Medical School Week#1

       Even though it's been a week already, it's still surreal to think that I'm in medical school. Getting into med school is a long term goal and you work hard on it for so long that it almost seems unreachable. There are 120 core M.D. students in my class, plus 40 in a special M.D. program called SELECT. Surrounded by 160 people packed in an auditorium, and ALL of us becoming doctors, makes me realize how blessed I really am. I knew a few people already because we had done undergrad together. Familiar faces on a first day full of new ones definitely enhance the experience.

        The first week was nothing like I expected it to be. I thought I would have homework and quizzes by the second day at least; and that most of my classmates would be know-it-all-snobs or anti-social nerds. I'm glad to report  neither was true. Although most of my classmates have extremely different life stories, when talking to them I can tell we have all been carefully handpicked and polished from a thousand others because of similar traits. Everyone seemed very well-rounded, approachable, with a good sense of humor, good social skills, and of course, smart (No more awkward silences after making a science-joke!). 

         At USF COM, the second years have a peer advisory committee and they prepared a week's worth of activities for us to socialize and meet each other. Starting with a park mixer the Saturday before the first day of class, where we had a barbecue, played football, and other ice-breaking games. At first it was a little awkward to randomly introduce myself to different people over and over, but everyone else was in the same boat, and I soon got used to it.Sunday night the class was split into groups of 7-10 for a welcome dinner with 3-4 second years (MS2s). The MS2s were full of advise and very supporting toward the year ahead. In my group we went to a Mexican restaurant and clicked so well, that we were there for 3.5 hours. The MS2s were so normal and fun that suddenly the first year was not so intimidating. No one was left out of the conversation, sure at times there were about three different conversations going on, but we did take the time to get to know each other as a group. Monday night (after the first school day!) we had trivia night at a pub. Yes, you read right, med students went drinking :O hahaha. I met more people there but by this third event I began to see that the same group of people were the ones going out to have fun. Not that the rest don't like fun, but there was a fair amount of classmates that were married, had kids, or were engaged, and as such they had pressing priorities.

          Tuesday night the American Medical Association (AMA) at our school had a social at restaurant-bar. I met a lot more people in the social and saw their true fun colors when the official meeting was over, the lights went out and the music began. The first day everyone seemed so serious and professional in their business clothes and med school mode, but that impression melted away when we all sang "Call me, maybe", "Titanium", and "Wild one", while busting out crazy moves in the dance floor. If anything that's when I really started to think I was dreaming and not in med school at all. Wednesday night, we went to a local baseball game, Rays vs. Toronto. While I don't follow any sports, I went anyway for the sake of having that experience with my classmates. I barely payed any attention to the game, but I did learn a few things about teams and plays from everyone else there. At this point people were naturally falling into groups of those they had the most in common with. Finally, Thursday night, we went to a small theme park Grand Prix to go-kart race and play miniature golf. There was free pizza and chicken wings as well as really cheap beer. I had a lot of fun during this first week, but all MS2s say, the first year is the "easiest" relative to the other years and the time to enjoy yourself is now. I room with an MS2 ad while I've been going out every night she has been studying non-stop, taking breaks only to eat or drink coffee.

          Academically speaking this week has been very orientation and mostly an introduction to our courses. We had lectures on the health care system and how Obamacare will change insurance. We also had several lectures discussing the importance of  professionalism, ethics, and cultural competence. Now that we are medical students we represent the health care system as well as our career and who we are anywhere we go. We were warned about how things we post online and how we conduct ourselves in our social time can affect our careers. We also discussed the importance of team work in health care. As doctors we work with pharmacists, physical therapists, nurses, and its important to value all of the members without demeaning either of them. Our first year lectures are shared with physical therapist students so we will be practicing this inter-professionalism starting now.
            Our curriculum runs by body "systems". Our first course is the musculoskeletal system and it is about 8 weeks long. In those 8 weeks we will learn everything related to that system from development, anatomy, diseases, etc. After that time we take a test and move on to the second system and so forth. Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays will be our science days while Tuesday and Thursdays we have ethics, humanities and Doctoring. In doctoring we are divided into smaller groups directed by an attending preceptor and an MS4, and we learn communication and history taking skills. Already in our first week we paired in twos and had to take the medical history of a standardized patient (actor) in a simulated clinical environment. The patients are not allowed to voluntarily give information just clues here and there, and as "doctors" we have to dig deeper on everything they say. Patients don't usually relate their symptoms but think of them as separate issues, so they may not mention other symptoms because they don't think it relevant to their pressing concern. In addition to Doctoring we also got CPR and AED certification this week. It was a four hour training in one and two-rescuer methods on adults and children.
          The week ended with a student organization fair. The COM had various interest groups for any occupations that students were interested specializing in their residency. National medical organizations were also present such as the AMA, Medical Students for Choice, Project World Health, AMSA, and many more. All of this offer volunteering opportunities, international mission trips and national conferences. Membership in any of this can enhance your residency application and also provide you with hours for the 80/hr volunteering requirement in the first two years.
           The science courses will be starting next week. Subscribe with your gmail account to follow up on how the med school heat builds. Hope you enjoyed this post :)