alone). I was with the anaesthetic team rather than the surgeons. We only had the one surgery this afternoon, after the first was cancelled. In fact, it was cancelled really late, which sort of threw the shit well and truly into the fan but that's a story for another time. The surgery we did get to was a fairly simple one...it was essentially a repair to a fistula. They got rid of it because it was starting to cause the patient a bit of trouble.
Things I learned:
-scrubs are comfy
-surgery involves a lot of standing around doing not much
-anaethetists really are good at Sudoku
K888:
--- Quote from: vox nihili on September 26, 2017, 09:14:17 pm ----anaethetists really are good at Sudoku
--- End quote ---
What about crosswords? ;)
Exciting about the surgery! Is this a field you're finding interesting? Like, something you'd think "yeah, this would be cool to do", or more a "interesting, but doesn't quite tickle my fancy"?
Are you just on a general surgery rotation, or also seeing orthopaedics, etc.?
vox nihili:
Anaesthetic week ended up great. Everyone I was placed with was absolutely lovely and were really keen to get me involved. They gave me opportunities to bag-mask a patient who had obstructed and, later in the week, I was fortunate enough to have patients willing to let me intubate them. I managed to do that successfully first try, which really was a nice confidence boost particularly at this time of the year!
The following Monday I had to have a fill-in session that I had missed on anaesthetics, which ended up great too. I finished my cannula assessment and ended up placed with a consultant who was a Richmond supporter, too. It was only two days after our grand final win, so we spent most of the happy as Larry chatting about the footy!
--- Quote from: K888 on September 26, 2017, 09:20:06 pm ---What about crosswords? ;)
Exciting about the surgery! Is this a field you're finding interesting? Like, something you'd think "yeah, this would be cool to do", or more a "interesting, but doesn't quite tickle my fancy"?
Are you just on a general surgery rotation, or also seeing orthopaedics, etc.?
--- End quote ---
Sorry I missed this!
No crosswords...there was definitely time to do them though, so that stereotype is one that I still reckon might be plausible :p
Wouldn't do surgery, simply because it's a really gruelling process going through the training and I'm not sure that I'm not really sure that my skills are up to it.
Seeing everything. We spend some weeks on different units, but to be honest attendance has been pretty poor. Exams are coming up and whilst it would be great to get to theatre the cost-benefit just doesn't add up unfortunately.
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